'If I've made researches, I have to present information ... basically I'm a tireless Googler': Ira Lightman
The Australian newspaper reported Judith Beveridge as saying that “you speak as if the entire body and character of my work is made up of borrowings, but that is a minuscule fraction of my total output”. In a new interview with Write Out Loud, poetry sleuth Ira Lightman – “basically I’m a tireless Googler” – described Beveridge as a “line magpie”, but added that her borrowings did not constitute a...
16th November 2020
How we brought more readers to poetry - Neil Astley on Bloodaxe’s Staying Alive series, and the new anthology
On National Poetry Day, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley launched Staying Human, the fourth in his hugely popular series of world poetry anthologies that began in 2002 with Staying Alive (sub-title: ‘real poems for unreal times’). It is a series of anthologies that many people feel great affection for, i...
14th October 2020
'A poetic Pepysian diary': veteran performer Nick Toczek has written a daily Covid poem during the pandemic
In mid-March veteran performance poet Nick Toczek started writing a poem a day about the pandemic – and he’s still writing them. He has already published one book of his poetic Pepysian diary of our m...
29th September 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
'I just wanted to do SOMETHING': why Luke Wright has been performing nightly during the lockdown
On a Monday night in mid-March when live events started being cancelled lock, stock, and barrel due to the coronavirus crisis, leading performance poet Luke Wright said on Twitter that he would be liv...
6th May 2020
‘As a mother, it's my job to tell these stories’: Louise Fazackerley
Wigan performance poet and BBC New Voices winner Louise Fazackerley has broken new ground with her poetry collection The Lolitas. Its subject matter includes sexual abuse and underage grooming, and it...
16th February 2020
'Our Romany culture will always survive': Raine Geoghegan
Late last year Raine Geoghegan launched a second pamphlet of poetry that documents and celebrates her Romany heritage. Her family picked fruit, vegetables and hops in Herefordshire and Kent, and many ...
13th January 2020
How Andy Jackson's 'Otwituaries' provide special send-off
A few weeks ago I was saddened to hear of the death of one of my great sporting heroes, the former England Test cricketer Bob Willis. But the sadness was lifted to some degree – even though I blubbed ...
1st January 2020
Poetry map's 2,000 poems, and still counting ...
A project aimed at creating a poetry map of England and Wales has seen almost 2,000 poems posted in its first month. The four-month Places of Poetry project, which was launched at the beginning of Jun...
8th July 2019
'I believe that poetry can help in so many ways with good mental health': Emergency Poet Deborah Alma
The Emergency Poet Deborah Alma – who dispenses poetic remedies from her special ambulance – plans to park her much-travelled vehicle and set up a permanent poetry pharmacy in a former ironmonger’s sh...
25th February 2019
'I'm a big fan of sci-fi poems': WoLF competition winner Rachel Plummer
The winner of this year’s Wolverhampton literature festival (WoLF) poetry competition, Rachel Plummer - pictured at the awards ceremony - has a background in nuclear astrophysics, and has written a se...
17th February 2018
National Gallery, Picturehouse, LSE: but who are the poets on the picket line?
While visiting the Poetry Book Fair in London’s Conway Hall last month, we bumped into poet Grim Chip, pictured, one of the driving forces behind Picket Line Poets. Write Out Loud is always interested...
31st October 2017
'The more painful and scary to write ... the more important it is to communicate' - Henry Normal
The writer, poet, TV and film producer Henry Normal – the man behind Mrs Merton, The Royle Family, Gavin and Stacey, The Mighty Boosh, and Alan Partridge, to name but a few - has launched his first ne...
12th October 2017
'Why Marsden is important to me': poet tells of inspirational backdrop
Poet and painter David Coldwell is launching his debut poetry collection, Flowers by the Road, on Wednesday 8 February at Marsden library. In an interview with Write Out Loud David, a regular reader a...
21st July 2017
The poetry of conflict: Clare Mulley on clashes that shaped England's history
London Laureate and poetry journalist Clare Mulley recently became the first poet in residence at the UK Battlefields Trust, and will be reading from the resulting collection at the Albion Beatnik boo...
20th April 2017
Poetry in the round: how Pitt, Pottinger and Purshouse plotted show at the pub
Wolverhampton poets Dave Pitt, Steve Pottinger, and Emma Purshouse have joined forces to create a new show - Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists - which will show at the Arena theatre in their home ...
10th April 2017
'I like to make people smile': Win Saha, still performing her poetry aged 93
Wolverhampton-based poet Win Saha is still writing and performing at the age of 93. In an interview with Emma Purshouse she tells of meeting Mae West and Paul Robeson, some poetry advice she received ...
29th March 2017
'The challenge is to throw everything we've got at it' - Jimmy Andrex
Wakefield’s Jimmy Andrex, who performs his poetry to the sound of a driving electonica beat, has a new album out. In an interview, he talks to Greg Freeman about Northern Beat Poetry, avoiding “obviou...
14th March 2017
'Amazed, and humbled': Steve Pottinger on Write Out Loud nearing its cash appeal target
Write Out Loud’s chief executive Steve Pottinger launched an appeal before Christmas for £1,000 to help with our running costs and to enable us to develop some new ideas. We’re close to hitting our ta...
1st February 2017
Poetry's man of mystery Brian Bilston reveals (nearly) all to Write Out Loud
At a recent poetry event Write Out Loud came face to face with the man behind poetry’s “man of mystery” Brian Bilston, whose fans include plumbers and police officers, dancers and dentists, and people...
21st November 2016
'It's a marriage of my words and their message' - Matt Abbott on the Nationwide TV ads
Matt Abbott is one of three spoken word poets who have been recently featured on TV taking parts in adverts for the Nationwide building society. In an interview with Write Out Loud, he talks about why...
7th October 2016
'It's more than just words ... it's a way of connecting with the world' - Kat Francois
A spoken word show about first world war soldiers from the Caribbean that was reviewed on Write Out Loud earlier this year is returning to the Roundhouse in London in October, as part of Black History...
1st October 2016
Celebrating 10 years of Write Out Loud Wigan: organiser John Togher looks back
Write Out Loud Wigan celebrated its 10th birthday tonight, with a special night planned to mark the occasion at The Old Courts venue on Thursday 8 September. Its history stretches back to a first open...
8th September 2016
'You don’t need expensive kit. Just a mind and a mouth, a pen and some paper': Laura Taylor
Back in 2010 Laura Taylor joined the Write Out Loud website, and soon afterwards took the stage for the first time, at a Write Out Loud open mic night in Bolton. In the years that have followed she ha...
9th June 2016
Calypso, cabaret, a cultural collision: John Agard maps out his view of Columbus
John Agard believes in the “subliminal” power of poetry. In Portsmouth before his new one-man show, Roll Over Atlantic, which is about the “cultural collision” between Columbus and the “New World”, he...
2nd November 2015
'Poetry books will sell if people can relate to what you are writing': Attila the Stockbroker
Performance poet and musician Attila the Stockbroker has been on the road for 35 years, and in that time has appeared at around 3,400 gigs, “shouting poems and thrashing songs” on his mandola – and n...
8th October 2015
'Looking beyond the obvious': Write Out Loud interviews Owen Lowery
Owen Lowery is a former British judo champion and poet. He suffered a spinal injury while competing and is now a tetraplegic. In an interview he tells Greg Freeman about reading his poetry in public w...
30th July 2015
'The pleasures of performing include the frisson that it might all go wrong - and the nice cup of tea afterwards': Kate Fox
Stand-up poet and writer Kate Fox has been a regular on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live, and has two new shows due to be aired on Radio 4 this month. In an email interview with Greg Freeman, she talks abo...
30th June 2015
'There's no reason why poetry should have such a small readership': Paul McMenemy on his plans for a poetry bookshop
A crowdfunding appeal to raise £5,000 to fund a poetry bookshop in London has ended up just a few hundred pounds short of its target. In an interview with Frances Spurrier, the man behind the idea, Pa...
8th June 2015
'Poetry should have bite and snarl, but it's better for joy and sadness than anger': Luke Wright
Energetic performance poet and broadcaster Luke Wright has a new show out – and he’s still touring with his old one, too. He was performing his new production, What I Learned from Johnny Bevan, at the...
1st June 2015
‘There’s no real reason why poetry should have such a small readership’: Write Out Loud interviews Paul McMenemy about his planned poetry bookshop
A crowdfunding appeal to raise £5,000 to fund a poetry bookshop in London is still looking for more cash, with a few days left to hit its target. In an interview with Frances Spurrier, the man behind ...
31st May 2015
Jackie Hagan: 'I figured I might as well milk the one-legged thing'
Jackie Hagan was a well-known and popular poet on the Manchester scene and beyond when she went into hospital - and came out minus one leg. Now she is touring with her show, Some People Have Too Many ...
10th May 2015
The 'Grandfather of Albion' at 80: Write Out Loud interviews Michael Horovitz
Veteran poet, performer and impresario Michael Horovitz - a key figure with Allen Ginsberg behind the celebrated Albert Hall poetry incarnation of June 1965 – celebrated his 80th birthday at Easter wi...
9th April 2015
'I've been shocked at the emotional impact': Write Out Loud interviews Louise Fazackerley
Last year spoken word artist Louise Fazackerley - pictured, seated - was one of the three winners of BBC The Verb’s New Voices commission with her work Love is a Battlefield, set in Afghanistan and in...
22nd March 2015
Hollie McNish: 'My mum worked night shift as a nurse and had two kids. This is nothing!'
Two of her YouTube videos have been seen a total of more than three million times. Last month leading performance poet Hollie McNish won a £10,000 Arts Foundation award for spoken word. In April she p...
25th February 2015
The search for peace after war: one former soldier's story
“The war starts the day you leave the army …” Former soldier Lee Blunt talks to Frances Spurrier about the impetus behind his new book of poems, From the Trench to the Park Bench: a reflection on the...
16th February 2015
War poet Dan O'Brien: 'I want to move the reader. Empathy is the goal'
It began when American playwright and poet Dan O’Brien heard an interview with Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist Paul Watson, in which Watson said he felt haunted by the ghost of the dead US sold...
12th February 2015
'Separating and combining the senses': the art of the poetry film
Have you ever wondered about combining your poetry with film? Frances Spurrier interviews Zata Kitowski, director of PoetryFilm, about the creative possibilities involved in the art form.
Than...
2nd January 2015
The Write Out Loud interview: Ted Hughes award winner Maggie Sawkins
Earlier this year Maggie Sawkins won the Ted Hughes award for innovation, with Zones of Avoidance, a poetic account of a daughter’s addiction that is also an ambitious multimedia presentation using fi...
11th December 2014
Doctor with the right medicine: Write Out Loud interviews the Emergency Poet
She goes round the country in a 1970s ambulance that she picked up on eBay, and with the help of an assistant, dispenses poetry on prescription to make people feel better. “Emergency Poet” Deborah Alm...
1st December 2014
'When you're very young it's not hard to change the direction of your life': Write Out Loud interviews Brian Patten
He tried to join the circus, then shot to fame as a poet in his teens after packing in his job as a local reporter. Brian Patten, whose name is synonymous with the Mersey poets, and who will be appear...
11th November 2014
Why I admire Dylan Thomas: the influences on Argentinian poet Luis Benítez
Luis Benítez is an Argentinian poet who has been honoured in France, Italy, Uruguay, and Mexico, as well as in his own country. His books have been published in Chile, France, Mexico, Romania, Sweden,...
31st August 2014
The Write Out Loud interview: Sean Borodale
Sean Borodale is a writer and artist. His first collection of poems, Bee Journal - a poem-journal of bee-keeping kept over two years - was shortlisted for both the 2012 Costa and TS Eliot awards. H...
27th March 2013
The Write Out Loud interview: Mark Niel
Mark Niel had a career in financial services – and then he threw it all up for the world of spoken word, to do something with his life “that fitted the real me”. The poet laureate of Milton Keynes ...
12th February 2013
The Write Out Loud interview: Rhian Edwards
Young Welsh poet Rhian Edwards has won a place on the shortlist of the prestigious Forward prize for her first collection, Clueless Dogs, after last year winning Wales's top performance poetry awar...
13th August 2012
The Write Out Loud interview: Kenneth Steven
Kenneth Steven is a children’s author and poet, living near Perth. His services were recently retained by organisers of the Wigan Words festival and I was fortunate to work alongside him at a loca...
30th May 2012
