Dai George - How to Think Like a Poet

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have Dai George joining us here at The Heath Bookshop. Dai will be talking about their book 'How to Think Like a Poet' and will be in conversation with Bohdan Piasecki. 

Dai and Bohdan will be in conversation for an hour. There will be a book signing afterwards.

Dai George is a poet, novelist, critic and academic. His first poetry collection, The Claims Office, was an Evening Standard book of the year. He is the former reviews editor of Poetry London and has taught creative writing for many years at various universities. He is currently Lecturer in Creative Arts and Humanities at UCL.

How to Think Like a Poet:

An entertaining guide to history's most influential and inspiring poets – from Homer and Sappho to Shakespeare and Frank O'Hara – and how they can teach us to better understand the world around us. How did the greatest poets in history make the world anew? And what can we learn from the magic, wisdom and humour of their poetry?

From the genius of the Ancient Greeks through to the love poetry and metaphysics of the Renaissance, through to the New York poets of the 20th century, this is the ultimate guide to the greatest writers of the human age. Through short, biographical portraits, poet and writer Dai George provides an entertaining introduction to the great works of poetry, and a welcoming guide to how we can read them. He addresses questions poets have grappled with: How can we truly describe the world? How can we express love, grief, or friendship? How can poetry help us to understand justice, dreams or anger?

This book paints vivid pictures of a global selection of renowned poets throughout history: from Sappho, Li Bai and Rumi, to William Shakespeare and John Donne, to Frank O Hara, Pablo Neruda and Sylvia Plath. George also seeks to re-examine the canon, traditionally dominated by Western, white and male poets, and bring to light major figures from other important cultures and communities, including China, India and the Caribbean.

[An] authoritative, wide ranging and witty book that is persistently fascinating and always an easy read!’ – Daljit Nagra, Chair of the Royal Society of Literature and presenter of BBC R4 Poetry Extra


Bohdan Piasecki is a poet from Poland based in Birmingham. A committed performer, he has taken his poems from the upstairs room in an Eastbourne pub to the main stage of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from underground Tokyo clubs to tramways in Paris, from a bookshop in Beijing to an airfield in Germany, from niche podcasts to BBC Radio. He enjoys the creative chaos of big field festivals just as much as the composed concentration of literary events. Bohdan was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem: Performed in 2023, the category’s inaugural year.

Bohdan founded the first poetry slam in Poland before moving to the UK to get a doctorate in translation studies. He has worked as Director of Education on the Spoken Word in Education MA course at Goldsmiths University, and was the Midlands Producer for Apples and Snakes between 2010 and 2017. He is Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. He also works as Creative Producer, and sits on the board of the Poetry Translation Centre.

We look forward to seeing you. 

Catherine & Claire!