Earth Walker: Ros Woolner, Offa's Press
Ros Woolner grew up in the Thames Valley. After studying and working in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Germany and West Africa, she now lives in Wolverhampton, where she works as a translator. She is a member of Bilston Writers and Cannon Poets. She won the Guernsey International Poetry Competition in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize run by the Rebecca Swift Foundation in 2022...
28th May 2023
Picture this: poets give their support to north-east photographic gallery forced to close
A much-loved photographic and film gallery in the centre of Newcastle was forced to close in April after losing its Arts Council grant, and facing rising energy bills. But that’s not the end of the story.
A fundraising campaign has been launched to aid the reopening in 2024 of the Side Gallery, r...
28th May 2023
Wild Orchids: Simon Fletcher, Offa's Press
Simon Fletcher is a freelance, writer, editor and poet who lives in Shropshire, and has published a number of poetry collections. He runs workshops in green spaces and places, and was commended in las...
25th May 2023
The Spaces Between Us, eds. Kathleen Morgan, Jamie Stewart and Oz Hardwick, Indigo Dreams
This miscellany of poetry and prose comprises the eighth annual Wordspace anthology produced in collaboration with Indigo Dreams Publishing. All of the 30 contributors in this volume, ranging from est...
20th May 2023
To the lighthouse? Pointing out new directions at bookshop reading
Before the bookshop reading I spoke to another early arrival, a man who had only recently retired. Since retiring he had discovered writing, and now rarely thought of anything else. He had come, he sa...
5th May 2023
Out for Air: Olly Todd, Penned in the Margins
What do poetry and skateboarding have in common? The answer might well be Olly Todd. Former professional skateboarder turned poet, Todd now lives in East Sussex. His poems have appeared in Ambit, The ...
24th April 2023
After: Mark Connors, Yaffle
Too many fine poetry collections are published and then languish, unsung. That’s just the way it is. This review is an attempt to redress the balance in the case of just one of those collections – Aft...
21st April 2023
Under the Ice: the sounds of Antarctica, by poet, composer, and scientists
“Immense creaks, cracks, rumbles …” a few of the opening words from Northumberland poet Katrina Porteous’s ‘Under the Ice’, a 30-minute poetry performance with electronic music by the late Peter Zinov...
17th April 2023
Remembering Henry: poets gather to aid children’s cancer charity
This weekend marks the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering, a three-day festival of street entertainment, indoor events, music, dance, craft, dialect, heritage and general fun that’s held the weekend after...
15th April 2023
Yes Life: Dominic Berry, Flapjack Press
Manchester-based performance poet Dominic Berry has twice been voted best spoken word artist in the Saboteur awards. The affirmative title Yes Life gives a major clue to the uplifting content of most ...
19th March 2023
'It's me, she said. It was the physio': Michael Rosen recounts his Covid ordeal, step by step, in new collection
In early March 2020 the poet Michael Rosen was doing what he normally did, making school visits, socialising. Then Covid struck him down, and nearly killed him. He spent three months in hospital, of w...
17th March 2023
The Ghostly Effect: Paul Surman, Dempsey & Windle
Oxford-based poet Paul Surman’s first collection, Places (Oversteps Books) was published in 2018. A further collection, Seasons of Damage and Beauty (Dempsey & Windle) followed in 2021. He is a member...
10th March 2023
The Taking Part: Joe Williams, Maytree Press
This short collection by Joe Williams comes with an evocative cover image by Walker Scott. In a Lowryesque scene in a back street a hunched figure passes by while two youngsters play football, the goa...
10th March 2023
Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in her Head: Warsan Shire, Chatto & Windus
Warsan Shire’s first full collection captivates the reader with the precision and pressing rhythm of her lines that reflect the urgency of her message. Shire is a Somali-British poet who was born in N...
6th March 2023
Reinforcements! Yorkshire contingent joins Words on the Wall
You might be forgiven in February for shivering at the thought of Northumberland’s Words on the Wall, given Hexham’s setting, close to the evocative Hadrian’s Wall. Cold, bleak, inhospitable? Not a bi...
23rd February 2023
Resurrection of a Black Man: Jenny Mitchell, Indigo Dreams
Jenny Mitchell’s impressive and award-winning two previous collections – both reviewed by Write Out Loud – were largely about Britain’s involvement in slavery, and its pain, misery and legacy as seen ...
10th February 2023
Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in her Head: Warsan Shire, Chatto & Windus
Warsan Shire’s first full collection captivates the reader with the precision and pressing rhythm of her lines that reflect the urgency of her message. Shire is a Somali-British poet who was born in N...
10th February 2023
For those in peril ... a heady brew of music, poetry and beer
Music and poetry is generally a good mix. Add beer, history, and stirring tales of lifeboats, and you have all the ingredients for a heady brew. And so it proved at Newcastle’s Biscuit Factory art gal...
6th February 2023
Taking the last bus home after nights like these! Brian Bilston wows big audience at the New Poetry Shack in London
The hugely popular “poet laureate of Twitter” Brian Bilston has always been somewhat of a mystery man, keen to obscure his true identity and limiting his public appearances. He does seem to be getting...
2nd February 2023
Second Glance: Ron Scowcroft, Oversteps Books
Ron Scowcroft lives in Lancaster. His pamphlet Moon Garden was published by Wayleave Press in 2014 and his full collection Second Glance by Oversteps Books in 2022. A number of poems in the latter hav...
2nd February 2023
Workwear: Carla Scarano D'Antonio, The High Window Press
There is much to admire and enjoy in Workwear. Carla Scarano D’Antonio’s clarity of vision, disarming directness and artist’s eye for detail take us on a journey in which portraiture, domesticity and ...
30th January 2023
Poet of the borderlands: uncovering the riches of Northumberland with Noel Hodgson
To Horncliffe, the most northerly village in England, on the southern side of the river Tweed, for a poetry reading. It is what the Scots call a dreich day, cold and wet. Well, it is January. But the ...
12th January 2023
