It's raining poets! Sheltering at Tynemouth's Under the Arches
Maybe it was because the rain had stopped. It had been tipping it down for most of the day, and Under the Arches organiser Penny Blackburn had been anticipating a reduced turnout. Not a bit of it! The venue at Alfie and Fin’s bar in Tynemouth was bulging at the seams when we arrived, not long before kick-off time. So much so, that one or two of those who had already signed up for the open-mic agre...
29th November 2022
From PhD thesis on everyday sexism to award-winning poetry collection: Kim Moore wins £10,000 Forward prize
Kim Moore has won this year’s £10,000 Forward prize for best collection for All The Men I Never Married, a book that first emerged from a PhD thesis in Poetry and Everyday Sexism at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has said in an interview: “In my PhD, I wanted to examine my own experiences o...
29th November 2022
'The memories shift in their skins at every moon, to do their ripening'
Joy Harjo’s ode to family, to ancestry, and to the woman’s body, truly makes sense if we understand that for Harjo, there is no line separating the natural world and her human body — that for her the ...
29th November 2022
The Illustrated Woman: Helen Mort, Chatto
In The Illustrated Woman Helen Mort guides us the through a roadmap of the body, its personal and political journeys, from adolescence to motherhood, to constructions of identity that question and sha...
29th November 2022
Jonathan Edwards to judge Kent and Sussex poetry competition
Jonathan Edwards will be judging the £1,000 Kent and Sussex poetry competition. The deadline is 31 January 2023. More details
28th November 2022
Possibly a Pomegranate: Alwyn Marriage, Palewell Press
Alwyn Marriage’s latest collection is a comprehensive and thoughtful overview that celebrates womankind in personal, evocative stories and via literary and historical characters; it also considers the...
26th November 2022
Poet who won't let us forget Ukraine publishes collection
A poet who has been blogging poems about the war in Ukraine on the Write Out Loud website since Russia’s invasion in February has published 40 of them in a collection available on Amazon. Stephen Gosp...
25th November 2022
Write Out Loud regular John Botterill airs collection on radio
Write Out Loud regular John Botterill has published a collection of his poetry under the pen name of JG Barwell - and was interviewed about it on Manchester’s ALL-FM 96.9 radio station.
John expla...
24th November 2022
A Pocketful of Chalk: Claire Booker, Arachne Press
I emerged from Claire Booker’s A Pocketful of Chalk refreshed, as if from a journey across the downs and cliff-tops that she so clearly loves. In my reading I had accompanied the poet as she melded wi...
24th November 2022
Turn up or tune in to Chapel FM's Writing on Air festival
There is a feast of poetry events over the next few days at Chapel FM arts centre in Leeds, which will also be broadcasting its Writing on Air festival over the radio. Tonight, Wednesday 23 November, ...
23rd November 2022
2022's top 15 Foyle Young Poets award winners!
The Poetry Society has announced the top 15 winners and 85 commended poets in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2022. There were entrants from 100 countries for the competition for poets aged 1...
22nd November 2022
'My husband holds the cold stethoscope to my chest'
I must admit that I leave 'In Patient' still wondering, “Is she all right?” I suspect that Erin Evans knows this, and what she wants to say is that this moment of humour, a distraction from the thing...
22nd November 2022
Warm words as Stockport poets add voices to national initiative
Members of Stockport Write Out Loud read at the launch of Stockport council’s Warm Spaces initiative earlier this month in Cheadle. More than 60 people heard Stockport poets Linda Cosgriff, Dorinda Mc...
22nd November 2022
Paul Muldoon to become Ireland's Professor of Poetry
Paul Muldoon is planning “to focus less on the writing of poetry than the reading of it” after being announced as the next Ireland Professor of Poetry. Muldoon will be the ninth Ireland Professor of P...
20th November 2022
'Where do they all come from?' Poet launches project to provide a farewell at 'lonely funerals'
A poet who has been writing short ‘otwituaries’ on social media when someone famous dies has turned his attention to composing poems to be read for those people who would otherwise have no one at thei...
17th November 2022
'I have stuffed the South’s nightlights in my mouth. Gala of fireflies'
Tennessee Hill’s South emerges in her poem as a character, a personage that haunts and possesses her with beauty and a certain disquiet. Her poem, 'Crater Heart', moves from fragmentary image to simil...
17th November 2022
Japanese poets launch global symposia for peace and harmony
Japanese poets Yumi Fuzuki, pictured, and Hiromitsu Koiso have been commissioned by the Poetry Society to write two new poems on inspiring harmony and peace, as part of the launch of six international...
14th November 2022
Sushi, or chips? Poet charts complicated relationship with Japan
In 2017 Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana signed up for an MA – and began writing poetry. Five years on, she has published a collection of her poems, and on Friday night launched Sing me down from the dark a...
13th November 2022
The House Where Courage Lives: Maggie Sawkins, Waterloo Press
Maggie Sawkins won the Ted Hughes award for innovation with her live literature production Zones of Avoidance in 2013. But although she is a widely published poet, and is also recognised for her work ...
11th November 2022
Fiona Benson to judge Teignmouth poetry competition
Fiona Benson will be judging the £600 Teignmouth poetry festival competition. The closing date is 31 January 2023. More details
11th November 2022
Open-mic back in Lancaster as Wordarium opens its doors
Lancaster has a spoken word open-mic night again! The Wordarium, run at the Herbarium Bar and Café by poet Benjamin Guilfoyle, aka Woolly Hat Poet, in partnership with Lancaster LitFest and the café, ...
9th November 2022
The view from Japan - and Newcastle: poet launches cross-cultural debut collection on Tyneside
A Newcastle-based poet who lived in Japan for 10 years is launching her first collection. Sing Me Down From the Dark explores the highs and lows of Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana’s sojourn in Japan, two i...
9th November 2022
'He’s friendly they yell, 50 yards back'
The title of the poem, 'The Love Ridge Loop', is, no doubt, something of a joke, an exaggeration built on irony. After all, the poem is an ironic love poem, and, at the same time, an anti-dog poem. Bu...
7th November 2022
John Darwin is guest poet at Write Out Loud Bolton on Sunday
Guest poet John Darwin will be reading from his new collection ultrasilence at Write Out Loud Bolton on Sunday 6 November at Bolton Socialist Club. Entry is £2 including raffle. Doors open at 7.30pm f...
1st November 2022
