An innovative introduction to writing poetry designed for students of creative writing and budding poets alike.

• Challenges the reader’s sense of what is possible in a poem.
  
• Traces the history and highlights the potential of poetry.
  
• Focuses on the fundamental principles of poetic construction, such as: Who is speaking? Who are they speaking to? Why does their speaking take this form?
  
• Considers both experimental and mainstream approaches to contemporary poetry.
  
• Consists of fourteen chapters, making it suitable for use over one semester.
  
• Encourages readers to experiment with their poetry.

John Redmond is the author of one collection of poems, Thumb’s Width (2001), which was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and he features as one of ‘The New Irish Poets’ in a Bloodaxe anthology of that name. He was previously Assistant Editor of the long-running poetry magazine Thumbscrew, and writes reviews on a regular basis for the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and Poetry Review. He is Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Liverpool and, previously, was Visiting Assistant Professor at Macalester College in St Paul, Minnesota.