Mentoring with Helen Ivory
Explore Helen Ivory’s mentoring offer, aimed at developing your poetry.
Seek expert advice, tackle creative blockages and prepare your manuscript for publication
Looking for advice? Need feedback on your writing? Writers of all kinds often face challenges, from finding the time to write and tackling creative blockages to preparing manuscripts for publication. This is why NCW offers flexible mentoring packages through which writers can work one-to-one with an experienced mentor to overcome all kinds of obstacles.
Helen’s area of expertise: poetry
Helen Ivory is an award-winning widely published poet and has worked as a tutor, workshop leader and mentor for twenty-five years, most recently for The Poetry School, National Centre for Writing and Arvon.
Helen enjoys working with people at any stage of their poetry-writing life:
- Those who might not have received any feedback or direction at all with their writing.
- Poets who wish to start sending their work out into the world – whether to magazines, competitions or self-publishing. Helen will work with you on each poem you send her line by line, as a fresh pair of eyes to help you make each poem as strong as it can be.
- Poets looking to move to the next stage in their writing – perhaps collating a first pamphlet or collection, starting a next book or a new project. Helen will help you identify themes in your work and further areas to explore.
- Published poets looking for ways to stretch themselves and their writing and take their work forwards. Helen understands from thirty years of personal experience, how easy it is to write the same poem over and over again and is always looking for new ways to surprise herself.
- Helen also enjoys working with people who have tried for a long while to write about something specific but haven’t yet found a way in. This can be for potential publication, or people who are writing for themselves.
Mentoring works best as a sustained relationship over a period of time. You can book a single session with Helen, or multiple sessions. Book three or more sessions in one transaction with the same mentor and receive a 10% discount. This discount will be automatically applied to your basket.
How it works
Once you have booked a session, the NCW team will get in touch with you to share the next steps. You can send Helen between six and ten poems one week ahead of your mentoring session.
Ready to book?
Single or introductory mentoring session
£95 for one, one-hour session
Trying mentoring for the first time? Seeking help for a particular challenge? Book a single, hour-long session with one of our experienced mentors and receive in-depth advice on taking your writing forward.
Single mentoring sessions are great if:
- You are new to mentoring and would like a taster of what the relationship can offer;
- You would like an introduction to your chosen mentor before embarking on a sustained period of support;
- You have a particular challenge or area of advice you would like to address.
Book your one-off session from the available dates on this page.
If your one-off mentoring session is a success, we recommend booking our ‘Aspire: mentoring package’ of three sessions or more.
Aspire: mentoring package (three session minimum)
From £285 (save 10% when booking three sessions or more)
Dedicate time to improving your craft and overcoming obstacles in your writing life with a bespoke package of support from an experienced writer mentor.
Develop a long-term, professional relationship with your mentor and together you can refine your manuscript, work on a funding application or implement an action plan to improve your creative practice — whatever it is that will help you to achieve your writing goals.
A mentoring package of three sessions minimum or more is great for writers who:
- Have drafted a manuscript and would like feedback and suggestions for improvement;
- Are ready to publish their work and would like advice on how to pitch to agents or find a publisher;
- Are at the early stages of a piece of work, or perhaps aren’t working on a particular project, and would like regular guidance and feedback on how to improve elements of their craft;
- Want to apply for funding, development opportunities, or find ways to create new avenues for income as a writer.
Your mentoring sessions will be tailored to your individual needs, so you can bring any creative challenges to the table.
Book three or more sessions in one transaction with the same mentor and receive a 10% discount on your total purchase. This discount will be automatically applied to your basket.
What others have said
Helen Ivory
Helen Ivory is a poet and visual artist who makes shadowboxes, needlefelt sculpture and collage. She was awarded a Cholmondeley Award by the Society of Authors in 2024. She edits Ink Sweat & Tears and teaches for The Poetry School and Arvon and is a founding member of Norwich Arts Centre’s Tilted Women.
A poem from her surrealist chapbook Maps of the Abandoned City (SurVision 2019) is one of the Poems on the Underground. She has work translated into Polish, Ukrainian, Croatian, Spanish and Greek as part of the Versopolis European poetry platform. Her Wunderkammer: New and Selected Poems appeared from MadHat in the US in 2023. Constructing a Witch (October 2024) her sixth collection with Bloodaxe Books, was a PBS Winter Recommendation. In summer 2025 Constructing a Witch was translated into Greek by Nikolas Koutsodontis and Katerina Iliopoulou and published in Greece by Thraka.
