Poets add voices to writers’ call for immediate Gaza ceasefire
Dozens of poets have added their names to a petition signed by 380 writers from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and accusing the state of Israel of acts of genocide.
The poets who have signed the petition include Gillian Clarke, Owen Sheers, Clare Shaw, Glyn Maxwell, Kathlen Jamie, Fiona Sampson, David Constanti...
28th May 2025
Do the Locomotion! Novelist and poets mark Stockton & Darlington bicentenary
Poetry was the support act in Hexham on Saturday when novelist David Wiliams re-launched a novel he first published in 2012, to mark this year’s bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington, the world’s first public railway.
It is this correspondent’s contention that we haven’t heard enough about the...
26th May 2025
Bringing it back home: local lad Simon Armitage gives Marsden fresh inspiration
The last few months have been a busy time for Young Write Out Loud. After our successful pedal-powered event in February at the Moonraking festival in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, we were busy prepari...
25th May 2025
Farewell to Barry Fantoni, creator of Private Eye’s EJ Thribb
Barry Fantoni, author, cartoonist, jazz musician, and creator of the satirical magazine Private Eye’s poet in residence, EJ Thribb, has died at his home in Turin at the age of 85.
As Wikipedia puts...
22nd May 2025
‘Let’s call a spud a spud’: poetry crowd-pleasers Henry Normal and Brian Bilston
Henry Normal is a stand-up comic supreme, who with fellow poet Brian Bilston, has been attracting bumper and appreciative audiences during the pair’s current tour.
He has maintained a prolific outp...
22nd May 2025
Di Slaney wins Write Out Loud’s ‘Echoes’ competition with ‘Dolly Parton’s wig’ - in memory of a ‘dear friend and inspiration’
Di Slaney has won Write Out Loud’s 20th anniversary ‘Echoes’ poetry competition with her poem ‘Dolly Parton’s wig’, written in memory of the late poet Kathryn Bevis, who died last year from cancer two...
22nd May 2025
Our team members: meet the folk behind the scenes at Write Out Loud
This is the first in a series - to mark our 20th anniversary year - where we go behind the scenes at Write Out Loud to meet those key players who work hard to keep our website ticking over. First up i...
22nd May 2025
Surge of sales as Welsh rivers anthology is launched
A publisher that produced a bestselling anthology about the main trunk road through Wales is launching a new collection of poems about Welsh rivers. Editors Sian Northey and Ness Owen, who put togethe...
21st May 2025
Oneironaut: Leah Larwood, Indigo Dreams
Leah Larwood is an award-winning poet, a freelance writer and a gestalt psychotherapist. She has an MA in creative writing and her poems have won or been placed in a number of poetry competitions. One...
20th May 2025
Meet Neil Astley, celebrated Bloodaxe editor - and our competition judge
Bloodaxe … what an arresting name for a poetry publisher. I may have first come across Neil Astley’s name when my wife gave me the second anthology in the Bloodaxe Staying Alive series, Being Alive, a...
15th May 2025
Pam Ayres, nation’s poetry sweetheart? For many, she still is!
When I retired from my newspaper job a dozen or so years ago, and was looking forward to pursuing my new life as a poet, of sorts, my colleagues gave me as one of my parting gifts a copy of the select...
15th May 2025
‘Lifelong republican’ Henry Normal turns down MBE - and tells his poetry audience why
The popular writer, comedian, poet and film and TV producer Henry Normal is turning down an MBE, he revealed to an audience at Whitley Bay during a performance last night. He made the announcement and...
9th May 2025
An evening of poetry and song with Vane Women in Darlington
Vane Women, a Darlington-based writing, performing and publishing collective formed in 1991, are staging an evening of poetry and song on Wednesday 14 May at 7pm at Vesuvio wine bar at Houndgate, Darl...
6th May 2025
Campaign to save Wordsworth home as museum after Rydal Mount goes up for sale
A campaign has been launched to preserve William Wordsworth’s family home at Rydal Mount in the Lake District, as a site of literary heritage. The poet lived there from 1813 to his death in 1850. It i...
4th May 2025
Carcanet poet Katherine Horrex is guest at Write Out Loud Bolton tonight
“This, you must know, is the growlery. When I am out of humour, I come and growl here.” - Charles Dickens, Bleak House
So you’ve been working your way up the greasy pole of qualifications to get to...
4th May 2025
Pam Ayres looks back and forward at Hexham book festival
There is plenty of poetry among the literary events at Hexham book festival in Northumberland next month. On Friday 9 May Pam Ayres will be talking about her new collection, Doggedly Onward: A Life In...
3rd May 2025
