How to deal with lockdown: Try poetry

KU graduate in Creative Writing, Stefan Mohamed, is offering a creative outlet for people by running his online poetry courses this month.

In association with the adult education centre The Folk House, Mohamed will run a five-week course for those aged over 18 years-old.

“It’s open to any experience level really but probably tailored more towards those who are less confident, who maybe want to give poetry a try but aren’t sure where to begin.

“Maybe someone is looking for a creative or emotional outlet to deal with the times we’re in.

“I found that peer feedback was one of the most important aspects of the creative writing course I did at Kingston, so I’m hoping to be able to provide that benefit to people who may be feeling a bit isolated,” Mohamed said.

The KU graduate said in a normal year, courses would be running face-to-face but with the pandemic everything has moved online, so he will be teaching the course via Zoom.

“It’s my first online course, although I have talked about both novel writing and spoken word in person in the past – at sixth form colleges, festivals and so on. I also returned to Kingston a few years back to talk to the creative writing MA students.

“I am hoping to use my experience as a performing poet, as I’ve been doing that for the last eight years, to build the students’ confidence with reading their own work,” Mohamed said.

The KU graduate says he has been busy since graduating in 2010 and since 2015 released four novels and a poetry collection.