Limited to 12 spaces, VERVE Publisher Stuart Bartholomew hosts a pamphlet short course weekly over zoom starting on Weds Sep 16th at 7pm

At the stage where you are considering putting together a pamphlet or are about to begin? Or perhaps you've written a pamphlet but need some help understanding how successful you have been before you submit it? Or just interested to hear more about the process? Join this lively four week short course run by Birmingham and Michael Marks Award winning publisher VERVE Poetry Press for a detailed dive into all things pamphlet!

Session 1: Thinking About Pamphlets in Detail - Wednesday Sep 16th from 7-9pm

This introductory session will cover questions like, what makes a great pamphlet (incl recommended reading list) and what a list like this can teach us. We’ll look at different publishers and their expectations for pamphlet submissions – how can you communicate your idea and make it stand out (incl how to keep on a publisher’s good side!)

With plenty of time for questions and discussion on good practice and common pitfalls, you’ll leave with a firm idea of how to move forward.

NB After this session you will receive three pamphlets to read and think about before the next session.

Session 2: Looking at Pamphlets - Wednesday Sep 23rd from 7-9pm

In the spirit of 'you can't do what you don't know' in this session we will look at the three exemplary pamphlets (which you will have been sent to read before hand). We will ask things like - what is the narrative arc? What role do the first and last poem perform? Which are the key poems and what do they do for the whole? What we would change if anything?

We will discuss what learnings we can take forward from the session to guide our approach to our own work in forming a collection.

Session 3: Designing and Submitting your Pamphlet - Wednesday Sep 30th from 7-9pm

In this session, we’ll look at good ideas for sequencing a pamphlet. Which rules about putting pamphlets together are helpful and which are less so? How can we understand what each poem is doing for the entire book?

We will look closely at the pitfalls and also the opportunities that occur when poems are placed alongside each other. How can you position your poems to really utilise their power as a group? What changes might need to be made to your poems now that they are part of a larger whole?

We will also look in more detail at how to submit your work - the do's and don't do's of this process, and help get us all inside of what opportunities for publishing pamphlets are out there and when?

NB After this session you will be encouraged to send an early draft of your pamphlet for one to one discussion.

Session 4: Pamphlet One to One - One hour either during the day or evening during the weeks 1-15th Oct to take a detailed look at your pamphlet so far.

This session will help you to produce a concrete plan for making your pamphlet even better than it already is, so that you can begin to submit it with confidence.

This short course will be run by VERVE Poetry Press editor Stuart Bartholomew. The VERVE Poetry Press annual pamphlet submission window will next open for the month of April in 2027. Please see our website for info at https://vervepoetrybookshop.com/vpp

NB Zoom links to the individual workshops will arrive in your inbox 48 hours before each workshop. Please check your junk folder.

Stuart Bartholomew is Publisher at and Co-Founder of VERVE Poetry Press – an independent press that focusses on publishing poets from Birmingham and the UK. He is also Director and Programmer of VERVE: a Birmingham Festival of poetry and spoken word, which returns for its tenth year in Feb 2027. His programming and publishing vision is to celebrate the full breadth of quality poetic activity – whatever the style or source – in colourful and exciting ways.

VERVE Poetry Press has been described by Andrew McMillan as ‘the always exciting VERVE Poetry Press’ and has won the Saboteur Award for Most Innovative Publisher and the Michael Marks Publisher’s Award.

Description supplied by the event organiser.