erbacce's Journal 13 featuring Misti Rainwater-Lites is now in print and it may be that your poetry has been included too. Go to the website http://www.erbacce.com and click on Journal 13; if your name is there send them an email with your snail-mail address and they'll send you your free copy. If you wish to order more copies indicate in your email the number of copies required. Do not presume they have your snail-mail address (Subscribe...

This is the seventh year of the Prose & Poetry Prizes sponsored by The New Writer magazine, although it is the tenth consecutive year of the Poetry Prizes - previous winners include Mark Granier, John Halladay, Linda Lamus, Mario Petrucci, Amanda White whose winning entries appeared in our anthologies.
For full details of the competition go to www.thenewwriter.com/prizes.htm

Sinéad Morrissey (Pictured) won the 2007 National Poetry Prize, this year it could be you!
For full details about the The Poetry Society's National Poetry Competition 2008 visit their web site at http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/npc/...

Write Out Loud regulars, Nat Clare and Pete Crompton, won second and third places respectively in The Liverpool slam held at the Casa, Hope St Liverpool on Monday 21st April.
Winner Angry Sam (pictured) is a recent newcomer to the North West and you can find our more about him and all the other poets in our Poets' Showcase.
All three of them, along with 4th placed Clare Kirwan, will be attending a slam in Bristol as NW representatives - for more details watch this place.
Congratulations...

Review: Rosie Garland (pictured) and Aaron Murdoch at Dead Good Poets Society, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool Wed 15 April 2008 The performances of Rosie Lugosi and Chloe Poems have generally left me feeling in much the same way as young children often feel about circus clowns. Well not quite hysterical jibbering terror, but a sense of wondering if there’s a victim involved in this edgy cabaret and could it be me. Cruel intelligence and a mask coupled with material which often pushes...

Courses start this week and if you want to know more please contact Rosemay Dun (pictured) email rosemary.dun@virgin.net.
These Summer Term courses are at the Folk House and are run by Rosemary Dun MA, PGCE, in creative writing. Two 10-week courses plus one Day Workshop. Summer Term 2008 21st April - 5th July. Half Term 26th-31st May Bristol Folk House Co-operative Ltd., 40a Park Street, Bristol BS1 5JG. Tel. 0117 926 2987 www.bristolfolkhouse.co.uk Write Your Novel Weds....

Salt has announced the expansion of its free online magazines with the launch of a new literary review, Horizon, set to appear in September. Since moving its eponymous Salt Magazine from print to the Web in 2007 the literary publisher has seen visits to its popular Web site more than double. Novelist, poet and critic Jane Holland will run Horizon for the next three years, editing two issues a year.
“The critical review is the lifeblood of the literary magazine,” says Holland �...

The Bridport competition for Short Stories and Poetry, with a £5k top prize in each category, is open for entries until 30th June 2008 and you can find out full details of rules, judges and how to enter at http://www.bridportprize.org.uk/

Khadija Ibrahim, once a fabulous guest poet at one of our Write Out Loud Octagon nights, leads an evening of poetry and music at Leeds West Indian Centre on Fri Apr 18th at 8.30 pm.
With Steve and Moses, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Rivers, Fairplay, Garfield, Sista Imani, Terry Simpson, Leeds Young Authors and Stevie James.
Details on guide.

A unique project between Limerick’s White House Poets and Northern Voices from Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England comes to fruition on Wednesday 30th April at the White House Pub in Limerick.
A special edition of ‘Revival’, the journal of the White House Poets, called ‘Two Rivers Meet - Poetry from the Shannon and the Tyne’ will be launched featuring poets from the two cities. A delegation of poets from Newcastle will attend a civic reception at Limerick City Hall, hoste...

Jenny Colgan, Mike Gayle, Jojo Moyes, John Siddique, Cheshire laureate Andrew Rudd, as well as Adam Khan and the lovely Clare Kirwan herself… in fact lots of great writers appear at Wirral’s new BookFest ?" from 7th to12th April ?" with something for everyone, even a murder mystery evening in Wirral’s spookiest library!
For individual events, see the gig guide for those dates
The main event is on Monday 7th April at Bromborough Civic Centre (half a mile from Bromborough Station) ?" a �...

The English Research Institute at MMU, in association with the Writing School, is delighted to co-host the following literary events in partnership with the Queer Up North International Festival.
Literary Lunch with Jackie Kay: Sat 17th May (12:30 pm), ABode Manchester, 107 Piccadilly.
Renowned poet and novelist Jackie Kay gives gives an exclusive reading of a brand new (and as yet unpublished) short story, plus poetry from her last collection; and talks about her writing including the classic...

Actor and writer Bob Kingdom presents Dylan Thomas: Return Journey, a remarkable portrait of the life of the legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Originally directed by Sir Anthony Hopkins, Dylan Thomas: Return Journey has been a sell-out success throughout the world, and entranced the critics.

"A pleasure…It is, for a moment, as if Thomas is actually in the room" - The Stage
"A thrilling lyrical journey" - The Guardian
At Manchester's Library Theatre on the 1st and 2nd May - see gig gu...

Would you like to volunteer to help out during Liverpool's Writing
on the Wall festival which is taking place through the whole of May 2008? If so, then please
email or telephone the WoW office on 0151 703 0020 as soon as possible, as there will be a volunteers’ organizational meeting in the near future.

As a volunteer, WoW would pay for your travel to and from venues,
and refreshments would be provided.

General volunteer duties include: giving out and collecting
in evalua...

There’s a Caribbean Houseparty consisting of workshops and performances in Wales in May.
Maggie Harris, (www.maggieharris.co.uk), is organising it in Carmarthenshire, West Wales at the Ceridwen Centre (www.ceridwencentre.co.uk ) on the weekend of 9-11th May.
The weekend will include workshops in poetry, creative writing and drawing, two evening performances of poetry and music, and full board with Caribbean-inspired meals. All workshops and performances are open to...

Dennis-Just-Dennis (pictured) tells us that it is with great regret that he has had to cancel the popular event at the Wickstead Arms in Nantwich at the last minute due to licensing problems. He says he is looking for a new venue and will let us know as soon as he's found one - so watch this space.

REVIEW: Write Out Loud's Open Mic Night at the Howcroft Inn, Bolton 17th February 2008
The Howcroft with its authentic drab curtains and mustard coloured walls creates an impression of a well worn but tired looking establishment. One way to instil the pizzazz and razzmatazz of yesteryear would be to fill its rooms to their maximum capacity with sounds of mirth, merriment and clinking glasses. Another way would be to scatter a room with poetic utterances set amongst a receptive yet subje...

The Arvon International Poetry Competition 2008 opens on May 1st...
2008 marks Arvon’s 40th birthday and the fourteenth Arvon International Poetry Competition. The competition is open to all poets around the world and poems are entered anonymously. There are no line or subject matter restrictions.
The judges for 2008 are UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, Moniza Alvi and Alice Oswald.
The competition will open on 1st May 2008 and the deadline for entries is 15th August - we must receiv...

Read poet and critic, James Hartnell, on the latest Ugly Tree magazine, Louise Coulson on the Wigan Open Floor Poetry night, and Dave Morgan reviewing the latest Dead Good Poets Society event.
Fancy being a reviewer? We are looking for submissions from prospective reviewers of poetry journals, magazines, readings, open mic nights, festivals, gigs, anthologies, courses, workshops…
Over the next few months we are going to commission some reviews, but we also want your reviews of all that is...

REVIEW: The Ugly Tree Issue 17 ISSN 1478-8349 Mucusart Publications £4.00
ed. Paul Neads
With 38 poems from 19 contributors including one featured poet, this A5 perfect-bound issue represents very good value. For those who are unfamiliar with the magazine, most poems here are ‘normal’ in terms of layout and content, though one poem uses variable fonts and another uses translation software in this issue. The 19 contributors comprise some really big hitters - 5 are editors of o...

REVIEW: Write Out Loud's Open Mic Night at the Tudor House, Wigan 10th April 2008
After a late start - the guy who usually does the sound had doubled booked and was rehearsing with his band so we had to wait for the cavalry to arrive though we were rolling by nine. I don’t know how this affected the mood of the comperes’ especially Darren Thomas (pictured) on his debut, though, to be fair, it didn’t seem to phase him at all.
Sandre Clays started off reading a...

Give yourself a treat listening to the likes of Roger McGough, Wendy Cope, Benjamin Zephaniah, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes...
A great selection of poets reading their own work can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/arts/poetry/outloud.

Do you work with or know young talented people up to the age of 25 who deserve recognition?

NOISEfestival.com is a Europe-wide media showcase for young creative
people aged 25 and under. NOISE is a not-for-profit company which aims
to help young people with talent, to gain opportunities in the Creative
Industries, so it is free to take part!

Submissions are open now so just go to www.NOISEfestival.com click the registration button, create a profile and upload work.

Community and ar...

Breaking into the Arts is a FREE arts festival hosted by the University of Central Lancashire, Preston. It will consist of the following:
The Media Factory
13:30 - 15:30 Parallel workshops on poetry (Matt Simpson), scriptwriting (Helen Farrall), fiction (Dinesh Allirajah). Limited numbers, booking essential contact CETH@UCLAN.AC.UK 01772 892250
Foster Staff Lounge
16:00 - 17:00 Publishing your work panel (Jim Hinks, Comma Press; Judith Wilson, Carcanet press; Graham Foster, Tran...

How the hell would I know...
Cat Davies and Tony Kinsella are looking for poets/comedians for a comedic poetry record-setting attempt in order to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. To take place as part of the Manchester Comedy Festival this coming October, the show will gather as many comedians and poets as possible together to read for around 3 minutes each, though this will depend on the final number of participants, obviously.
It's an attempt to set a new Guinness record for the mos...

Manchester's "Not Part of the Festival" are looking for artists, creators, venues, acts, promoters, etc who want to be involved with a festival (3rd - 12th July) that will not profit from them but provide a platform for them to promote themselves and all the other artists involved. We place no artistic constraints on creators other than they take the Not Part Of Oath to support all the other artists that have done the same. ‘If you already have an event on in and around Mancheste...

Listen out for our own Moxy Casimir's (pictured) play "Tarzan of the Antirrhinums" which is on Radio 4 at 2.15pm on Thursday 10th April.
Moxy Casimir is nom-de-plume of one of the country's leading playwright Lavinia Murray. If you can't hear it on the day then you will be able to hear it using the BBC's "Listen again" facility.

A chance for you not only to win some money for your writing but to win a publishing contract with one of the most prestigious publishing houses.

Cinnamon Press Novel/la Writing Award:
first prize - £400 + publishing contract for debut novel of 50 to 80,000 words. Or debut novella of 20 to 45,000 words (adult or teen novels/novellas) Entries by post + sae. Submit first 10,000 words. Separate sheet - name, address, email, working title, nom de plume, novel/la word count. Five finalists...

There are a series of "Making Poetry Workshops" in Birmingham over the next few months, for full details see http://www.jacquirowe.com/page6.htm
Workshop Dates and Topics
10th May - SELF AND OTHERS
14th June - TREASURES OF THE CITY
19th July - MASTERCLASS - BEGINNINGS AND SURPRISE (with Mario Petrucci)
9th August - GETTING IT OUT THERE
20th September - MASTERCLASS (with Mario Petrucci)
15th November - ROLLING THE DICE...

We are also pleased to announce that we are receiving sponsorship for the Rochdale branch of Write Out Loud from Bright Books. The photograph show Bright Books managing Director Ken Park handing over a cheque to Write Out Loud's Paul Blackburn at a World Bookday event at the book shop in March.
Bright Books is a rather wonderful independent bookshop that is also a wholesaler to schools, libraries and prisons - check it out http://www.brightbooks.co.uk and give it your support!
As public...

Please note that this month’s Freed Up is on Thursday 10th April at the greenroom in Manchester - a week earlier than usual! The theme is DANGER. If you would like to read then contact the greenroom on 0161 615 0500 and ask to be added to the list of readers. Unfortunately, this is the only way places can be reserved. Spaces are limited so book early...

Last month's poem of the month writer, Sally Jenkinson, has chosen this month's poem.

Sally says, "It feels pretty ridiculous for little me to be trying to decide which poem of a lot of brilliant poems is the brilliant-est, so I just picked the one I genuinely like best!

Find out more about Helen and her work at
http://writeoutloud.net/poets/helenshay

LETTING-GO

She doesn’t cling anymore.
That sweaty, grimy,
too-young-to-have-a-wrist fist,
that clenched its red need
- staini...