About this Event
Winchester Poetry Day 2026
Performing the Lyric Self: workshop with Rachel Long
Join Rachel Long for writing workshop exploring new ways of inhabiting and transforming the lyric voice.
The lyric ‘I’ is never simply a self on the page - it is a voice, a performance, an invention. This workshop examines how contemporary poets use persona, address, memory, and form to create speaking selves that blur the boundaries between lived experience and imaginative possibility.
Through readings of poets including Natalie Diaz, Ocean Vuong, Terrance Hayes, Victoria Chang, and Patricia Smith, alongside generative writing exercises, we’ll explore new ways of inhabiting and transforming the lyric voice.
Rachel Long's debut collection, My Darling from the Lions (2020) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, The Costa Book Award, The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, The Rathbones Folio Prize, and the Jhalak Prize Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour. The US edition (2021) was a New York Times Book Review, and named one of the 100 must-read books of 2021 by TIME. Her second collection, Sparrow on the Rooftop, was published by Chatto & Windus, in June 2026.
Her individual poems have been published in The Guardian, Poetry, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, The London Magazine, and Granta. She has curated and co-produced multiple programmes for BBC Radio 4, as well as curating literary events for Tate.
Long is a guest lecturer at Goldsmiths University College, London, and tutors regularly for Faber Academy and The Poetry School. She has judged numerous literary prizes including The National Poetry Competition, The Rathbone Folio Prize, The Dylan Thomas Prize, the Poetry London Prize, and the Foyle Young Poet of the Year Award (2026).
Suitable for: writers of all ages, and at all stages of their writing.
Duration: 1.5 hours
Format: in person workshop
Access: wheelchair accessible throughout
Event venue & nearby stays
The Arc Winchester, Jewry Street, Winchester, United Kingdom
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