Mentor-a-thon

A once-a-year opportunity to be mentored by award-winning and widely published poets, Vanessa Lampert and Tina Sederholm, at a price you name!

Would you like…
In-depth personalised feedback on up to four poems? Or a bespoke performance skill session. Maybe you fancy advice on putting together your first pamphlet or collection. Tina and Vanessa are here to help with any of your poetry-related questions.

Simply book a 30 minute session by filling out this Google form.

Cost: Pay What you Feel. This is a fundraiser. All proceeds go to support Oxford Poetry Library, and our goal is at least £200. A £5 deposit will secure your slot, then make the rest of your donation on the day by cash or card. Only 10 slots available, so book soon!

Saturday 28th March, 1-4 pm

The building is accessible, but if you have any specific access needs, please drop us an email at oxfordpoetrylibrary@gmail.com beforehand.

More about your mentors:

Vanessa Lampert
Vanessa Lampert is a writer, mentor, editor and teacher of poetry. Her work is widely published, recently in Magma, The Oxford Times, The Rialto, The London Magazine, Under the Radar, Oxford Poetry, and Poetry London. She runs workshops nationwide for adults and in schools. She was a co-founder of The Alchemy Spoon magazine and is a committee member for Poetry in Aldeburgh.

Vanessa has won the Café Writers, Edward Thomas, Ashdown Forest and Sentinel prizes and the Ver Poetry prize (twice). She has been placed in many others including commendations in the Troubadour, Magma, Bridport, Verve, and National Competitions.

Vanessa’s pamphlet On Long Loan was published by Live Canon in 2020 and her full collection Say It With Me was published by Seren in 2023. Poems from that collection have been published in the Daily Telegraph poem of the week and the Forward Prizes anthology 2024.

Tina Sederholm
Tina started out as a performance poet, winning more than 20 slams before creating five one-woman spoken word shows, which she performed at the Edinburgh Fringe seven times. Her last show, This Is Not Therapy, was commended for ‘Best Show’ at the Buxton Fringe 2023, and was a Three Weeks’ ‘Tried and Tested’ pick at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe.

She also loves writing for the page and has published two collections, Everything Wrong With You Is Beautiful and This Is Not Therapy, (Burning Eye). Her poetry has featured in over 20 publications, including Atrium, IOTA, Interpreter’s House, Ink, Sweat and Tears and Under the Radar. She was Highly Commended in Verve Poetry Festival competition 2024, and shortlisted for the 2025 Poetry Library Free Verse competition.

Tina wrote three non-fiction books on training horses and was an equestrian journalist before she turned her attention to poetry.  She now works as an editor and mentor, specialising in poetry and memoir, and runs The Mourning Pages, a month-long online retreat to help creatives recover from burnout.

Her next show, Everything’s Working Out Poetically, will be at the Old Fire Station Oxford, on Thursday 30th April.