Gothic Hauntings: A Loose Leaf Poetry Workshop

'But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men'

― Walter de la Mare, ‘The Listeners’, 1912

This relaxed creative writing workshop explores a range of Gothic hauntings: from the tormented lovers of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, to haunting as a manifestation of grief as captured by Mary Shelley in her essay ‘On Ghosts’. The Gothic ghost takes on many forms; from omens and messenger to tormented lovers, from apparitions in candlelit rooms to empty homes haunted by loss and grief. Gothic writers centre experiences of hauntings, experiences which can in equal parts frighten, console, reform and warn.

In this workshop we will write poems haunted by the Gothic past, the haunted landscapes of the present and imagine the ghosts of the future. There will be a range of writing prompts and no previous experience is necessary.