Start with the Line: September 10, 2026

This course is currently full. Join the list to hear first when I run it again.

The one piece of poetic form that actually matters when you're starting out

Thursday 10 September 2026 · 12:30–2:00pm ET (9:30–11am PT, 5:30–7pm UK)

The last four runs of this series sold out, and places are limited to 15.

One of the biggest barriers for new poets is form.

There are so many kinds — villanelles, sonnets, blank verse — and they all look impossibly complicated. Most beginners assume they have to learn them all before they can write "proper" poetry.

You don't. Not yet.

At the beginning, the only form you really need is a feel for the line: how you decide where to stop the words before you reach the edge of the page.

That sounds almost too simple to matter. It isn't. The line is the most powerful tool you have, and it's at work in every poem you've ever read — controlling pace and flow, creating surprise and tension, changing the tone, shaping the voice that seems to be speaking, and pushing important words into the light.

In this workshop we'll cover

• What different line lengths add to a poem

• How to change a poem's pace using line length

• How to use line length to wake up a poem that isn't working

• Different ways of breaking a line, and what each one does

We'll write, too. I'll give you a process to work with, so you're not left facing a blank page on your own.

You'll leave with a draft of your own, a clear sense of why you broke the lines where you did, and a technique you'll use in every poem you write from here on.

Taking all three classes in the series costs $100 instead of $120. See the full series here.

"Everything I was hoping for — and then some. I especially enjoyed the 'processes' you recommended as we took time to write. You made it fun, yet still richly thoughtful." — D. S., PA, 2026

"Three of my poems have been selected for an anthology. I'm quite shocked and very pleased that I just went for it and submitted. Your workshops were the start of any 'formal' learning for me, and I'm grateful for the input you gave me as I continue my poetic adventure." — L. A, UK, 2026

What to expect

• Live on Zoom, 12:30–2:00pm ET (9:30–11am PT, 5:30–7pm UK)

• Limited to 15 people

• Sharing your work is always optional — there is no critique, and nobody gets put on the spot

• Can't attend live? Every class is recorded, and the recording is yours to keep indefinitely

• No experience or preparation needed — just come ready to write

Your teacher: Brian Evans-Jones

I've been teaching poetry since 2005 — at three universities, in dozens of schools as a visiting Teaching Artist, and to hundreds of adults through my own workshops. I was Poet Laureate of Hampshire, UK, in 2012–13, and I won the Maureen Egen Award from Poets & Writers in 2017.

But it took me 14 years to get my first poem published, and 23 to win my first competition. For most of that time I felt the way you might be feeling now: overwhelmed by how much there was to learn, unsure whether anything I wrote was any good, and with no idea what to do next.

What changed it was good teaching. I studied with Charles Simic, David Morley, and others, and they gave me the skills and the confidence I'd been missing for two decades. These workshops are my way of passing some of that on — without the years of study it took me to get it.

This course is currently full. Join the list to hear first when I run it again.