'Poetry has been a lifeline ... it kept me from losing my mind': Ukrainian poet Olha Shvets on Russia's invasion, and living in the UK
I met Ukrainian poet Olha Shvets just over a year ago, at a Poetry School/Newcastle University poetry MA summer school in London, when we found ourselves sitting opposite each other in a crowded and very noisy Pizza Express. It was hard to hear her replies to my many questions, but I came away with the hope that she had agreed to do an email interview with me. Because of 'complications' in her life it has taken her a year to c...
News and Opinion
The 2026 Forward prize shortlists have been announced, with chair of judges Sarah Moss praising a “deeply exciting” range, the subjects including “gri...
3rd Aug 2026 9:42 am
Malika Booker, Niall Campbell, and Luke Kennard are judging this year's National Poetry Competition, organised by the Poetry Society. The first prize ...
7th Jul 2026 12:00 am
Meet the Hot Poets … an ambitious, award-winning, internationally focused arts organisation, working to communicate climate change science and action ...
16th Jul 2026 11:16 am
July's Poem of the Month is our shortest so far ... a four-line poem, 'On a crowded bus,' by Gillian P. Fellow poets have praised it for its clarity,...
1st Aug 2026 12:00 am
Kate Potts will be judging the £200 Gloucestershire Poetry Society open poetry competition. Longlisted poems wil be eligible to be included in a compe...
26th Jul 2026 12:00 am
Rosie Garland will be judging the £300 Cheltenham poetry festival competition. Entries should be unpublished and no more than 50 lines. The deadline i...
4th Aug 2026 8:52 am
John Challis’s debut pamphlet Black Cab (Poetry Saltzburg, 2017), was a New Writing North Read Regional title. His first full collection was The Resur...
1st Aug 2026 7:48 am
Poet and novelist Eoghan Walls was born in Derry and educated in Wales and Ireland. He has lived in Germany and Rwanda and now teaches creative writin...
4th Aug 2026 8:50 am
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