How to Furnish the Cave of Making with Don Paterson

‘an antre / more private than a bedroom even […] but without a /bedroom's secrets: from the Olivetti portable, the dictionaries (the very / best money can buy), the heaps of paper, it is evident what must go on.’ - W.H. Auden, ‘The Cave of Making'

We'd all prefer to sit at our desks, pen in hand, taking dictation from the angels. But when the muse puts us on hold, what extra help is available? In this 2-hour webinar, Don will look at the vast range of tools that poets can draw on to pull us from the ditch, whether we’re stuck for an idea, a word or a line. Which are the best dictionaries for poets, thesauri, drafting programmes? Don will look at many under-exploited resources from Shipley’s Origins of English Words to the joys of The Slang Thesaurus, random subject generators from ancient copies of Brewer’s Phrase and…