Writing & Editing Prize-winning Sonnets with Hannah Lowe 19/5/26

This is a unique sonnet workshop with a difference. Prize-winning poet, Hannah Lowe will offer an exploration of how she developed some of her own sonnets, including poems from her collection The Kids (winner of the Costa Book of the Year, shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize, Poetry Book Society Choice). Hannah will generously explore how she conceived and developed her drafts toward finished pieces. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

We will also consider elements that make a sonnet work, and explore influences and examples through close reading of some of Hannah’s favourite sonnets. The session includes practical writing exercises, giving attendees the chance to experiment with sonnet-inspired poems.

'Sonnet' is from the Italian sonetto meaning 'little song'. It has also been described as a little room, a contained and concentrated space to focus on a single subject, thought or idea. The form can really help a poet to focus and condense their writing into a powerful core. It's one of the oldest and most enduring poetic forms, typically 14 lines.

Hannah Lowe is a poet, memoirist and academic. Her last book, The Kids (2021), won the Costa Poetry Award and the Costa Book of the Year, 2021. Her forthcoming bookis The Woman in the Chinese Collar (2027). Her first poetry collection, Chick (2013), won the Michael Murphy Memorial Award for Best First Collection. In September 2014, she was named as one of 20 Next Generation poets. Her family memoir Long Time, No See (2015) featured as Radio 4’s Book of the Week. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University.