It's never too late! Graham Sherwood makes live poetry debut

A momentous occasion has taken place in the poetry realm, an event rarer than hen’s teeth. Write Out Loud ‘old timer’ Graham Sherwood took to the stage for the very first time at Waterstones in Milton Keynes, as part of the 2025 MK Lit Fest celebrations. 

Graham won the 2024 MK Lit Fest poetry competition with his entry MK Fortean but was unable to present it last year due to being out of the c...

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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 is now up for sale, for offers at over £2.5m.

Rydal Mount is described by the property website Rig...

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Fiona Larkin wins National Poetry Competition

Fiona Larkin has won this year’s £5,000 National Poetry Competition with ‘Absence has a Grammar’, which was described by judges Romalyn Ante, John McAuliffe and Stephen Sexton as “very impressive, ing...

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Faber to publish 'definitive' edition of Seamus Heaney's poetry

Faber is to publish The Poems of Seamus Heaney later this year, edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue with Matthew Hollis. It’s described as the definitive edition of  Heaney’s poetry, featurin...

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Foyle Young Poet Lewis Corry featured on Poems on the Underground

This year’s Spring Poems on the Underground posters include Foyle Young Poet Lewis Corry. The poster set was launched with readings outside the tube station at Covent Garden by Lewis, plus poets Niall...

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Poetry magazine 14 announces £2,000 appeal success

A poetry magazine that is published once a year has reached its £2,000 target after just seven days of a cash appeal to keep it going. Poet and novelist Richard Skinner said 14 Magazine, which publish...

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Poet laureate hails government confirmation of £5m for National Poetry Centre in Leeds

The confirmation of £5 million of government investment in the National Poetry Centre in Leeds has been welcomed by the poet laureate Simon Armitage as evidence that his brainchild “will become a real...

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Authors’ body tries to mobilise writers over AI copyright

Growing concerns over the development of artificial intelligence has compelled the ALCS (Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Authority) - which recovers money for authors that they are due – to issue ad...

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'History repeats itself': US poet re-posts poem from 2017, in protest at Trump silencing scientists - again

The American poet Jane Hirshfield has re-posted a poem she first publicised at the start of the first administration of President Trump in 2017, in protest at the new US government’s silencing of stat...

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Acclaimed Northern Irish poet Michael Longley dies aged 85

The multi-award-winning poet Michael Longley has died at the age of 85. Longley was born in Belfast in 1939 and lived in the city until his death, which was announced on Thursday. In the late 1950s he...

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Peter Gizzi wins £25,000 TS Eliot prize

American poet Peter Gizzi has won this year’s £25,000 TS Eliot Prize for his collection Fierce Elegy, described by the chair of judges, Mimi Khalvati as “infinitely sad, yet resolute, and so alive in ...

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‘You can’t take the Bradford out of us’: poet Kirsty Taylor as City of Culture is launched

Bradford-born poet, spoken word artist and playwright Kirsty Taylor is the dramaturg – the literary adviser - of Bradford 2025 City of Culture, which was launched on Friday night in front of a packed ...

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Imtiaz Dharker awarded OBE in New Year's Honours

The poet, artist and film-maker Imtiaz Dharker has been awarded an OBE for services to the arts in the 2025 New Year’s Honours List. Dharker was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014 and b...

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Poets Imtiaz Dharker and Ian McMillan to take part in Shipping Forecast Day on BBC radio

Poets Imtiaz Dharker and Ian McMillan are among celebrities that will read special versions of radio’s The Shipping Forecast to mark the centenary of the forecast on New Year’s Day.

The Shipping Fo...

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Season's greetings! Thank you for all your poetry throughout 2024!

Season's greetings from everyone at Write Out Loud to all our users! We just wanted to say how grateful we are to all our Write Out Loud members and visitors. Thank you for all your poetry throughout ...

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Singer-songwriter and poet laureate work together on wintry tales

Singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy, pictured, has released a new single, a winter-themed song written in collaboration with the poet laureate, Simon Armitage.

The link-up came after Armitage read o...

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George Szirtes to be awarded King's Gold Medal for Poetry

The Hungarian-born poet George Szirtes, who came to England as a boy with his family following the Hungarian uprising and Soviet clampdown in 1956, is to be awarded the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry.  

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BBC's tribute to Benjamin Zephaniah on anniversary of his death

A tribute to Benjamin Zephaniah was screened on BBC4 on Saturday night to mark the first anniversary of the poet’s death. Dread Poets Society, a high-spirited and often hilarious fantasy in which Zeph...

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Ayres, Antrobus, Normal: BBC's The Verb looks back at Morecambe poetry festival

BBC Radio’s The Verb will be presenting a special programme looking back at this year’s Morecambe poetry festival at 9pm on Friday 3 January. The programme was recorded at the festival in September th...

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Christmas tree poem unveiled at Trafalgar Square

This year’s Poetry Society poem to celebrate welcoming the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree was performed by three pupils from the St Vincent’s Catholic primary school, Westminster at the lighting-up c...

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Scotland appoints Gaelic speaker as national poet

A native Gaelic speaker from the isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides has been appointed as Scotland’s new Makar, its national poet. Academic, writer and broadcaster Peter Mackay [Pàdraig MacAoidh] is ...

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Starmer quotes Larkin at Lord Mayor's Banquet

The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, quoted a couple of words from the poet Philip Larkin in his speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet on Monday night. Sir Keir said: “My Lord Mayor. We have so much to ...

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Debut poet sums up Write Out Loud Zoom night with sonnet

A debutant poet at a Write Out Loud Zoom night delighted his fellow poets with a fully-fledged sonnet … about poetry on Zoom. Jamie Thompson, pictured, had attended a previous gathering of Write Out L...

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'Great poetry endures': national newspaper editorial praises eco-anthology

A new poetry anthology has been praised in the editorial columns of a national newspaper. Earth Prayers, edited by the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, was highlighted in a Guardian editorial, wh...

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Normal, or what? Gerry Potter's poem features in TV comedy

A well-known north-west poet has written a poem that was performed in the final episode of the hit TV comedy series ‘Alma’s Not Normal’. Gerry Potter told his Facebook followers: “The worst kept secre...

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John Burnside wins Laurel eco-poetry prize

John Burnside, who died earlier this year aged 69, has been posthumously awarded the 2024 Laurel prize for his collection Ruin, Blossom (Jonathan Cape), it was announced on Saturday night.

The £5,0...

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New Zealand poet Fleur Adcock dies aged 90

The New Zealand poet Fleur Adcock, who celebrated her 90th birthday in February with the publication of her Collected Poems, has died in the North London Hospice in Finchley, after a short illness.

...

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Victoria Chang wins 2024 Forward prize for best collection

The American poet Victoria Chang has won the £10,000 Forward prize for best collection with ‘With My Back to the World’ (Corsair), which engages with the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, the ce...

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Posthumous collection by young poet is on TS Eliot prize shortlist

A posthumous collection by a young poet who was found dead after a festival last year is among the shortlisted books for this year’s £25,000 TS Eliot prize. Adam, which is Gboyega Odubanjo’s debut ful...

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Record attempt, online open-mics, the poetry of a town: it's National Poetry Day!

The theme of this year’s National Poetry Day is ‘counting’ – and here’s just a taste of some of the events today. One event is an attempt to break the world record for the largest poetry lesson, colla...

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Poetry student jailed for throwing soup over Van Gogh painting

A young poet and climate activist who took part in a Just Stop Oil protest which involved throwing soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London in 2022 has been jailed.

...

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Radical poetry publisher Andy Croft to close Smokestack Books

The radical poetry publisher Smokestack Books is closing at the end of the year, its editor, Andy Croft, has revealed, in a letter to the poetry magazine PN Review, in which he criticises the “uncomra...

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Restoring wildlife habitats to honour John Clare

A group of volunteers aims to honour the 19th century nature poet John Clare with a project to reclaim habitats and open up corridors of land to encourage wildlife. Clare grew up in Helpston, Cambridg...

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Former Tory minister attacked for citing Holocaust poem in defence of outdoor smoking

A Tory MP who survived Labour’s general election landslide victory has been criticised after she posted a poem about the Holocaust to criticise government plans to introduce outdoor smoking bans.

E...

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Tolkien's poetry to be published in three-volume collection

The collected poetry of JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, is to be published in a three-volume edition by Harper Collins. Tolkien is said to have aspired to be a poet initia...

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Southend Poetry Group celebrates 40th annual anthology

A poetry group that was established in 1968 has just published its 40th annual anthology of poetry by members of the group. Long-standing member Adrian Green said Southend Poetry group first met at a ...

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Robert Garnham wins $2,000 US comedy poetry award

Comedy perfomance poet Robert Garnham has won a prestigious US poetry award. Paignton-based Robert won the Wergle Flomp humour poetry contest’s $2,000 first prize with his poem ‘Torquay, 2 – The other...

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'Like a decent pie, maybe, appreciated in the wider world but recognised for its local flavours': council honours Simon Armitage

Simon Armitage was awarded the freedom of Kirklees this week in a ceremony at Huddersfield town hall. The poet laureate – pictured with Kirklees mayor, councillor Nosheen Dad - grew up in the West Yor...

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