Tongue in Chic, Milton Keynes’ regular open-mic poetry event, will be hosting an anthology launch at the Central Library in Milton Keynes, on Saturday, 12th June.
Tongue in Chic is a voluntary community poetry and spoken word initiative, which aims to provide a showcase for local writers, as well as bringing in professional guest poets. In ‘Reflections from Mirror City’, a new poetry collection which features the best of the current scene in Milton Keynes, it carries forward t...

This year’s Beverley Festival runs during the weekend of 18th – 20th June, and will bring together a top class list of musical artists, together with some of the top names from the world of the written word and poetry.
Poets at the festival will include York poet, comedian and singer – Rory Motion; award winning Yorkshire poet – Helen Burke, who will be presenting her show ‘Some day we’ll Look back and laugh’, ahead of its appearance at the Edinburgh Fr...

Wimbledon and The Poetry Trust have announced the first ever ‘Championships Poet’.
Throughout Wimbledon fortnight (21st June – 4th July), poet Matt Harvey will create a poem a day on all things Wimbledon, tour the airwaves and deliver impromptu live performances to the famous Wimbledon queue.
All of Matt’s whimsical, perceptive, behind-the-scenes poems will be available to view online, and also as audio podcasts featuring Matt reading his latest verses and sharing his o...

If you missed Fatima Al Matar’s ‘First Prize’ –winning performance at last month’s slam in Wigan, then here is a chance to catch up with her work.
She has now launched her poetry collection ‘The Heart and the Subsidiary’ - available now to buy on Amazon, or to reserve at your local library.
This new and original collection reflects on motherhood, love, loss and abuse, beautifully interpreting the heart’s journey through the many different relat...

Under the direction of Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University is launching the second Manchester Poetry Prize; a major international literary competition that has a first prize of £10,000 to be awarded to the best portfolio of poetry submitted.
In addition to the main prize, a bursary for study at MMU will be awarded to one entrant aged 18-25, as part of the Young Writer of the Year Award.
The prizes will be awarded at a gala di...

Poets from the Pennine Lancashire Poetry Stanza will take to the stage at Molly’s Café, on Moor Lane in Clitheroe, on Thursday, 20th May.
The event called ‘Place’ is part of the Ribble Valley MayFest 2010, and has a community and nature theme. Readers will include writer and editor, Jo Harding (Clitheroe Books), and the extensively published Phil Burton, a.k.a. Pip the Poet, who visits schools and libraries throughout the U.K., providing performances and workshops.
The...

A serious fire at The Magazine pub in New Brighton, has forced The Bards poetry group to cancel their regular open-mic evening on Monday, 10th May. And, because of the length of time the repairs are likely to take, June and July’s events have had to be cancelled too.
Established three-and-a-half years ago, The Bards group prides itself on never having cancelled a night, but unable to find another suitable venue at short notice, founder Steve Regan has had to announce a summer break.
They...

Welcome one Welcome all to the Editorial and Letters page of the May Edition of Write Out Rageous (the thinking man's magazine crumpet section of Write Out Loud).
You may (no pun intended) notice a slight difference to the way the Features section is released this month. We are trying out a new rolling ezine approach, whereby the May Edition is rolled out a few sections at a time to give you time to digest one set of features before the next wave hits. This approach has come about largely...

This month we are trying something different with more articles being added throughout the month - so keep coming back – you don’t want to miss anything!
http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/features.php
We've added more stuff to the magazine:

Your May horoscopes

Separate the twins if you can

This month's Cryptic puzzle poem

Jackie's latest workshop

And we ask you for you performance tips

The above is in addition to earlier m...

I’d love to say Poets Express was an idea born from mimicking other poetry nights and festivals in West Cork. You’d think it would be; after all Ireland, especially the West Cork area, is well known for its resident artists, authors, and poets.

That’s just not the case.

As my friends and guests who’ve visited this area can tell you, it’s quite rural. It’s so rural I post notices on social networks about talking to sheep. People think I’m joki...

Wafts is a Beachcomber type column where you can expect the unexpected...
MY PREDICTIONS FOR WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF ANYONE WINS THE GENERAL ELECTION

HAPPY VOTING!...

This latest collection of poems from Bristol poet and spoken word performer David C Johnson made me slightly apprehensive at first as it is recommended by the author that they are to be ‘read in bed and shared aloud’. Problem. In my case reading the poems aloud alone in bed might be construed as either very sad or slightly mad or both. But that’s just me ... oh and the neighbours. However, I needn’t have worried. David’s lyrical collection can be read in the bath,...

Okay, folks. Another easy one for you on a playful Christian V Atheist theme, if such a thing is possible. The rhymes are very silly, and the rhyme scheme is AABB, CCDD, EEEE, FFFF.

If you bicker with the vicar
Then your evening might go -------,
But being beastly to the --------
Will not help your cause the leastly.

You can castigate the ------
And the tea-dance may pass faster,
But despite your verbal ------
You’ll find that faith and sense don’t mix.

Your reason w...

This month’s mixed identities and poetic words from the laboratory of Dr Van Kinston are –

Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea.
I have a black look I do not like.
It is a mask I try on.
Ask me no more, what answer should I give?
There is a good look that I wear
like a blood clot.
Ask me no more, thy fate and mine are sealed.
Oh the blackness is murderous
and the milk tip is brimming.
Ask me no more.

Send your answers to winstonplowes@goog...

Do you have aspirations to be the Shakespeare of the 21st Century? ... or maybe even the next Ernie Wise? Well – here’s your chance, because the 2010 Pint-sized Plays Competition is waiting for your masterpiece.
Now in its third year, the Pint-sized Play Competition is looking for ten winners, whose plays will all be performed in Pembrokeshire pubs, from September onwards. All of the entries will be judged by theatre director Phil Clark, and the winning ten will not only be performe...

In the Write Light are hosting creative writing workshops this July and September, that will not only help improve your writing skills, but also be memorable events in themselves.
Best selling Irish writers, Mia Gallagher and Nell McCafferty, will be running the five day workshops in Tarifa, on southern Spain’s Costa de Luz, where the focus will constantly be on providing a relaxed atmosphere for the writer. Each participant will receive a full body massage upon arrival; the fridge will b...

The Poetry Business is now inviting entries for its 24th Book & Pamphlet Competition, to be judged by award winning poet Simon Armitage. And, thanks to sponsorship from the National Association for Writers in Education, the prize this year totals £2000.
Entrants are invited to submit a collection of 20-24 pages of poems for the chance to win a share of the prize money; three first stage winners will receive pamphlet publication and an overall winner will have their book published by S...

For the seventh year running the Yeovil Literary Prize hopes to attract entries from all across the globe, but if you want to enter – you’ll have to be quick as the closing date is Monday, 31st May.
You can enter in any one of three categories – Novel, Short Story, or Poems – each of which has a large cash prize, with an extra prize being awarded to one winner from Somerset or Dorset.
The Poetry category offers a 1st prize of £500, a 2nd of £200, and a 3rd o...

'Words' is an important part of the Frome Festival which takes place 9-18th July.
A tantalising array of literary events and activities on offer for this 10th anniversary year, combining well-known names with a showcase of local talent. The theme is creative diversity, and you’ll find a scintillating mix of workshops, performances, talks, walks, and contests to entertain, inform, and inspire you.
One of the highlights will be an 'Arab evening' of words, music and delecta...

14th-16th May: Ceridwen, Drefach Felindre, Carmarthenshire, SA44 5XE. A few places are available, either residential or non-residential, on this fun, stimulating, encouraging writing weekend with two dynamic and inspirational tutors, Marcus Moore and Sara-Jane Arbury.
The course is suitable for all levels of writing experience. Last minute deal rate of £150 for single room occupancy and £140 for couples/friends happy to share a room! Price includes tuition, meals, snacks, tea and c...

Crocus Books in association with Manchester Literature Festival present Is there a novelist in the house? If you’re a previously unpublished rising star and have written, or want to write, that all important first chapter to a novel that will take the world by storm, Is there a novelist in the house? seeks to put the spotlight on you.
The competition is open for writers who live or work in the North of England. The winner with the best first chapter and pitch will get £250 and the...

Well, what a month May is shaping up to be for cellestial phenomena that might affect your future by mechanisms that might be real and in ways that have a finite probability that they might occur. Perhaps the most spectacular is the fact that throughout this month Saturn is progressing around the Sun in an orbital motion that will take a full year in Saturn terms to complete. Due to this fact or otherwise, expect symptoms ranging from being all of a fluster to not being any of a fluster and po...

This month's poem was chosen by Sophie Hall, Last months winner.

Sophie says of it, "It's my favourite type of poetry, comic, with Ogden Nash style rhyming."
Find out more about Mab and her poetry at http://www.writeoutloud.net/poets/mabjones

Beautiful Girl
(for Ogden Nash)

People supposes that under her clotheses
This beautiful girl has a body like Venus

What no-one knows is that under her clotheses
This beautiful girl has a very large penis

The...

April is National Poetry Month in Canada.

The first weekend of April 2010, I “particpoeted” in a group poetry reading and launch of a new Fredericton book publisher and their trilingual chapbook Fredericton Green–verte (Side-by-Side Editions / Éditions Côte-à-Côte) on the Fredericton Walking Bridge alongside Herménégilde Chiasson (Acadien poet, painter, printmaker, filmmaker and former Lieutenant Governor of the Province of New Brun...

Sympathetic Sybil is Write Out Loud's own Agony Aunt...

Dear Sympathetic Sybil,

I’m new to performance poetry and am considering going to an open mic nights to make my début. I’ve read those Chris Dawson articles, digested your poetics advice & done the exercises and so feel confident about all that but what does one wear to these occasions?

I’m terrified of being over or under dressed so please dear aunt tell me what...

Here are six more photos to make some sort of creative reaction too... whether it's a poem, flash fiction, short sentence, a short story, six words describing each image, a poem, screenplay, or if you've got the time, use all the pictures in the Picture this series to create a novel the easy way!

Whatever, write something and put it in Comments box below this article to share with the world.

The rules are:
Whatever you want them to be!!

You can use just one photo or them...

This month's exercise has been inspired by an extended period of drunkenness that was held as a mark of respect for the editor's birthday towards the end of last month...

Write down 5 nouns
Write down 5 more.

Now choose one from the first list and one from the second to create your own pub-sounding name (like...the ape and apple, the dog and duck, the haircut and biscuit, etc)

Now write a poem (including some subtle internal rhyme) describing the pub, it's regulars...