ABOUT
This summer, step into The Living Line: Poetry, Prose, and Song— a live, online course that brings together an extraordinary and genuinely unprecedented combination of voices: a national poet (or makar) of Scotland, a poet laureate of Montana, a celebrated English folk musician and songwriter, and a New York Times bestselling author of lyrical prose. This has never been done before.
Meeting every other Sunday from 10 May through 16 August, this course is open to writers of all levels — from those just beginning to those deep into an established practice. You do not need to be a poet. You need only be a writer who suspects that poetry has something to teach you and you want to integrate it into your prose — and you would be right.
Why This Course Will Enrich Your Writing
Something that experienced writing teachers know and rarely say plainly enough: studying poetry and crafted song at the line level — really getting inside how a line is built, why a word lands where it does, how rhythm creates meaning before the reader even consciously registers it — can shoot a writer’s work into the stratosphere. Not gradually. Dramatically. Students in Kathryn Aalto’s writing programmes know, and come to love, that each class opens with a ‘Poetry Portal.’ a practice that draws people around the literary campfire of a single poem at the beginning of each class. The benefits to writing and writer are enormous.
When you can hear a poet of Kathleen Jamie’s stature talk about how she made a particular choice, when you ask Chris La Tray how he holds grief and beauty in the same breath, when Jon Boden explains how a folk song carries five hundred years of communal feeling in three minutes, when Gabrille Calvocoressi teaches you to show up as you are on the page, when Kathryn Aalto takes you into the musicality of lyrical essays — something opens up in your own writing that no amount of prose craft instruction alone can unlock. You begin to hear your sentences differently. You reach for the precise word rather than the adequate one. You understand, in your body as well as your mind, what it means for a line to be alive. Whether you are striving for a sharper essay, a more resonant poem, or merely want to become more attentive to the musicality of a poem or poetry in an essay, this lovely summer course will fill your cup.
This is why every serious writer of narrative nonfiction should be reading more poetry — and why having the poets and songwriters themselves in the room, answering your questions, and setting you writing assignments drawn from their own practice, is an opportunity that does not come along often.
Why Poetry Matters to Writers of Narrative Nonfiction
Poetry teaches what no other form teaches so directly: the weight of a single word, the rhythm of a sentence, the way an image can carry more meaning than a paragraph of explanation. It teaches compression — the art of saying only what needs to be said, and saying it with the force of something inevitable. It teaches the line break as a form of attention, and attention as a form of love.
When Annie Dillard wrote Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, she was reading poetry. When Robert Macfarlane reaches for the precise name of a geological formation, he is thinking like a poet. When Barry Lopez rendered a landscape, he is working with the tools of verse: image, sound, rhythm, the particular word rather than the approximate one. Narrative nonfiction at its most alive is prose that has absorbed poetry without announcing it.
In a time of ecological urgency and cultural noise, poetry also offers something rarer: the practice of stillness. Of sitting with a thing long enough to see it clearly. For writers whose work engages with the natural world, with memory, with the complexities of place and belonging, that practice is not optional. It is the work. If you want to narrative nonfiction that pops and sparkles at the line level, read poetry. It is not a supplement to one’s practice but as its secret engine.
This course invites students at all levels to join. Each guest speaker will be with us for 90 minutes — in conversation, in a Q&A, reading from their work, and providing 1-2 in-class exercises for you to try. If you would like to just listen to the talks, you are warmly welcomed to join and either bow out during workshop sessions or simply gather with others to talk about writing. In other words, this is a summer enrichment course with workshopping, if you need it.
(Quite Honestly, the Most Amazing) Guest Speakers
The Tree House (2004) won the Forward Prize for best poetry collection and a Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award. Waterlight: Selected Poems appeared in 2007. The Bonniest Company (Picador, 2015) continued her meditation on the natural world. Her selected poems, Mr. & Mrs. Scotland Are Dead (2002), was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, and three collections have been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Among her many awards are the Somerset Maugham Award, the Paul Hamlyn Award, a Creative Scotland Award, and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, which she has won twice.
Jamie is also a distinguished nature writer. The Golden Peak: Travels in North Pakistan (1992) and Among Muslims (2002) grew from her long engagement with travel and observation. She collaborated with photographer Sean Mayne Smith on The Autonomous Region: Poems and Photographs from Tibet (1993). Findings (2005) is a collection of essays rooted in the landscapes and wildlife of Scotland, from peregrines above Fife to the neolithic darkness of Orkney and is widely considered a landmark of British nature writing. Sightlines (2012) won the Orion Book Award and confirmed her place among the essential writers of the natural world. “A lyrical work of profound insight.” (Kirkus Review) ranging from Arctic light to whale strandings to a pathology museum, this award-winning collection confirmed Jamie as one of the essential nature writers of her generation. Winner of the John Burroughs Medal, Surfacing (2019) moves between archaeological digs in Alaska and Orkney and her own unearthed memories, Jamie explores what the changing natural world reveals about time, loss, and the self.
Kathleen will also be speaking and leading writing workshops on poetry and prose at Kathryn Aalto’s Retreat into the Devon Countryside, 2-4 April 2027.
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Chris La Tray is a Métis storyteller, a descendant of the Pembina Band of the mighty Red River of the North and a citizen of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. He served as the eleventh Montana Poet Laureate from 2023 to 2025. He has received a number of accolades including a Pacific Northwest Book Award and a writing the West Award, and Best Memoir of the Years selections in both People and Esquire magazines.
La Tray grew up in western Montana identifying as Chippewa, though his father fiercely denied any Native heritage. It was his grandmother who held the thread. When La Tray returned home for his grandfather’s funeral and found himself surrounded by relatives who were unmistakably Indigenous, a question took root that would eventually become his most important book. Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home (Milkweed Editions, 2024), his multi-award-winning third book, is the record of that reckoning — a journey through personal and tribal history that led him to seek and receive enrollment with the Little Shell Tribe, joining their 158-year struggle for federal recognition. On publication day, La Tray described the experience of releasing the book as feeling “a little like going to the pool shirtless and wearing trunks a size or two too small: pretty exposed.”
His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large (2018, Riverfeet Press) won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award. His book of haiku and haibun poetry, Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel, was published in 2021 by Foothills Publishing.
Chris served as the 2025 Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Montana and was awarded the 2025 Montana Heritage Keeper Award by the Montana Historical Society. He has facilitated workshops for The Missoula Writing Collaborative, Yellowstone Forever, the Freeflow Institute, Writing the Wild, Orion, Torrey House Press, and others.
Chris writes the weekly newsletter “An Irritable Métis” and lives near Frenchtown, Montana. He was the 11th Montana poet laureate (Aug. 2023 – Aug. 2025). Learn more at Chris La Tray – Métis Storyteller.
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Jon Boden is one of the most influential and widely celebrated figures in modern British folk music — and one of the most compelling creative minds you will encounter at any writing retreat anywhere in England.
His story begins, as the best ones do, with two people and a shared obsession. In 2001, Jon began performing traditional English songs alongside melodeon player John Spiers. The duo became Spiers & Boden, and Spiers & Boden became the seed of something larger: Bellowhead, an 11-piece folk ensemble that would go on to become the most successful traditional folk band of its generation — selling out concert halls, headlining festivals, and introducing a new audience to the raw vitality of English folk music.
Over the course of his career, Jon has won eleven BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards — more than any other artist in the history of the award. But the accolades, impressive as they are, tell only part of the story.
In 2010, at the height of Bellowhead’s success, Jon launched one of the most quietly radical creative projects in recent British musical history: A Folk Song A Day, in which he recorded and released one traditional unaccompanied song every single day for a year. The project was an act of cultural generosity — a celebration of song as a living, social, communal practice — and created an extraordinary digital archive of folk heritage that continues to be discovered by new listeners today.
Beyond performance, Jon is a composer, educator, and original thinker about creativity. He has composed for theatre at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has pioneered Colourchord, an accessible system for teaching four-part harmony singing that brings communal music-making to people with no formal training — the same spirit of openness and inclusion he will bring to the song writing workshop at Ashley Court. His three solo albums — Songs From The Floodplain (2009), Afterglow (2017), and Last Mile Home (2021) — form a post-oil concept trilogy that moves through landscape, resilience, and what it means to be human when the old certainties fall away. For writers working in narrative nonfiction, memoir, and nature writing, the thematic territory will feel immediately familiar.
Jon studied Medieval History and Literature at Durham University and Composition for Theatre at the London College of Music. He holds honorary doctorates from both institutions for his contributions to English folk music and culture. Learn more at Jon Boden.
Jon will also be leading live songwriting workshops at Kathryn Aalto’s Retreat into the Devon Countryside, 2-4 April 2027.
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Gabrielle Calvocoressi was born in 1974 in central Connecticut, where their family owned movie theatres — including drive-ins — scattered across several small towns. That particular American landscape of spectacle and longing, community and darkness, runs as a current through their work, alongside larger questions of history, social justice, faith, the body, and desire.
Their four collections trace a deepening inquiry. The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart (Persea Books, 2005) won the Connecticut Book Award. Apocalyptic Swing (Persea Books, 2009) was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Rocket Fantastic (Persea Books, 2017) won the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. AndThe New Economy(Copper Canyon Press, 2025) — told through the perspective of an ungendered body moving through time, grief, and the longing to inhabit one’s own skin with acceptance — was a finalist for both the National Book Award for Poetry and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Calvocoressi has written with unflinching honesty about their mother’s mental illness and suicide, about sexuality and gender, and about the possibility of tenderness in the face of violence. Their work appears in The New Yorker, POETRY, the Boston Review, Tin House, and the New York Times, among others.
Honours include the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship and Jones Lectureship at Stanford, the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the Bernard F. Conners Prize from The Paris Review, and residencies from the Lannan Foundation and Civitella di Ranieri. In 2026 they were elected to the Board of Chancellors of the American Academy of Poets.
Calvocoressi is Poetry Editor at Large at the Los Angeles Review of Books, directs the Frost Place Conference on Poetry, and holds an Associate Professorship and the Walker Percy Fellowship in Poetry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. They live in Old East Durham, North Carolina. Learn more at Gabrielle Calvocoressi.
Outcomes
By the end of this course, participants will:
- Appreciate how poetry works at the line level — how rhythm, compression, and word choice create meaning — and be able to apply these principles directly to their own poetry and essays.
- Receive detailed feedback on poetry, prose poems, of essays from Kathryn and benefit from supportive writing workshops.
- Develop a sustained practice of reading poetry as a writer, using it not as a supplement to their craft but as a means of sharpening attention, precision, and the musicality of their sentences.
- Feel genuinely inspired and emboldened to bring more of themselves to the page — their own voice, their own preoccupations, their own way of seeing — having spent a summer in the company of writers and musicians who have each, in their own way, made a distinctive and uncompromising art from exactly that.
- Draw on the techniques of folk song and oral tradition — the carrying of feeling across time, the weight of the communal voice — as tools for deepening narrative, character, and emotional resonance in their work.
- Leave with a richer, embodied understanding of how poetry lives inside the best narrative nonfiction — drawn not just from textbooks but from direct conversation with accomplished writers of poetry, prose, and songs, each of whom will share writing assignments drawn from their own practice, answer your questions in real time, and demonstrate, by their very presence in the room, that the line between poetry, song, and prose is far more porous — and more generative — than most traditional writing courses can teach.
DATES
- Format: Live online
- Schedule: Every other Sunday
- Dates: May 10/24 June 7/21 July 5/19 August 2/16
- Time: 4-6:30 PM BST
TUITION
Tuition: £550 per term
Invest in your learning journey with a one-time payment.
Flexible Payment Plans
Contact kathryn@kathrynaalto.com to discuss options.
Terms and Conditions
Review the details of enrolment below before registering.
- Course Overview. The Course provides online writing instruction.
- Eligibility and Registration. Participants must be 16 or older and provide accurate registration details.
- Payment Terms. Full payment is required at registration. Payment plans, if arranged, must be honoured regardless of attendance.
- Refund Policy. Refunds are available up to 14 days before the Course start date. No refunds will be issued after this period. Requests must be emailed to kathryn@kathrynaalto.com.
- Course Access. Participants receive the syllabus upon registration.
- Intellectual Property. All Course materials are the property of Kathryn Aalto and cannot be reproduced, distributed, downloaded, or filmed without written permission.
- Conduct and Participation. Respectful and professional behaviour is expected.
- Technical Requirements. Participants need to have a stable internet connection and compatible device.
- Course Changes and Cancellation. The schedule, content, or speakers may be modified. If the Course is cancelled, a full refund will be issued.
- Privacy Policy. Participant information will not be shared.
By registering, you agree to these Terms and Conditions. For assistance, contact kathryn@kathrynaalto.com.
FAQs
1. Are Kathryn Aalto’s courses suitable for beginners?
Yes, all levels of writers. Beginners gain foundational skills in a supportive environment, while experienced writers refine their craft and explore advanced techniques.
- Level 1: Foundational courses for beginners in narrative nonfiction.
- Levels 2–3: Intermediate courses requiring Level 1, a similar course, or application with a writing sample.
- Levels 3–4: Advanced courses focusing on voice, structure, dialogue, and other nuanced techniques.
2. What kind of feedback can I expect?
Kathryn provides detailed, constructive feedback to improve both technical skills and thematic resonance. Students receive handwritten feedback via her reMarkable device, addressing everything from syntax and language to structure and voice. Her feedback supports, encourages, and challenges students to grow.
3. What assignments or exercises are typical?
Courses include in-class reflective exercises and self-directed at home reading and writing.
- Level 1: 1–3 poems or 2-4 pages of experimental sketches, scenes, or essays per session
- Levels 2–4: 4–10 pages every two weeks
Assignments balance variety and independence, encouraging students to explore their own interests.
4. Can taking one course lead to publication?
A single course is a valuable step toward publication, providing essential skills, guidance, and confidence. However, becoming published requires persistence, revision, and industry knowledge. Most successful students take 2–4 courses, participate in workshops, and hone their craft over time, much like an MFA program in narrative nonfiction. While publication isn’t guaranteed, Kathryn’s courses equip you to pursue your goals effectively.
5. Who are my classmates?
Your classmates come from around the globe, creating a diverse and enriching learning community. Students hail from the USA, Canada, the UK, Europe, Africa, Asia, and beyond, offering a broad spectrum of perspectives and experiences.
6. Can I pay tuition in instalments?
Yes, tuition can be billed over 2–4 months. Contact kathryn@kathrynaalto.com to arrange a plan that works for you.
COMMUNITY
Kathryn Aalto fosters a warm, inclusive, and inspiring community in her online writing courses, where participants from diverse backgrounds come together to explore their creativity. Her courses are designed to encourage collaboration, thoughtful dialogue, and mutual support, cultivating a space where students feel safe to express themselves and share their work.
Her teaching style emphasises empathy and attentiveness, helping students build confidence in their writing while honouring their unique voices. Through guided discussions, personalised feedback, and opportunities for peer interaction, she cultivates a sense of belonging and shared purpose. The community Kathryn creates is one of encouragement, growth, and a shared passion for the written word, where each participant is both a learner and a contributor to the collective experience.
Learn more here.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
My teaching philosophy is rooted in the belief that education is a collaborative and transformative journey, one that empowers students to explore their creative potential, embrace their unique voices, and engage deeply with the world around them. I am committed to creating a learning environment that is inclusive, supportive, and intellectually stimulating, where students feel encouraged to take risks, ask questions, and challenge themselves.
Philosophy
1. Fostering Creative Exploration
I believe that creativity flourishes when students are given the freedom to explore ideas, experiment with language, and push the boundaries of conventional thinking. My role as an educator is to provide the tools, guidance, and encouragement that allow students to embark on this journey of exploration. I strive to create lectures, discussions, and assignments that inspire curiosity and invite students to engage with material in ways that are personally meaningful and artistically daring.
2. Encouraging Critical Thinking and Reflection
I view literature and writing as powerful tools for understanding the human experience, and I encourage my students to engage critically with texts and their own work. By fostering an environment of thoughtful discussion and reflection, I aim to help students develop their analytical skills, deepen their understanding of complex themes, and articulate their ideas with clarity and conviction. I emphasise the importance of considering diverse perspectives and encourage students to question assumptions and explore the ethical dimensions of their writing.
3. Building a Supportive Learning Community
I am deeply committed to cultivating a classroom environment where all students feel respected, valued, and heard. I believe that learning is most effective when it occurs in a community where individuals support and learn from one another. To this end, I prioritise creating a space where students can share their work, offer constructive feedback, and engage in meaningful dialogue. I also recognise the importance of addressing each student’s unique needs and learning styles, and I strive to be responsive and adaptable in my teaching approach.
Strongly influenced by the Harkness method founded at the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire where my three children graduated, I actively cultivate a learning space that emphasises the art of conversation with active listening, collaboration, and respect.
4. Empowering Student Voices
One of my primary goals as an educator is to empower emerging writers to find and refine their own voices. I encourage them to write with authenticity and confidence, whether they are crafting a new personal narrative as a long-time academic or exploring creative nonfiction from another genre. I believe that every student has a story worth telling, and I aim to help them discover the best ways to tell it. This involves not only developing their technical skills but also helping them overcome any inhibitions or self-doubt that may hinder their creative expression.
5. Lifelong Learning and Growth
I view teaching as a reciprocal process of learning and growth. Just as I seek to inspire my students, I am continually inspired by their insights, creativity, and courage. I am committed to my own professional development as a member of ASLE (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) and AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs), which helps me stay engaged with current trends and debates in literature, writing, and pedagogy. By modelling a passion for learning and a commitment to intellectual curiosity, I hope to instil in my students a lifelong love of learning and a desire to continue honing their craft long after they leave my classroom.
Results
My teaching philosophy is centered on the idea that education is a dynamic and collaborative process. By fostering creativity, critical thinking, and community, I aim to empower my students to become confident, thoughtful, and innovative writers who are prepared to differently engage with the world in reflective and meaningful ways.
After acquiring key skills in narrative nonfiction, I encourage people to apply for awards, submit to publications, and continue keeping personal writing journals. My pro-active stance helps emerging writers find validation of their insights and writing skills outside our nurturing communities.
My students have won numerous awards including the 2022 £10,000 Nature Chronicles Prize with two long-listed for the same 2024 prize. A student won the 2022 Bradt New Travel Writer of the Year and many have been short-listed for literary awards including the Fish Memoir Prize. My students have been published by general and university presses, book trusts, popular magazines, and literary journals.
However, publication and awards are only one measure of success. Learning to embrace the writing process as just one part of leading a contemplative life cannot be measured nor externally validated. There is different and great fulfilment in both.
TESTIMONIALS
Kathryn teaches with a deep care about the individual student and is very clever about bringing out their voices and passions. She also has an unparalleled knowledge of nature and landscape writing that gives a real gravitas and authority on the subject, a knowledge that she wears lightly without intimidating students, which is a huge strength.” — James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd’s Life and English Pastoral
“Kathryn Aalto is a world-class teacher. I had 30 years’ experience as a journalist and copywriter, but I was a novice in narrative non fiction. Kathryn taught me how to write, guiding me on a journey of discovery, revealing the secrets of sensory writing, bringing filmic vividness to my descriptions of the world around me and uncovering the inner landscapes of the mind. I will be forever grateful for her inspirational teaching and the support of the remarkable writing communities she curates, from whom I have received invaluable encouragement and among whom I have made enduring friendships.” — Gary F., Rutland, England
“Kathryn is an inspiring writer and gifted teacher of narrative non-fiction. She creates a warm and inviting atmosphere in the virtual classroom, even as she encourages writers to pursue their craft with rigour and tenacity. The classes pivot from instructor-led teaching to student-centred learning, with a dynamic range of activities, including lectures, discussions of craft/technique in assigned readings, writing prompts, workshops, Q&A sessions with published authors, industry insights and more. Aspiring writers receive detailed and actionable feedback, whether to build on existing skills or experiment with fresh approaches to craft. Beyond the classroom, Katy is happy to answer any questions, suggest further readings and encourage writers to publish.” — Wendy, Maidenhead, England
“After six months of working with Kathryn–which is a bit like entering the space of a handwritten letter, what with her sharp aesthetic sense, far-ranging intelligence, wit, and curiosity–I’ve made tangible progress on an unwieldy, long-form project I was struggling to articulate. I came to her Memoir and Life Writing class for accountability, and came away having experienced the kind of support, writing insight, and real feeling of friendship that can be difficult to find in a workshop environment. Kathryn fostered a warm, charming atmosphere in class (a real feat online), allowing for life-long connections to develop among our group of writers. She cares about the arc of her student’s writing lives–a form of attention that encourages artistic growth and positive risk-taking. She not only brought her years of writing and publishing experience to class and to our bi-monthly writing assignments (her personal feedback, often handwritten, is invaluable), she also brought her unique perspective. Writer-gardener-historians are, I think, particularly adept at imagining the possibilities for a piece, no matter your subject. Kathryn pushed me to dig deeper, moving my writing in new directions. No matter where one is in their writing life, working with Kathryn will be an experience of profound joy, insight, and artistic deepening.“ — Veronica, Portland, Maine