Pre-order a copy of our anthology for these strange, heartbreaking, inspiring times
You can now pre-order a copy of Write Out Loud's Beyond the Storm competition anthology of 100 poems about the pandemic and beyond. It will be a record of these strange, heartbreaking but also inspiring times. The anthology will include all the winning poems, plus those that have been longlisted in the Beyond the Storm competition. We hope to sell lots of copies of this anthology, to raise more fu...
11th July 2020
Countdown to the People's Vote! Your chance to take part in the closing stage of Write Out Loud's poetry competition
It’s the next stage in Write Out Loud’s Beyond the Storm poetry competition - for poems about the coronavirus lockdown and beyond – as the countdown to the People’s Vote begins. Poets have already been so generous in helping us raise over £7,000 towards our £10,000 fundraising target to help the NHS...
11th July 2020
Magnetic Field: Simon Armitage, Faber
As a poet reviewing someone else’s poetry, I am acutely aware of how interpretation can be a massively subjective undertaking and as such, possibly at odds with the intentions and motivations driving ...
10th July 2020
Kate Clanchy's teaching memoir wins Orwell prize for political writing
The poet, writer and teacher Kate Clanchy has won the Orwell prize for political writing for her “moving and powerful” memoir, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, about working as a teacher i...
9th July 2020
Celebrated teacher launches anthology of lockdown poems by former pupils
A poet and teacher awarded an MBE for her services to literature, after working with migrant and refugee children as writer In residence at Oxford Spires Academy, has launched an anthology of poetry c...
9th July 2020
'We ride the electric horse without any reins': poet Shaun Fallows on disability and freedom
Shaun Fallows was born with cerebral palsy, and is a wheelchair user. Last year the Wigan-based poet appeared on a Channel 5 programme to talk about disability, and also published his first poetry col...
9th July 2020
Write Out Loud relives some memorable live poetry moments
During the coronavirus shutdown Write Out Loud is looking back at some wonderful live poetry moments over the last few years … and re-running some of our favourite reviews to refresh memories, and to ...
9th July 2020
Louise Fazackerley joins The Verb discussion on the poetry of violence
Leading spoken word poet Louise Fazackerley will be taking part in an exploration of the poetry of violence on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb on Friday at 10pm. Host Ian McMillan will also be joined by former...
9th July 2020
After Trump: an artistic and poetic reminder of America's Great Migration
A week after the shock of America’s supposed liberal values being trumped by bigly bigotry, the country’s apparently ingrained red neck having been thus exposed, I had the privilege of attending an e...
9th July 2020
Linton Kwesi Johnson wins PEN Pinter prize
The poet and reggae recording artist Linton Kwesi Johnson has been award the 2020 PEN Pinter prize. The PEN Pinter Prize was established in 2009 by the charity English PEN, which defends freedom of ex...
7th July 2020
'Learning to kill with her toes'
How much pain and anger can a good poet pack into just a few words? A lot, in this 15-word haiku by Laura Foley from her 2019 collection of poems from Headmistress Press entitled Why I Never Finished ...
6th July 2020
Derek Owusu wins £10,000 prize for novel in verse
Derek Owusu has won the £10,000 Desmond Elliott prize for his novel-in-verse That Reminds Me. The book is a semi-autobiographical tale of a British-Ghanaian boy called K. Owusu is a writer, poet and p...
6th July 2020
Poetry at the Parsonage, Haworth, 2016
A new kind of poetry festival – certainly one that I haven’t seen before – was born at the weekend, in the “creative hotspot” of the Bronte Parsonage in Haworth, West Yorkshire.
In the same setting...
2nd July 2020
