Poetry Technique Masterclass Webinars

A series of 3 webinars led by Nine Arches poets, exploring poetry techniques with Erica Hesketh, Tamar Yoseloff and Rishi Dastidar.

On Mondays 9th, 16th and 23rd June 2025 from 7pm-8pm BST

ACCESS: all ticket-holders will receive a recording of the webinar in case they missed it live or to watch again. These recordings will be available for a fortnight after the original broadcast date.

£45 for all three sessions

Each session features a webinar presentation from the lead poet then a short audience Q&A at the end with the opportunity to ask your own questions. Attendees will be off-camera. Zoom links will be sent close to the webinar date.

Monday 9th June - Approaches to traditional form

Led by Erica Hesketh
A poem’s form works like an engine for its ideas, feelings or arguments. A ‘traditional’ form – that is, a form used by lots of poets over space and time – comes with its own resonances of shared use, as well as (usually) a history of being subverted and stretched. In this masterclass, poet and editor Erica Hesketh will talk about how she used form in her collection In the Lily Room to put shape to the at times formless and difficult months of early motherhood. She will also share inspiring uses of form by other poets, and there will be a chance to ask your geekiest questions in the Q&A.

Monday 16th June - Line breaks and rhythm in poetry

Led by Tamar Yoseloff
The American poet James Longenbach has said that 'poetry is the sound of language organized in lines'. In this session, Tamar Yoseloff discusses the crucial importance of the line as the greatest precision tool we have as poets, particularly within free verse and open forms, and how it effects pacing and drama, how it highlights language and how we can use it to alter how a reader encounters a poem. There will be a Q&A too, so you can ask your own questions about line break and rhythm to Tamar.

Monday 23 June - Using (and not using) punctuation in poetry

Led by Rishi Dastidar
We know words matter in our poems. But what of the near invisible scaffolding we might use – or not? Punctuation, or its absence, is what gives shape to our work, instructing readers too, helping them to receive what we write. The weight that specific marks carry means that we must pay close attention to their role, and what we want to deploy them to do. Join Rishi Dastidar for a canter through why and how you should consider your commas, stops, dashes and more. There’ll be a Q&A too, so you can pose your own punctuation problems to Rishi.

Poet biographies:

Erica Hesketh is a poet and editor, originally from Japan and Denmark, now based in London. In The Lily Room is her debut collection, published by Nine Arches Press in May 2025. Widely published in magazines and journals, she placed second in the 2022 Winchester Poetry Prize, and was commended in the 2023 Magma Poetry Competition and the 2023 Stanza Competition. She was longlisted for the 2023 National Poetry Competition. Her poetry has been commissioned by the Royal Festival Hall, Spread the Word and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2016 to 2024 she was Director of the Poetry Translation Centre. She is the editor of Living in Language: International reflections for the practising poet.

Tamar Yoseloff has published seven collections, including Belief Systems (Nine Arches Press, 2024) and The Formula for Night: New and Selected Poems (2015) and The Black Place (2019)both from Seren. She’s also the author of Formerly, a chapbook incorporating photographs by Vici MacDonald (Hercules Editions, 2012) shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award; and collaborative editions with artists Linda Karshan and Charlotte Harker respectively. She was a lecturer on the Poetry School / Newcastle University MA in Writing Poetry and continues to teach independently. She received a Cholmondeley Award in 2023.

Rishi Dastidar’s poetry has been published by the Financial Times, New Scientist and the BBC, amongst many others. His third collection, Neptune’s Projects (Nine Arches Press), was longlisted for the Laurel Prize, and a poem from it was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2024. He is editor of The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century (Nine Arches Press), and co-editor of Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different: Poems from Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (Corsair). He is a consulting editor for The Rialto, reviews poetry for The Guardian and is chair of Wasafiri, the leading magazine of international contemporary writing.

Poetry Technique Masterclass Webinars - 3 session series