Writing Advice from Cheltenham Poetry Festival
Iris Anne Lewis, Taz Rahman, Carrie Etter and Matthew Hollis share their favourite writing tips
Author: Tim Relf
Tim Relf’s work has appeared in such titles as The London Magazine, Banshee, Acumen, Bad Lilies, The Rialto, Stand, The Frogmore Papers, Poetry Salzburg, The Spectator and The Friday Poem. He is an alumnus of Faber's Advanced Poetry Academy and Writing East Midlands’ mentoring scheme. His most recent novel, published by Penguin, has been translated into more than 20 languages.
Daljit Nagra: How I Wrote ‘We’re Lighting Up The Nation’
“I didn’t want to be a poet who knocks out book after book of ‘auto-pilot’ poems, so I stopped writing the thirty-line poem and sought something that would challenge me. I waited to be astonished by something different.”
D.A. Prince: How I Wrote ‘3.00 a.m.’
“I hoped that if the reader could feel what that walk was physically like, they would bring their own memories into the poem”
Kim Moore: How I Wrote ‘A Psalm for the Scaffolders’
“I always write in prose first, longhand in my notebook, like I’m talking to someone”
Ben Wilkinson: How I Wrote ‘What the Doorman Says’
I’m after the truth in my poems… not some misguided loyalty to ‘what actually happened’. I don’t believe any of us are reliable narrators of events, even to ourselves What the Doorman Says With a nod to C.R. That he could kill for a smoke. That the punters get older every year. That really, he…
Owen Sheers: How I Wrote ‘The Farrier’
“When you start writing a poem you have to be prepared to walk boldly into failure.“ Content warning: mention of domestic abuse The Farrier Blessing himself with his apron, the leather black and tan of a rain-beaten bay, he pinches a roll-up to his lips and waits for the mare to be led from the…