Photographer Credit: Jonathan Rowley

Britain’s first female Poet Laureate shares how to unlock your creativity and find your voice in latest course from BBC Studios partner BBC Maestro.

“There's a kind of magic surprise about writing a poem and I really want to share that with you and help you to relish the surprise and excitement of each poem.”

Available 12 January 2023

This January, rediscover the simple pleasure of writing with pen and paper while learning to capture complex moments through clear, effective language with Carol Ann Duffy. Recognised as the ‘most accessible poet of our time’, Carol Ann explores the collaborative relationship between poem and poet in this exclusive online course for BBC Maestro. Lessons include Memory as Imagination, Choosing a Form, Drafting and Redrafting, Children’s Poetry, and the vital Building a Collection. Carol Ann was the first female and first openly LGBTQ+ Poet Laureate in the UK, holding the position from 2009 to 2019. Her critically acclaimed and award-winning collections include Mean Time, The World’s Wife, Rapture, The Bees, and Standing Female Nude.

“A good poem only seeks to add something to the world, something that wasn't there before. What I want you to do is bring out your own creativity, your own words, your own unique voice, and help you to have confidence in what's within you.”

The BBC Maestro platform features a series of extended, in-depth lessons filmed in 4K with an eclectic mix of prestigious experts, and allows participants to indulge in new areas of learning from the comfort of their own home. The commercial online education platform developed and operated by Maestro Media Ltd offers individual courses which can be purchased for £80 at bbcmaestro.com. 

“A common mistake in poetry is to think that there are poetic words. I think words need to be living and not decorative. We mustn’t think streetwise language is inferior, or it isn’t poetic. Of course, it is. This is your raw material. This is your paint. You will make your poem out of whatever language you choose to put on that page going forwards.”

Beginning with her own personal entry into the world of poetry, Carol Ann invites viewers to examine their own relationship with the craft. “Most people write poems to somehow understand their own being, or to explain their own being. It can be an interrogation of being alive.” Throughout her BBC Maestro course, Carol Ann shares different ways of thinking, both in terms of structure and inspiration, and offers practical guidance on tackling the blank page. Rather than learning to recite poems, viewers are encouraged to harness their memory in another, infinitely more rewarding, way: to transform personal memory into a source of original work.

“Poetry isn't journalism. The distinct thing about poetry is it uses language in a different way from prose, from news. Poetry distils. Although it uses common speech and must, it’s a different way of using language. If a phrase is hackneyed – if it's been said again and again and again, there’s no point in saying it, in a poem, where language should be at its absolute best – heightened, trying to make us see afresh.”

The latest addition to BBC Maestro's selection of world-class courses, Writing Poetry is the ideal supplement to any writer’s toolkit. Across her lessons, Carol Ann champions the complementary acts of both reading and writing poetry. “Poetry to me is often like a baton that’s passed on through the centuries. We not only learn the shapes and the experiments that others have done, but surely it must teach us that we too must be inventive.” Her course consists of 25 lessons and is designed for viewers to learn at their own pace. Lessons are accompanied by extensive course notes filled with expert advice for all those hoping to assemble their own collection of poetry. By the end of Writing Poetry, viewers will come away with defined subject ideas and clear methods on how to assemble these into a small collection of poems.

“All you need to bring to this course is your memory, your interests, the way you talk, stories that you grew up with, the recollection of a love affair, bereavement or celebration. All these are within you. The only actual thing you need to have in your hand is a good pen and a new notebook.”

The full trailer for Carol Ann’s new BBC Maestro course on Writing Poetry can be found here.

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For course review requests, or further information, please contact:

siobhan.mcdermott@maestro-media.com 

NOTES TO EDITORS

• Writing Poetry will be available from 12 January on bbcmaestro.com
• The high-res image of Carol Ann can be found here. Photographer Credit: Jonathan Rowley
• The course costs £80 for lifetime access to Carol Ann’s 25 lessons and comprehensive downloadable notes. An annual subscription to every BBC Maestro course can be purchased for £110
• The 25 lessons include – Read to Write, Finding Inspiration: Story, Time: A Year in Your Life, Choosing a Form, Drafting and Redrafting, Anthologies and Answering Back, and Building a Collection
• A select number of video course extracts are available on request.

About Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow, grew up in Stafford and then attended the University of Liverpool, where she studied Philosophy. She has written for both children and adults, and her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children's Verse, the Whitbread and Forward Prizes, as well as the Lannan Award and the E. M. Forster Prize in America. In 2012, she was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize, and was Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2019.

About BBC Maestro   

BBC Maestro launched in October 2020 to phenomenal success. The first four courses attracted more than one million people to the service, with thousands signing up to learn from their favourite Maestro. Whether you are a novice or an amateur enthusiast, BBC Maestro allows you to indulge in your areas of passion from the comfort of your own home and learn from the experts. Each course is beautifully filmed in 4K and offers several hours of content, broken down into 14 to 40 easily digested lessons accompanied by downloadable course notes filled with hints, tips and a breakdown of each lesson. Carol Ann Duffy is the latest Maestro, joining Billy Connolly, Lee Child, Doreen Lawrence, Edgar Wright, Mark Ronson, Alan Moore, Jancis Robinson, Malorie Blackman, Julia Donaldson, Peter Jones, Gary Barlow, Marco Pierre White, Vineet Bhatia, Pierre Koffmann, Richard Bertinet and Line of Duty creator, Jed Mercurio. And coming soon are Sam Mendes, Sir Tim Rice and more – all imparting wisdom, expertise and industry secrets. 

BBC Maestro taps into the fast-growing space of e-learning – because of the way technology has revolutionised teaching and learning, lessons no longer need to be confined to the classroom. In 2020, the number of people using online learning videos rose dramatically, with an estimated 200 million users worldwide. The global ‘Mass Open Online Courses’ market size is expected to increase from $3.9 billion in 2018 to $20.8 billion by 2023. 

BBC Maestro is a commercial platform developed and operated by Maestro Media Ltd under license from BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. BBC is a trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation and is used under license. 

About BBC Studios

BBC Studios is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group with profits (EBITDA) of £226 million on sales of £1.6bn (21/22). Able to take an idea seamlessly from thought to screen and beyond, its activities span content financing, development, production, sales, branded services, and ancillaries across both its own productions, and programmes and formats made by high-quality UK independents, with three-quarters of its revenues from non-BBC customers including Discovery, Apple and Netflix.  Around 2,400 hours of award-winning British programmes made by the business are internationally recognised across a broad range of genres and specialisms, with brands like Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear, Bluey and Doctor Who. BBC.com, BBC Studios’ global digital news platform, has 139 million unique browser visits each month.

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