How can poetry play with the line between the real and the imagined?

What is poetic truth and how does it relate to the emotional truth of experience and living in the world? How can poetry imagine ideal worlds whilst being rooted in the here and now? Through a series of practical writing exercises and close readings of poems, you’ll explore these big questions in a supportive environment with award-winning poet Raymond Antrobus.

Raymond Antrobus is a poet, educator and investigator of missing sounds. He is the author of To Sweeten Bitter, The Perseverance, All The Names Given and the forthcoming collection Signs, Music. In 2019 and 2021 his poems ‘Jamaican British’, ‘The Perseverance’ and ‘Happy Birthday Moon’ were added to the UK’s GCSE syllabus. His children’s picture books include Can Bears Ski? and Terrible Horses. Raymond has won numerous Poetry Slams and performed his poetry at festivals across the world from Glastonbury to BOCAS. In 2021 he performed at the Paralympic Homecoming ceremony at Wembley Stadium. Presented in partnership with Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University.