Poetry Masterclass With Raymond Antrobus

Join Raymond Antrobus for a 2-hour poetry masterclass.

Bad Betty masterclasses take place in the afternoon prior to each Bad Betty Live show, and offer a chance to work closely with one of the featured acts. Join in person at Waterstones Nottingham, or online via Zoom. Get 50% off when bought with a ticket to Bad Betty Live.

About the workshop:

Details of the workshop theme and planned activities will be shared here in the weeks prior to the event.

About your facilitator:

Raymond Antrobus MBE FRSL was born in London, Hackney to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of Shapes & Disfigurements (Burning Eye, 2012) To Sweeten Bitter (Out-Spoken Press, 2017), The Perseverance (Penned In The Margins / Tin House, 2018), All The Names Given (Picador / Tin House, 2021), Signs, Music (Picador / Tin House, 2024).

His individual poems have been published in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Granta, Poetry Foundation, Lit Hub, London Review of Books, The Poetry Review, The Deaf Poets Society and elsewhere. In 2019 he became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre.

Other accolades include The Ted Hughes Award, Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, PBS Winter Choice, A Sunday Times Young Writer of the year Award, Somerset Maugham Award and The Guardian Poetry Book Of The Year 2018, as well as a shortlist for The Griffin Prize, T.S. Eliot Prize and Forward Prize. In 2018 he was awarded The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, (Judged by Ocean Vuong), for his poem Sound Machine. Also in 2019 and 2021 his poems (Jamaican British, The Perseverance and Happy Birthday Moon) was added to the UK’s GCSE syllabus.

About Bad Betty:

Bad Betty Press is an award-winning independent poetry publisher, and curator of live literature events taking place across the UK. London-born, Nottingham-based, Bad Betty was set up in 2017 with the aim of showcasing risk-taking poetry, supporting poets’ artistic development and celebrating stories less often told.

Bad Betty is a British Book Awards Small Press of the Year Finalist (2024, 2023), a Michael Marks Publishers' Award winner (2022), and the parent of pamphlet imprint, Little Betty.

Access information:

In-person:

The Sillitoe Room is on the 4th floor of Waterstones, and is accessible by lift. There is an accessible toilet on the 3rd floor, as well as staff toilets on the 4th floor which masterclass attendees can use. There is not a separate, quiet room available. The room itself, however, is large, so it is possible to move to a corner of the room if you need time away from the group.  If you need to leave the room at any point, please feel free to do so, with no explanation necessary. If you have any issues or require support during the workshop, please speak to Jake Wild Hall, who will be in the room.

Online:

Poems and content to be discussed during the class will be shared in advance via email, and on screen during the Zoom. We use a Meeting Owl camera and microphone system and high-speed internet, to offer the best sound possible (although connection speeds may affect this), and auto-captioning provided by Otter.ai. If possible and comfortable for you, we welcome vocal participation from online participants, and comments in the chat window. If you need to engage in a different way, or simply to keep your camera and microphone off, please feel free to do so. For this, or any other access needs you have, please drop us a line in advance of the workshop at info@badbettypress.com, so we can ensure the event works for you. If you have any issues or require support during the workshop, please send a chat message to Bridie Squires, who will be running the Zoom.