Elemental:Water
New Poetry from Cambridge
for the planet
The Elemental project has an annual cycle and a broader span. Poet, publisher and teacher Peter Carpenter will lead a team of experienced writers delivering a series of free poetry workshops, in person, in the autumn, winter and spring, at Pembroke College and a range of other venues across Cambridge. These workshops will start in October and run through to May; this pattern will continue for five years.
The workshops are united by a theme — from Autumn 2026, Earth — but develop throughout the year, with individual sessions adapted for writers of all ages and at different stages on their path to sharing a poem.
From our first rounds of workshops we know that demand exceeds their capacity, so we’re sharing specially recorded content and writing prompts for your personal use. The first three, by Peter Carpenter, are on ‘Getting Going’, ‘Getting Going Again,’ and ‘Keeping Going’. You’ll find them here. We’ll also share some of the material provided in the workshops. You’ll find a few poems and images to inspire you too.
Each spring, we will invite submissions of poems and prose poems, ideally including some that started life in the workshops, for publication in a series of themed anthologies. The submissions portal for Elemental: Earth will open early 2027.
The anthologies will all be published by the leading independent poetry publisher Worple Press, founded in 1997 by Peter and Amanda Carpenter. Elemental: Water is co-edited by Peter Carpenter, Mark Wormald, the convenor of Poetry at Pembroke, and the prominent ecopoet and Geological Society librarian Michael McKimm. It was published in April 2026. Worple Press will promote and distribute it nationally, so you’ll be able to buy your copy from their website or via bookshops.
Worple have agreed to donate at least 30% of the profits of each anthology to an environmental cause relevant to its themed element — in 2026 for Elemental: Water this will be Blue Marine Foundation.
Launch Event for Elemental: Water
Location: Pembroke College, CB2 1RF
Join us to celebrate the publication of Elemental: Water, a beautiful anthology of new writing from a brilliant array of established and new voices, all with live Cambridge connections. From first-time poets to those with established international reputations, Elemental: Water is a teeming pool of talent, of Cambridge’s care for the river for which it’s named but for oceans, lakes, taps, every kind of source of inspiration.
Many of its contributors, some still at school, several published for the first time, many who’ve made poetry their lives, will read their poems on the night.
Come and see. Meet the co-curators. Bring your friends.
Buy copies: see how many poets you can get to sign yours
Workshop Feedback
Our next series of workshops on Earth will start in October 2026. We will publish workshop details here in the coming months. In the meantime, please read the feedback from our 2025 workshops.
It was a really wonderful session. Peter was inspiring. The kids were given lots of ideas to ‘get writing’, including ways of creating a word hoard. They were told to keep on with their ’work in progress’ and to send poems to poetry@pembroke throughout the year. They were also encouraged to come again! Some brought special notebooks which was great. Serious writers!
What a privilege to host the first poetry workshop – I thought Peter was fantastic and, with such seemingly simple steps, he gently led us all towards moments of creativity.
I actually wrote a poem in my head as I cycled home – and wrote it down just now. I have written lots of short stories or short pieces of prose in recent years – but no poetry!
Looking forward to more workshops!
Participating in the elemental poetry workshops was – pardon the pun – fundamentally rewarding for me. It was highly vulnerable but highly worth it, and made me half-confident enough to consider myself as capable of writing poetry.
Support for Cambridge Schools
Please visit our page for schools, where you will find more information. These are early days for Elemental, but already we are proud to enjoy the support of Principals and Heads of English across Cambridge schools. We have room for more. If you’re a Head of English or Headteacher and want to learn more or help your students access the workshops, or benefit from Peter Carpenter’s five-part writing course, please get in touch.
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