We meet around a ‘pool’ of words, teeming with unseeing beings – both human and nonhuman. We’ll explore worlds-within-worlds both human and more-than-. Here, the perfect pond or pool becomes a tarnished symbol of purity – because no water is cut off from the water table, just as our writing is never free of contaminants or influence.

We’ll look at poems of ponds and pools that aren’t quite what they seem, then mingle our lingo. Drawing on ecological ideas around toxicity, ‘forever chemicals’, hauntings and the ecogothic – which sparked his latest collection, Mingle – Caleb leads you through a hyperreal and surreal landscape, which gazes back. A workshop where new particles arrive and settle in our poems, through magical osmosis.

Caleb Parkin, Bristol City Poet 2020 – 22, has featured in The Guardian, The Rialto, The Poetry Review and was guest poet on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please. His debut collection This Fruiting Body (Nine Arches, 2021) was longlisted for the Laurel Prize. He’s published three pamphlets: Wasted Rainbow (tall-lighthouse, 2021); The Coin (Broken Sleep, 2022); and collected City Poet commissions, All the Cancelled Parties (2022). His second collection, Mingle (Nine Arches, October 2024) recently featured in Resurgence and Ecologist magazine. Caleb has featured at literary festivals including Poetry in Aldeburgh, Lyra Fest and Push the Boat Oat. He tutors for Arvon, Poetry Society and Poetry School, Metanoia Institute, and holds an MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes from Metanoia Institute. He is currently a practice-based PhD researcher at University of Exeter with RENEW Biodiversity, exploring human/nonhuman communication and creaturely voices in poetry.

Date: 8th February 2025, 2-4pm GMT
Location: Online
Cost: £20 Concessions available

Book your place here.