Out-Spoken Academy returns for 2025 with some of our most-loved tutors leading online courses, as well as an updated programme aimed at being inclusive, affordable and generative.
**PLAYBACK recording-access is available for the Winter 2024-25 Standard and the Creative Non-Fiction Course.**
The Academy Plus programme for Summer 2025 offers the chance to work with our tutors, Joelle Taylor, Malika Booker and Pascale Petit, over a longer period at a less intensive pace. The course will run over 9 weeks (Mon 16 June – Mon 11 August) with a two-hour online group workshop each Monday, 7-9pm UK.
With the Playback option you'll receive password-protected links to session recordings on our Vimeo, together with course materials, enabling you to undertake the courses in your own time and on your own schedule. Register now for Playback access to our six-week Standard course led by our original trio – Jack Underwood, Caroline Bird and Anthony Anaxagorou. and our four-week Creative Non-Fiction course led by Amy Key and Jenn Ashworth.
Lastly, we understand the financial constraints many are currently faced with, so we have adjusted course fees accordingly and introduced the option to pay in instalments, via Klarna or PayPal Pay in 3, to help spread out costs. Hopefully this will mean more people are able to access our programmes and benefit from the sheer level of expertise, and the number of tuition hours the academy offers.
Read more below for details of available courses.
Academy Courses – Overview
Academy Plus – Summer 2025
Tutors: Malika Booker, Joelle Taylor, Pascale Petit
Duration: Nine weeks
Dates: Mondays 7–9pm, 16 June – 11 August 2025
Academy Plus: Nine-week Online Poetry Course – Summer 2025
The Academy Plus programme offers the chance to continue working with our tutors over a longer period at a less intensive pace with one two-hour group workshop each Monday evening for nine weeks.
The course will run Monday 16 June – Monday 11 August, with tutors Malika Booker, Joelle Taylor and Pascale Petit. Each tutor will lead three weeks.
You’ll also have the opportunity to book 30-minute one-to-ones with tutors.
Academy Courses – Playback
Academy – Creative Non-Fiction
Tutors: Amy Key, Jenn Ashworth
Duration: Four weeks, two x 2hr workshop per week
Dates: 3–28 March 2025
NEW!
Pay in interest-free monthly instalments with Klarna or PayPal
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NEW! Pay in interest-free monthly instalments with Klarna or PayPal |
What is Out-Spoken Academy?
Offering intensive poetry and creative writing courses, taught by esteemed poets and writers, taught online in the evenings, Out-Spoken Academy is the perfect opportunity for committed poets to work closely with award-winning tutors in a focused, supportive environment and take their poetry practice to the next stage. We offer our standard Academy Course, with three tutors over six weeks, and our Academy Mini course, where you’ll be taught by two tutors over the course of four weeks, and our Academy Plus courses where you have the chance to work with three tutors at a less intensive pace over the course of nine weeks. All of our courses are delivered online via Zoom, so you can join from wherever you are in the world!
At the heart of all our courses are the high level of active teaching hours you’ll receive, with multiple workshops each week and individual weekly tutorials, all delivered online. Workshop-based teaching and the high level of contact time means you'll receive plenty of feedback and have the opportunity to connect with your tutors and fellow students.
On both our standard and mini courses you’ll benefit from the varied perspectives and poetics of our tutors, and on the standard course you’ll have a dedicated weekly opportunity to share and feedback on poems in a peer-to-peer environment – in addition to the dedicated online chat space provided. Ongoing resources: at the end of the course you will take away a comprehensive pack of materials as well as password-protected access to recordings of all workshops.
Our course tutors have tailored integrated course syllabuses to help you develop your practice from first draft to final poems. Throughout the course, tutors will rotate each week, allowing you to benefit from their individual expertise and highly acclaimed perspectives.
If you feel ready to develop your voice and craft through a period of sustained focus with some of the country’s most lauded poets and educators, then register now.
“One of the best writing programs I’ve been a part of. Moves beyond the classic model of generative response and highlights the structural elements needed to turn in an image or metaphor, asks why we take these steps in the first place. I owe a lot to it.”
Academy FAQs
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Our Academy courses are intended to be an intensive experience, where sustained focus over the four or six weeks of the course will help you develop your practice.
Students are expected to have some experience writing to get the most out of the course, but no publication record or prior formal study is required.
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The four-week Creative Non-Fiction Course with Jenn Ashworth and Amy Key will take place from Monday 3 – Friday 28 March 2025, inclusive.
The deadline for registration is Sunday 23 February 2025.
Playback recording-access continues to be available for the following courses:
The Academy six-week Intensive took place Monday 6 January to Friday 14 February 2025, inclusive.
The Academy four-week Mini ran between Tuesday 7 to Thursday 30 January 2025, inclusive.
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Yes. We welcome students from anywhere in the world, and have had particpants from as far afield as Australia, New York and Germany on previous courses. Please do note that the course is focused on English language writing and that all teaching is scheduled on weekday evenings (UK) time.
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Yes. In addition to the two taught group workshops, you will have the opportunity for a half-hour individual tutorial each week.
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We are delighted to be able to offer instalment payment options for the first time. You can either pay the course fee in full upon registration, or by way of interest-free monthly instalments via Klarna or PayPal Pay in 3.
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Recordings of workshop sessions will be made available to students after each session, so you will be able to watch-back any sessions you miss.
You will retain password-protected access to these videos after the course finishes.
If you are unable to attend an individual tutorial scheduled with a tutor we request that you contact that tutor to inform them as soon as you are able. Reasonable efforts will be made to reschedule missed tutorials but we cannot guarantee this.
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You can read our full Terms & Conditions here: www.outspokenldn.com/academy-tcs
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If your question isn’t answered either in these FAQs or on the course pages, please do email our Course Co-ordinator, Patricia Ferguson, on academy@outspokenldn.com, and she will be happy to assist.