Are you curious — but cautious — about poetry?

Jeremy (a university lecturer and poetry critic) and Joe (a bookseller and poetry tutor) believe that if we slow down, stop being so serious and follow a few simple steps, poems aren’t scary. In fact anyone, anywhere, can enjoy any piece of poetry.

Join them in July when Jeremy will bring Joe one poem a week — an unusual piece by a celebrated writer. The two friends will then close-read it together, live in front of you, in a way that’s intelligent but informal and infectious.

Joe will use a playful but powerful six-step technique, developed in his popular one-to-one poetry tutoring sessions. He’ll go line by line, revealing how the poem works — its rhythm, rhyme, imagery and more. Jeremy will chip in with stories about the poet, and thoughts about their choice of words — exploring the historical context of when the poem was composed, how it was written, and why.

But hold on to your hats, because this won’t be anything like English lessons at school! Together, we’ll be doing some quite weird, counter-intuitive and fun stuff — like completely ignoring all the words in the poem (for a bit), and treating poems as tangible things that can be hot and cold…*

Ultimately, you’ll come away from these sessions with a surprisingly simple but revelatory way to read — and enjoy! — poems, plus ideas for more poetry to explore.

In the first series of How Not to Read a Poem, we’re looking at five examples of one of the most famously enduring yet shape-shifting poetic forms: the sonnet.

This ticket is for an event when we’ll read a sonnet by Terrance Hayes. Each How Not to Read a Poem event is stand-alone (but we encourage you to come to as many as possible for the cumulitative effect!)

*Joe’s technique is adapted from a framework of tips and tricks created by writer, philosopher and Literature Professor Timothy Morton.

How Not to Read a Poem: Terrance Hayes

Wednesday 29th July 2026

The Book Hive, Norwich

Doors 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start

£10 | Refreshments provided

Description supplied by the event organiser.