Thinking outside the Unboxed: 'connectivity and the universe' competition
The deadline has been extended to 9 January for a poetry and/or animation competition called About Us aimed at youngsters aged from four to 18 on the theme of ‘connectivity and the universe’. The Poetry Society is collaborating with the social enterprise Stemettes and 59 Productions, who created the video design for the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. About Us is one of 10 projects commissio...
9th January 2022
Young poets perform prize-winning climate poems at COP26
Young poets from the Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network were invited to respond to Sir David Attenborough’s speech at the opening of COP26 in Glasgow. Inspired by Sir David’s words calling world leaders to action, they created new poems in immediate response to his speech to underline his urgent m...
6th November 2021
Winners of Foyle Young Poets of the Year award are announced
The Poetry Society has announced the 15 winners of its Foyle Young Poets of the Year award, for poets aged 11-17. They are: Evie Alam, aged 14, from South Shields; Ahana Banerji, 17, Putney, London; A...
7th October 2021
Search for young polylingual poets to help develop skills
The deadline has been extended until midnight Monday 9 August to recruit eight young mixed-heritage people with an interest in polylingual poetry to develop their practice as poets or spoken word perf...
30th July 2021
Deadline nears for Foyle Young Poets of the Year award
The 31 July deadline is nearing for entering the Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year award. It is free to enter and is open to poets aged 11-17 anywhere in the world.
Meanwhile it has b...
26th July 2021
Poetry By Heart finalists perform on stage of Shakespeare’s Globe
On Sunday 18 and Monday 19 July over 300 students, parents, teachers and guests took part in the 2021 Poetry By Heart finalists’ celebration event at Shakespeare’s Globe, London. Children and young pe...
25th July 2021
Get happy! School's My Happy Place poetry party links England - and Nigeria
Children from Lily Lane primary school in Moston, Manchester, shared another of their poetry parties online with other children from schools in the north-west of England, in Oxfordshire, south-west Lo...
28th March 2021
Lear was here: celebrating 150th anniversary of 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat'
Grab your runcible spoon, set sail with the Jumblies and learn how to make an amblongus pie with Britain’s beloved master of nonsense humour. Embarking on April Fool’s Day, the community of St Leonard...
14th March 2021
Foyle Young Poets of the Year competition launched
The Foyle Young Poets of the Year competition for 11-17-year olds was launched on 4 March, World Book Day. The judges this year are Clare Pollard and Yomi Sode, and the deadline is 31 July. More deta...
4th March 2021
Young people's laureate offers writing tips to stay positive during lockdown
The young people’s laurate for London, Cecilia Knapp, has launched a campaign via the organisation Spread The Word to encourage young people to use writing and poetry to keep positive and feel connect...
2nd March 2021
Don't fence us in! Poets prompt pupils at the Giant Poetry Party
A hint of what Write Out Loud – and especially Young Write Out Loud – want to do a lot more of in the future could be seen at the Giant Poetry Party for primary school pupils staged online by Lily Lan...
3rd February 2021
Calling all primary schools and children at home - roll up for a Giant Poetry Party today!
Primary schools and children learning at home during lockdown are being invited to an online Giant Poetry Party on Tuesday 26 January starting at 2pm. Poets Matt Abbott and Louise Fazackerley, assiste...
26th January 2021
Schools to celebrate International Mother Language Day with poetry
Write Out Loud board member Julia Clark, headteacher of Lily Lane primary primary school in Moston, Manchester, and the school’s poet-in-residence Louise Fazackerley will be taking part in an online e...
17th January 2021
Foyle Young Poets celebrate huge rise in number of poems entered as winners announced
The Poetry Society has announced today the top 15 winners and 85 commended poets of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2020 at a virtual prize-giving ceremony.
14th November 2020
Poetry by Heart launches seventh national recitation competition for pupils
The Poetry by Heart organisation has launched its 2021 national poetry recitation competition for pupils. The competition is free to enter. Students aged 7-18 (key stages 2, 3, 4 and 5) choose a poem ...
10th October 2020
Deadline nears for Foyle Young Poets of the Year competition
The Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year competition, for poets aged 11-17, is being judged this year by Maura Dooley and Keith Jarrett. The deadline is 31 July. More details
20th July 2020
Poet in residence Louise Fazackerley reads at school's VE Day event
Pupils of Lily Lane primary school in Moston, Manchester, on Thursday marked the 75th anniversary of VE Day with an event in which poetry was well to the fore. At the livestream event the school’s poe...
10th May 2020
Deadline nears for Foyle Young Poets competition
The 31 July deadline is looming for this year's Foyle Young Poets of the Year award for poets aged 11-17, with this year’s judges Jackie Kay and Raymond Antrobus. This year’s winners will be announced...
15th July 2019
Performing Pupils’ Cuckoo Collaboration in Marsden the Poetry Village
Two schools, from contrasting areas – one rural, one city - have launched an exciting initiative, a partnership where poetry is used to form friendships, widen pupils’ horizons and build their confide...
2nd May 2018
Foyle Young Poets of the Year award is open for entries
The Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year award, open to anyone aged 11-17, will be judged this year by Caroline Bird and Daljit Nagra. Caroline has said that she will be looking for “a poem ...
31st March 2018
Liz Lochhead's Bairnsangs show for young poetry fans at festival
Liz Lochhead, Scotland’s former makar – national poet – will be sharing her favourite poems, old and new, with young poetry fans at StAnza, Scotland’s international poetry festival at St Andrews, next...
25th February 2018
Poetry in the landscape: Felicity's lament for ruined castle
This poem, written by Felicity Lance, at the age of eight in 1997, won a national writing competition for young people that was judged by the poet laureate, Ted Hughes. Felicity’s poem, ‘The Sad Castl...
17th November 2017
Foyle Young Poets top 15 winners are named
The Poetry Society has announced the top 15 winners and 85 commended Foyle Young Poets of the Year. The top 15 are:
Aisha Mango Borja, aged 15, from Oxford; Eira Murphy, 17, Liverpool; Irina Petra...
21st October 2017
Magazine for young poets wants submissions
Hebe, a poetry magazine that publishes poems by those aged 18 and under, is inviting submissions for its third issue on the theme of “patterns”. They say: “We encourage poets to be creative in their i...
10th October 2017
Deadline nears for Foyle Young Poets competition
Kayo Chingonyi and Sinead Morrissey will be judging the 2017 Foyle Young Poets competition, organised by the Poetry Society for poets aged 11-17. Kayo Chingonyi said: “I will be looking for poems that...
29th July 2017
This was the place to be: primary pupils inspired by Manchester poem perform with panache
This is the place where our future begins; this is the place where hope is alive, in a north Manchester primary school in Moston, just two miles from the Manchester Arena bombing. This is the place wh...
3rd July 2017
Penelope Wilton lends a hand at launch of poems written by pupils in literacy project
TV, film and stage star Dame Penelope Wilton was at Square Chapel Arts Centre, Halifax to launch and read from a collection of poems written by Halifax schoolchildren who had taken part in the PoetryQ...
30th June 2017
Create a poem to mark Dylan Thomas Day
Young people aged seven to 25 from all over the world are being invited to take part in Love the Words, an online competition to celebrate International Dylan Thomas Day. How to take part? Download th...
19th April 2017
Poetry to the fore at Southbank's young adult literature weekend
Performance poet Lionheart will be hosting Young Adult Literature Weekend on 15-16 October at the Southbank Centre in London – the final weekend of the London Literature Festival. Poetry events during...
29th September 2016
Foyle Young Poets of the Year deadline reminder, from Phill Jupitus
Comedian, poet and actor Phill Jupitus has recorded a series of films to let young writers know all about the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award and why they should enter. The 31 July deadline is nea...
30th July 2016
Young competitors to read with poet and musicians at arts festival
Shortlisted and winning young poets in a town’s poetry competition will be invited to take part in a special reading on 25 June at Bourne Hall, Ewell, in Surrey, as part of Epson and Ewell’s first art...
14th June 2016
Could yours be some of the lines that make up Dylan's Great Poem?
Young poets aged from seven to 25 are being invited to submit up to four lines of poetry in English or Welsh to help celebrate Dylan Thomas Day, with 100 lines chosen from the submitted entries to cre...
3rd May 2016
Schools project opens eyes to power of poetry
Last year Write Out Loud published news of a schools poetry project involving poets Winston Plowes and Keith Hutson working with pupils in four schools in West Yorkshire. This year Winston and Keith h...
27th April 2016
American's student poets on a mission during National Poetry Month
You couldn’t imagine it happening in Downing Street – or maybe we just haven’t heard about it. But when five US youngsters were named National Student Poets last year, America’s First Lady, Michelle O...
15th April 2016
Wigan student Jessica Mason wins Poetry By Heart contest for pupils
A student from a sixth form college in Wigan has won this year’s Poetry By Heart competition for secondary school pupils. Jessica Mason, pictured right, from St John Rigby College recited three poems ...
5th April 2016
Poets invite families for creative sessions in London libraries
Poets including Aoife Mannix, Paul Lyalls, Francesca Beard, Guy Bass, Joe Coelho and Frances Hardinge will be taking part in Spine festival: Libraries Out Loud at London libraries from 3-5 March. Aoif...
3rd March 2016
'Taking the poem inside you': pupils battle it out for place in Poetry By Heart finals
Throughout England secondary school pupils aged 14-18 are standing up to recite in public two poems that they have learned by heart. The regional and county contests for Poetry By Heart, an organisati...
29th February 2016
Calling young poets: deadline nears for Agincourt competition
Youngsters are being invited to take up a poetry challenge about the battle of Agincourt, celebrated in Shakespeare’s Henry V, to help mark the battle’s 600th anniversary earlier this year. The Aginco...
24th January 2016
Helen Mort to judge pamphlet competition for poets aged 16-22
Helen Mort will be judging the inaugural Poetry Business New Poets prize, a pamphlet competition for writers aged 16-22. Entrants should submit short collections of 12 pages of poems. Four outstandin...
2nd November 2015
New Foyle Young Poets winners named on National Poetry Day
The top 15 winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year award were announced on Thursday 8 October, National Poetry Day, at a special prizegiving ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall at London’s Southb...
15th October 2015
