Matera Class – International Writing Course 2025

Teacher, Nuria de Cos

The poems contained in the next pages were conceptualised during the last day of the International Creative Writing Course which took place in Matera in September 2025.

The idea behind my class was to collectively write a poem (or start writing one at least!) which captured the week that the students had spent together and exploring Matera and its surroundings.

I divided the class in two groups and two languages, Spanish and English, and asked the students to activate their creativity by first thinking about the sensory inputs that they had received or perceived during the week: things they saw, things they heard, things they touched and so on. This would hopefully be captured some way or other in the final piece which was to become the poem. We discussed their perceptions and asked ourselves which of those incipient ideas/feelings could work as kick-starters for their poems.

I then asked them to collectively choose a picture from their photo gallery and describe it in as much detail as possible, bearing our previous exercise in mind as well. In the next few pages we can find Emma Benito’s example of both these creative exercises.

What all this meant is that the class turned into a very lively discussion of how to capture what they had lived during that week as a poem.

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Sensory inspiration, Emma Benito

3 things I saw at Matera:

1. Le stelle italiane e la luna brillante

2. Le luci della città accendendosi allo stesso momento

3. The light reflected in the clouds

2 things I have heard at Matera:

1. Jazz in the restaurants

2. My new friends’ laughter

1 thing I touched at Matera:

1. Mosquito bites

1 thing I smelled at Matera:

1. The mosquito repellent on Paula’s bracelet

1 thing I tasted at Matera:

1. Giovanna’s wonderful food that pushed me back to life after the long walks around the Sassi