Face to face

Towards a Collection

When does a bunch of poems become a collection? How does a poet achieve book publication? Perhaps you have thirty poems you are pleased with and you wonder if you are ready to submit your manuscript. The aim of this course is to give guidance and advice towards compiling a collection and getting it published. This could be your first full-length book, a pamphlet, or an application for an Eric Gregory Award.

Towards a Collection is divided into ten lessons. In each lesson we'll look at different aspects of the process, starting with extending your creative limits, getting a track record in magazines, compiling a pamphlet, structuring and ordering a full-length volume, the function of poem and book titles, and the rigorous editing required to prepare a manuscript for submission. We'll also consider covers, publicity, what happens when you do get accepted, and what readers and publishers might be looking for.

Written by Pascale Petit.

Tutor:

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Pascale Petit

Pascale Petit’s latest collection is What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo (Seren, 2010), which is shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize and a book of the year in The Observer. She trained at the Royal College of Art and spent the first part of her life as a visual artist before deciding to concentrate on poetry. Since then she has published five collections, two others of which, The Huntress and The Zoo Father, were also shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and were books of the year in the Times Literary Supplement and the Independent. In 2004 the Poetry Book Society selected her as one of the Next Generation Poets. Petit is widely travelled, including in Mexico, the Venezuelan Amazon, China and Nepal. She has worked as editor for Poetry London, was a co-founding tutor of The Poetry School and was the Royal Literary Fellow at Middlesex 2007–9. She currently tutors for Arvon, Ty Newydd, The Poetry School, Chateau Ventenac and Tate Modern.