Call for a bilingual Polish and a bilingual Chinese poet
Can you help Anjum find two poets to help with multilingual work in schools? As if being a much-produced BBC radio scriptwriter and multilingual poet herself weren’t enough, to keep her busy Anjum Malik has also been working in schools, encouraging the writing and performing of poetry across the linguistic divides, and running local mushaira - Asian poetry festivals.
She is now looking for two...
15th January 2019
Where the road runs out: Gaia Holmes, Comma Press
Gaia Holmes is a Halifax-based poet and creative writing tutor who has previously made a living as a busker, a cleaner, a gallery attendant, an oral historian, and a lollipop lady. The first section of her third collection of poetry describes living on the Orkneys while caring for her father: “My fa...
15th January 2019
'Undiscovered gem of a poet' Alicia Fernandez to guest at Sale Write Out Loud tonight
The history of Western poetry is the history of poetry in translation. So says Alex Bellos in his book Is That a Fish in Your Ear? – the amazing adventure of translation (2011, Penguin). He does so a...
15th January 2019
Poetry newcomer Hannah Sullivan wins £25,000 TS Eliot prize
An associate professor of English at New College, Oxford, has won the £25,000 TS Eliot prize with her debut poetry collection. Hannah Sullivan’s Three Poems, published by Faber, is the third debut col...
15th January 2019
Five Views of Mount Fuji: Myra Schneider, Fisherrrow Press
Myra Schneider was born in 1936, and grew up in Scotland, London, and Sussex. She has published a number of poetry collections, writes essays and reviews for literary magazines, and has co-edited anth...
15th January 2019
Poem about nuclear tensions wins Costa poetry prize
A book-length poem about nuclear tensions of the cold war period has won the Costa poetry prize. Assurances by JO Morgan uses a mix of versed and unversed passages to eavesdrop on the thoughts of thos...
14th January 2019
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Regulars and newcomers to Stockport Write Out Loud will be gathering on Monday 14 January for another open-floor poetry night at Stockport art gallery. Each month a collage poem is put together from r...
14th January 2019
The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Potential’ by Rich
14th January 2019
Multilingual classrooms, problem or poetry?
We have already reported to you how poetry is used to foster inter-cultural understanding, boost creativity and dramatically increase confidence in pupils’ use of English in multilingual primary schoo...
9th January 2019
Poets pay tribute to Frances White at reading
A London poet with strong family ties in south Wales has died of Motor Neurone Disease at the age of 68. Frances White, an English teacher and teacher of the deaf, published her debut collection, Swif...
8th January 2019
'I pawed away from the trunk, fumbled, and took my first step toward not returning'
A child at a school bus stop, on his way out into the world, a fine subject for a fine poem by Dante Di Stefano, who lives in Endwell, New York. Might we all live out our days in a place called Endwel...
8th January 2019
Simon Armitage awarded Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
Simon Armitage, one of the contenders to succeed Carol Ann Duffy as poet laureate later this year, has been awarded this year's Queen’s gold medal for poetry, it has been announced.
Armitage, who g...
7th January 2019
‘Freeman Street, Grimsby’ by David Cooke is our Poem of the Week
The first Poem of the Week of 2019 (and a very Happy New Year to you all!) comes from David Cooke, who wins it for the second time. His poem Freeman Street, Grimsby is a beautifully observed piece, al...
7th January 2019
Tutti Frutti: Konstandinos Mahoney, SPM
A skilled observer, Konstandinos Mahoney communicates his enthusiasm for life and language in every poem of Tutti Frutti, his honest, warm and perceptive first collection, which was second prize winne...
6th January 2019
The Wear and Tear of Conversation: Charlotte Harker, Dempsey & Windle
Charlotte Harker’s The Wear and Tear of Conversation is an ironic and humorous account of the interactions between the self and its surroundings. The transgender poet and artist deals with depression ...
5th January 2019
Poems about home competition to aid Shelter
A poetry competition in aid of Shelter is to be judged by Michael Harrison and John Hegley. Entry is £4 per poem with all the proceeds going to Shelter. The deadline is 20 January 2019. More details
3rd January 2019
Afresh, afresh, afresh: publishers seek poems for anthology on trees
North-east publishers Iron Press are looking for poems for an anthology on trees. Poets can submit up to four poems, and the deadline is 28 February. More details
3rd January 2019
Stories, blogs, stand-up, song: all part of the Spoken Worlds mix at the Pickle Pot
Emma Purshouse met Gary Carr over a cup of tea to discuss his regular poetry event, Spoken Worlds, which meets on the third Friday of each month, except December. Its current venue is the Pickle Pot i...
2nd January 2019
'Prophecy, the warning of what yet's to break out'
The glaciers that flattened my part of the world made their exit aeons ago, but in Alaska, where Peggy Shumaker lives and writes, they're just now beginning to turn back. Only deep in a Nebraska snowb...
1st January 2019
