The knowledge: top tips on the art of performing poetry
A 10-session, weekly course exploring the skills, knowledge and techniques of performance poetry starts on Monday 13 February at Torquay's Blue Walnut café in Walnut Road from 7.30pm to 10pm. Themes of the course include the differences between page poetry and performance poetry; evolving a set of performance poetry; the role of humour; authenticity and believability; microphone techniques; ada...
31st January 2012
Henry Raby's fast-forward to the future
Bring cushions, mats, blankets, pillows and sleeping bags: that’s the message when punk poet Henry Raby invites you to write a letter to your future self. The journey to the future takes place on 1 and 2 February at Leeds University, when Raby performs his own take on the trip with poems ranging ...
30th January 2012
Taking flight at Slimbridge
Alison Brackenbury, Anne Cluysenarr, Ann Drysdale, Angela France, Alwyn Marriage, Hermiona Sandall and Christine Webb will be reading new poems about birds at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust...
30th January 2012
Country house's peaceful approach to poetry contest
“There is no joy but calm” – a line from Tennyson’s The Lotos-Eaters – is the theme of the Words by the Water/Mirehouse poetry competition, closing date 10 February.
Mirehouse historic house an...
26th January 2012
Rappers battle with performance poets at Brighton
Poets v MCs at Komedia, Gardner Street, Brighton on Thursday 26 January brings together the area’s finest rappers and performance poets for a night of verbal sparring. There will be eight poets, ei...
25th January 2012
WOL competition: and the winner is ...
What strange beasts poetry competitions are! I set this one not knowing quite what to expect; not too many rules – an upbeat subject and the stipulation that it shouldn’t be written from a first pe...
24th January 2012
John Burnside wins TS Eliot prize
John Burnside, winner of last year’s Forward prize, has now taken the TE Eliot prize as well, for his collection Black Cat Bone. The TS Eliot prize became controversial after the original 10-strong...
24th January 2012
Superhero of Slam champ Mark Mace Smith at WOL Sale
Superhero of Slam champ and poet in residence at BBC MediaCityUK, Mark Mace Smith, WOL open mic regular Charlotte Henson, and Reece Williams from Manchester’s Young Identity group are the guest poe...
24th January 2012
Matt Merritt at Birmingham's Poetry Bites tonight
Poet and wildlife journalist Matt Merritt will be reading from his latest Nine Arches Press collection when he guests at the Poetry Bites open mic event, at the Kitchen Garden Café, 17 York Road, K...
24th January 2012
Jeffarama! at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday
Jeff Dawson, aka Jeffarama!, is guest poet at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday night, 22 January, at the Ring O’Bells, St Leonard’s Square, Middleton. The open mic night starts at 8pm. Entry: £2 ...
21st January 2012
Osborne, Wright, Naylor and Clare at John Peel arts centre
John Osborne, Luke Wright, Molly Naylor and Tim Clare will be appearing at a poetry shindig on Saturday 21 January at the new John Peel Centre for Creative Arts at Stowmarket’s former Corn Exchange...
18th January 2012
Carol Ann Duffy under fire for courtroom poem
Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who only last week was basking in the glow of her latest collection The Bees winning the Costa poetry prize, has now come under fire from some quarters for her poem w...
18th January 2012
Diary of a Spoken Word Bird: boobs, rude words, and a gorilla
The past month or so has been very quiet for me, in more ways than one, as I am currently suffering from the most damagingly distressing and displeasingly disruptive disease known to perf poets all...
18th January 2012
Carol Ann Duffy and Matthew Hollis win Costa prizes
Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has won the Costa poetry prize for The Bees, her first collection since she became poet laureate in 2009, while poet Matthew Hollis has won the biography prize for his...
15th January 2012
Knighthood for Geoffrey Hill in New Year honours
Oxford’s professor of poetry, Geoffrey Hill, has been given a knighthood in the New Year honours list. Hill, 79, who has sometimes been described as a “difficult” poet, partly because of his allusi...
15th January 2012
Adam Woolley at Write Out Loud Bolton tonight
Adam Woolley, pictured, is guest poet at Write Out Loud Bolton, back tonight, Sunday 15 January, at the Wellington pub. Kicking off at 7.30, with your guest MC Andy N, it’s a game of two halves – f...
15th January 2012
Click on this? WOL's links compendium
Liz Lochhead reads My Rival’s House, Imtiaz Dharker reads Honour Killing, Simon Armitage reads An Accommodation, Fleur Adcock reads Strangers On a Tram, Paul Farley reads Treacle, Robin Robertson r...
3rd January 2012
Queen's Gold Medal for Jo Shapcott
Jo Shapcott has won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. Her collection, Of Mutability, which traces her experience of breast cancer, has already won the Costa book of the year award.
Shapcott pr...
1st January 2012
Wildlife theme for Barn Owl Trust competition
Wildlife and conservation is the theme of the Barn Owl Trust open poetry competition, deadline 16 January. All profits from the competition will provide care for casualty birds. The judges are Rebe...
1st January 2012
Politics, protests and wheelbarrows: the WOL review of 2011
2011 marked the jailing and eventual release of a Bahraini poet after months in detention; amazing scenes at the Poetry Society; principled protests by poets about arts sponsorship; lots of excitem...
1st January 2012
Poetry Book Society in hedge fund row
The knock-on effects of this year’s Arts Council poetry funding cuts took an unexpected turn when two leading poets, Alice Oswald, and John Kinsella, withdrew from the TS Eliot prize shortlist draw...
1st January 2012
