Following their recent rugby Grand Slam victory, the Welsh have experienced a surge in national pride. As the feelgood factor spreads across Wales, areas outside the rugby field are expected to benefit from this recent win. It couldn’t be a better time to be Welsh. Nefyn-born pop singer Duffy stormed the charts, the successes of Torchwood and Dr Who is making Cardiff the premier destination for aliens across the Universe - and now the new National Poet of Wales has just been announ...

The Manchester Poetry Prize 2008 First prize: £10,000 Deadline for
entries: 1st August 2008. The Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University is launching The Manchester Poetry Prize - a new literary competition celebrating excellence in creative writing. The Manchester Poetry Prize is open to writers internationally, and will award a cash prize of £10,000 to the writer of the best portfolio of poems submitted.
In addition, a bursary for study at MMU will be awarded to a...

Hovis in Wonderland, a play for voices, adapted by Dave Morgan from Hovis Presley’s Poetic off Licence, technical production by Kevin Bates, Bolton Little Theatre, Hanover Street, Bolton, Friday 28 March 2008, 8.00pm, £4/£3 Details from Dave Morgan 01204 382440
Mark Radcliffe’s recent Radio 4 programme "Hovis has left the building" (March 18 2008), has sparked a national interest in the work of Bolton poet Hovis Presley (1960-2005). With coverage in the review columns of the national press...

Poems: up to 40 lines, any subject and style.
Judge: Linda Chase
Linda Chase is an American poet, living in Manchester, who teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University and runs Poets and Players. Publications "These Goodbyes" Fatchance Press, 1995; with Carcanet " The Wedding Spy" 2001 and "Extended Family", 2006
Cash Prizes: 1st prize, £70; 2nd, £40; 3rd, £25.
Plus: Sweetens Bookshop Prize: £30.00 book token for...

Gob Squad are holding an international Workshop in Nottingham from 8th to 11th July at a cost of £100. Find out more about Gob Squad at www.gobsquad.com
The 2008 workshop will be the first stage of Gob Squad’s REVOLUTION NOW! series of performance and film projects. Together with 12 workshop participants we’ll be investigating the idea of revolution, what part that idea plays in our lives today and how re-enactment can be a strategy for exploring it. Participants need not...

Are you a new writer* based in the North West of England? If so, would you like a one-to-one writer’s surgery/coaching session to discuss your work and your ambitions? Commonword is launching a free, new bimonthly service " happening on the second Thursday of every other month" and there are five slots available for Thursday 10th April. Sessions are open to both prose writers and poets. Writers can provide up to 10 pages of prose (single-sided, minimum 1.5 spacing), or up to 5 poe...

Manchester based For Folk’s Sake is inviting submissions for its May issue, on the theme of ‘folk’.
For Folk’s Sake is a new zine dedicated to the current folk scene, and will be launched in conjunction with the Northern Quarter’s MAPS festival in May. This bumper latest edition will showcase poetry and short prose set in amongst the usual news, views and interviews from the world of folk
The issue will be unleashed at the zine’s event, also entitled For Folk’s Sake,...

On Saturday 15 March 2008, after a £12.5m redevelopment, the Bluecoat will throw open its doors to the public for the first time since early 2005. Full details can be found at http://www.thebluecoat.org.uk/ but Heart Beats have a slot in the Garden Room from 5pm with poets Bea Colley & Lisa Jones who will be joined by special guest poet Alicia Stubbersfield. Also expect music & poetry collaborations and cool electro-rock sounds from the dark and wonderful Friday's Ghost....

Poet-puppeteer John Oxendale died suddenly but peacefully in his sleep on the 27th January, 2008 at the age of 55. With his company, Rubber Pig Productions, Jon was a poet and performer with a difference. He made his own puppets and the 'Little Theatre of Fantoccini' had over 70 performing marionettes: kings, queens, historical characters, fictional personages, etc.
Jon offered a wide variety of shows with a difference. There were poems for kids, or adults only or senior citizens or the whole...

Litfest is looking for writers and artists to work on a series of innovative creative writing projects in prisons.
We are running six short-term residencies across Lancashire prisons during May 2008 for the Offenders Learning and Skills Council at Lancaster and Morecambe College.
These residencies will work with offenders to produce new writing, audio recordings and artwork to be broadcast on BBC Radio Lancashire and exhibited across the county and online throughout 2008.
We want to recruit writ...

Weds 5th March at Contact Theatre, 7.00 pm. Free event (tickets from box office 0161 274 0600)
Visuals, music improv and spoken word from Lisa B, Bunty Looping, Urban Geisha, Caro Snatch, Jaheda Choudhury, Kerry Baldry.
Info: luckygoatnews@yahoo.ca

Sally Jenkinson’s poem challenges us to find the positives in the negatives, the tenderness in its abrasion.
Last month's poem of the month writer, Catherine Smith, has chosen Sally’s piece because “it is resonant, sexy, brave. Great stuff."
Brave, too, for Sally to provide an audio version because she is, as she admits, terrified of performance. Click to the right for Sally’s poem.
Let Sally know what you think by posting a comment or review.
Find out more about Sally and her work at
h...

The second Bruntwood Playwriting Competition for the Royal Exchange aims to find new plays, new playwrights and new voices.

If you've never written a play before, log onto www.writeaplay.co.uk
to find all you need to inspire and direct you; from how to structure
the scenes to how to develop characters. Professional playwrights give
advice and encouragement. There's a forum for chatting to others in the
same position.

There's also information on what's happened to the winners of the f...

A cultural ‘first’ for Wirral this year is a new literary festival ?" Wirral BookFest ?" which offers more than 20 book-related events across the borough. The festival - which takes place from 7th to12th April - promises something for everyone, from graphic novels workshop for youngsters and cultural events to a murder mystery evening in Wirral’s spookiest library!
The main event is on Monday 7th April at Bromborough Civic Centre (half a mile from Bromborough Stat...

Short Story submissions are urgently needed on the subject of “Contemporary Courtship” - Closing date for submissions is Thursday 10 Apr 2008. Contact Helen Bayer & Teresa Bayer hmbtab@googlemail.com for more details.

They are looking to assemble a collection of short stories recording actual, as well as fictionalized, initial romantic encounters. They use the term ‘romantic’ loosely, to describe anything between that first electrifying glance and the uber-raunchy, o...

The Leigh and Wigan Words ‘08 Literary Festival is on us - Check our gig guide for full details of events.
As ever, there will be something for you all this year. Jim Eldridge, perhaps the most prolific writer for television and radio in the country will be presenting a workshop at the Wigan Cricket Club. Vincent Smith will be presenting the love poems of Thomas Hardy, and our dear friend Rosie Lugosi will be making an appearance in an unfamiliar guise as Rosie Garland, writer, performer and...

Calling all actors, performers with an interest in performance poetry, spoken word, dark cabaret or/and multi-media!
Auditions: Sunday 13 April, The Round, Lime St, Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 2pm.
(Please note change of date)
Following on from our sell out Big Love Potion in February, Voodoo Word Circus is back!
We are looking for up and coming performers to work over 3 days (Tuesday 10, Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 June) with our Word Circus Team and a group of professio...

Suddenly the world’s awash with things going on about our friend, the late lamented Hovis Presley (Richard McFarlane). Earlier this month Elvis McGonagall won a “Dead Poet’s slam” with some of Hovis’s material and now…. There’s a Radio Four programme about him, new live dates for Dave Morgan’s “Hovis in Wonderland” plus a CD by the original cast, full details below. Hovis on 4On Tuesday 18 March at 11.30am BBC Radio Four presents, “Hovis has left the Buildin...

Apples & Snakes, one of the UK’s leading organisation for performance poetry, installs itself in new offices at The Albany in Deptford on 17 March 2008. The move comes at a pivotal moment as The Albany carves a space for itself as the first venue in London to be led by its spoken word programme.
Geraldine Collinge, director of Apples & Snakes, says, ‘The Albany has a commitment to spoken word in its programming and wants to use it as a driver at this exciting time i...

The Huddersfield Literature Festival is taking place between 7th and 16th of March.
Full details of the festival can be found at http://www.litfest.org.uk/ but events include: Joanne Harris, (festival patron, pictured), who'll be discussing her life and work, including her new book The Lollipop Shoes; zany poet Nick Toczek who'll show you how to twist a rhyme and turn rhythm into poems, with a few magic tricks up his sleeve; plus sharp, silver-tongued performance poetry and lyrics...

The 10th open Essex Poetry Festival Competition is now open for submissions with the sole adjudicator being Kathryn Simmons

Closing date for entries is 30th July 2010. First Prize £1,000 Second £500, Third £250 and 3 runner-up prizes of £50 - full details http://www.essex-poetry-festival.co.uk/compa.html...

Do you have a passion for France? Are you a Francophile with a story to share? The Franco-British Council, in conjunction with Prospect magazine, is inviting those aged between 16 and 25 to submit a short story of no more than 1,000 words, inspired by France, or the French.
Full details can be found at http://www.francobritishcouncil.org.uk/schoolprize.htm...

Hovis Presley saw off Allan Ginsberg, WH Auden, Ts Eliot and Thomas Hardy in the Dead
Poets Slam in Totnes and emerged triumphant!
Nobody in the audience confessed to knowing Hovis but now they do.Elvis McGonagall triumphed by reading a selection of short stuff from Hovis’s seminal
work “Poetic Off Licence” with such classics as - Layla/inhaler, "and if it's any
consolation", "it's a jungle out there", "my little crony", "the four corners of the
seven seas" and "manchester olympic...

Last month's poem of the month writer,Catherine Smith, has chosen this month's poem.

Catherine says,"I really loved Sally Jenkinson's poem, it is resonant, sexy, brave. Great stuff."
Find out more about Sally and her work at
http://writeoutloud.net/poets/sallyjenkinson

Double Negative

It wouldn’t be vaseline-lensed and soft focus,
It wouldn’t be the thick, impasto sex of lovers.
It wouldn’t be the arms-everywhere,
giggling on the way down fucking
of a one-night stand.

It...