“Say it! No ideas but in things…”

-William Carlos Williams

Join The Poetry Society for a workshop with Claudine Toutoungi exploring how the abstract and material come together in a poem and how the job of the poet is to find the song behind the ‘thing’.

Guided by Claudine, you will discover, read and explore poems by various writers including Mary Ruefle, Wisława Szymborksa, Heath-Stubbs and Henri Cole. Through these examples and playful exercsis, you’ll explore how the poet walks the tightrope between specificity and musicality to find the pattern behind the pattern that makes the poem sing.

Claudine Toutoungi is a dramatist and poet, whose poetry collections are Smoothie(2017), Two Tongues (2020 Winner -Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize) and Emotional Support Horse (2024 Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize), published by Carcanet Press. She has appeared widely at festivals in the UK and abroad, and on BBC Radio 4 ‘s Poetry Please, Front Row and In Touch. Her audio dramas The Voice in my Ear, Brat Farrar and Sense and Sensibility are currently available on BBC Sounds. She is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and a recipient of the Royal Society of Literature’s 2025 Scriptorium Award.

We’re able to offer 2 bursary tickets to this workshop for those facing financial difficulty. Please email info@poetrysociety.org.uk to request one of the places. No proof of financial difficulty is required.

Tickets are £17 for members and £27 for non-members.

This workshop will take place on Zoom. You will receive the Zoom link the working day before the workshop. Please note that this workshop will be recorded. This workshop is intended for an adult audience.