Anthony Vahni Capildeo and John McAuliffe will lead a hands-on workshop exploring the role of poet as editor. How do our personal responses to individual pieces affect the gatherings we make? Is the resonance of the gathering more than the hum of its parts? How to balance responding and inviting? What matters most to you as reader or writer? Is that the same as what matters to you as editor or selector? Participants will propose and begin to create an imaginary anthology or magazine.

Anthony Vahni Capildeo is a Trinidadian Scottish writer of poetry and non-fiction, their collections include Like a Tree, Walking (Poetry Book Society Choice), Intergraphia and Measures of Expatriation (winner of the 2016 Forward Prize). She is also a contributing editor for PN Review.

John McAuliffe has published six collections with The Gallery Press including his Selected Poems in 2021. He is Professor of Poetry at the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing, Associate Publisher at Carcanet Press and co-edits PN Review and The Manchester Review.

This workshop is aimed at practising poets and is FREE to attend but places are very limited.

How to apply for a place
To apply for a place on the workshop please send an email with your name and contact phone number and attach three sample poems that you feel represent your work. The email should be headed ‘Like and Unlike – Putting Poems into Conversation workshop’ and sent to john@carcanet.co.uk between Monday 25 September and Sunday 1 October. You will be notified by email in early October if you have been allocated a place.