I have a veritable bouquet of poetry class coming up this spring and early summer. You can join me for close reading sessions on Irish poets, Mary Oliver and many other beloved writers at Literature Cambridge. I’m also teaching a whole-day workshop for City Lit and a members-only session at The British Museum. Click below for more information:

Close Reading: Paul Muldoon and Eavan Boland Sunday April 28 and May 5, 2-4pm UK time (online)

Continuing our close reading series: join Dr Mariah Whelan for two sessions exploring the poetry of Irish poets Paul Muldoon and Eavan Boland.

In these two-hour sessions, we will use close reading techniques to read, analyse and discuss a selection of poems by these two brilliant writers. This is the perfect course for anyone wanting to enhance their skills of analysis and discussion in a warm and collegiate atmosphere. No prior experience of close reading is necessary to take part.

Close Reading: Yeats, MacNeice, Longley, Heaney, McGuckian Sunday 23 and 30 June, 2-4pm UK time (online)

A repeat of last year’s sold out course, in these two two-hour sessions, we will use close reading techniques to study a selection of poems from five excellent Irish writers. Together we will observe, analyse and discuss them as individual pieces and we will also explore how they might be read as being ‘in dialogue’ with each other.

This is the perfect course for anyone wanting to enhance their skills of analysis and discussion in a warm and collegiate atmosphere. No prior experience of close reading is necessary to take part.

Writing poetry: experiments in chance and choice Saturday July 13, 10am-5pm UK time (online)

Explore interesting, off-beat and diverse approaches to generating verse on this one-day course. Try out cut-ups, found lines, experiments in meter and rhyme, and much more.

My ‘Ways into Poetry’ class for City Lit is currently sold out. However, I still have places left on my Literature Cambridge courses.

My Sylvia Plath course starts on Saturday February 10th and runs for 4 weeks.

There are also still places on my close reading seminars on Irish poets taking place in April/May and June.

Another Highly Commended award (always the bridesmaid, lol!), this time for my poem ‘Brother’. You can read it over on the ‘Mist and Mountain’ website here: https://mistandmountain.co.uk/commendations-poems/?fbclid=IwAR1aLOj7b3COrgcFezGrJz5kb2Wj56sACwRLKp2QVYQOq3TwIGpgYq4mn1I

Many thanks to the organisers for their kind consideration!

If you want to join me for some poetry-related classes, I’ll be teaching the following sessions over the coming months:

Close Reading: Irish Poets (5th & 12th November, 2-4pm)

In these two two-hour sessions, we will use close reading techniques to study a selection of poems from five excellent Irish writers. Together we will observe, analyse and discuss them as individual pieces and we will also explore how they might be read as being ‘in dialogue’ with each other.

This is the perfect course for anyone wanting to enhance their skills of analysis and discussion in a warm and collegiate atmosphere. No prior experience of close reading is necessary to take part.

https://www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/reading-irish-poets-1

Ways into Poetry (11 Jan-21 March 2024, 6-8pm)

Relatively new to writing poetry? This inspiring course offers an opportunity to experiment with language and a variety of poetic devices alongside fellow emerging poets. Discover the key elements of a poem in a friendly and interactive class.

https://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/ways-into-poetry

Sylvia Plath: Poetry & Prose (10 Feb-2 March 2024)

Join writer and lecturer Dr Mariah Whelan for a live online exploration of the life and writing of Sylvia Plath. In each of the 2-hour sessions, we will begin with a 1-hour lecture where you will be introduced to key aspects of Plath’s poetry and prose writings.

Four x 2-hour sessions, weekly on Saturdays, from 10 February to 2 March 2024, 2.00 to 4.00 pm British time. Live online via Zoom.

This is a 4-week course, with a live online lecture and seminar each week. The lectures are recorded so that participants can listen again during the course if they wish. The seminars are not recorded.

https://www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/plath-2024

Many thanks to Charlie and co. for publishing 3 poems of mine on Anthropocene. Head over to: https://www.anthropocenepoetry.org/post/3-poems-by-mariah-whelan to read more.

So, the 2022/2023 academic year has come to an end. I returned from maternity leave late last year and since then I’ve taught classes on the sonnet, Sylvia Plath, Keats, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning plus two extended series on writing poetry. That’s a lot! I’m looking forward to taking some time over the summer to focus on catching up with my reading and maybe even writing some poems of my own.

I’ll still be doing some teaching this summer though, and you can see a list below. I am also currently expanding my list of poets I work with on a one-to-one basis. If you want some personalised feedback on your poems or are putting together a pamphlet or collection get in touch via whelan.mariah [at] gmail.com.

Upcoming courses:

15th July 2023 – Writing Poetry: Experiments in Chance and Choice, City Lit (online)

Explore interesting, off-beat and diverse approaches to generating verse on this one-day course. Try out cut-ups, found lines, experiments in meter and rhyme, and much more.

13th and 20th August 2023 – Reading Poetry: Christina Rossetti, Literature Cambridge (online)

Join award-winning poet Dr Mariah Whelan as we explore the playful, passionate, sensuous, and sacred poetry of Christina Rossetti.

Together we will explore several key poems written over the course of Rossetti’s life. Using a number of close reading techniques, Dr Whelan will guide participants to read, analyse and discuss the poetic methods and techniques that have made Rossetti’s poems so much loved for 150 years and more.

5th and 12th November 2023 – Reading Poetry: Irish Poetry, Literature Cambridge (online)

Few territories can claim to have produced so many excellent poets and poems as the island of Ireland. Join poet and lecturer Dr Mariah Whelan as we explore a selection of poems by:

• W. B. Yeats
• Louis MacNeice
• Michael Longley
• Seamus Heaney
• Medbh McGuckian

9th November – 14th December (weekly classes) 2023 – Workshop: An Introduction to Writing Poetry, Literature Cambridge (online)

Join award-winning poet Dr Mariah Whelan to discover the art and pleasure of writing poetry. Over the course of the six sessions, we will consider key aspects of poetry such as imagery, sound devices and fixed forms like the sonnet. Together, we will explore how to implement these technical considerations into our own poems, experimenting and receiving feedback as we go. 

Explore interesting, off-beat and diverse approaches to generating verse on this one-day course delivered via City Lit. Try out cut-ups, found lines, experiments in meter and rhyme, and much more.

The course will look at ways to generate raw material and ideas for new and existing poems through exercises, employing chance/experimental methods and choice –from flow-writing, cut-ups and found lines to syllabic meter and imagery. How do we choose what to do with raw material? What are some methods we can use to shape our experimental writing into poems?

Book now: https://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/writing-poetry-experiments-in-chance-and-choice

Exam stress is all around at the moment. Last year, to help mitigate this, Homerton College at The University of Cambridge asked me to pull together a self-guided poem-writing podcast to help students get a bit of a break from revision.

While it was made for Homerton, the resource is open to all and if you fancy following along and writing a poem of your own, you can do so here:

Mist and Mountain is a Creative platform based in Aberdeen, Scotland. It offers residency opportunities for multidisciplinary creatives like writers, poets, photographers, painters etc. It provides creative residential opportunities with a focus on attracting creatives from ethnic minority and marginalized communities who are currently wider under-represented.

It’s absolutely brilliant to have my poem ‘Mapwork’ selected as the residency’s ‘Poem of the Month’. I’ll also be giving a reading and interview with the brilliant Nabin Chhetri on April 22nd.

You can read the poem here: https://mistandmountain.co.uk/poem-of-the-month/