A happy new year to all - and here's a look back at the poetry of 2014
To all our friends helping keep poetry alive and kicking, we wish you all a peaceful Christmas, and a creative and lively new year. It’s that time of year when we look back as well as look forward, as Write Out Loud’s news editor Greg Freeman recalls his UK poetry highlights of 2014. It was a poetry year that focused on two centenaries – the outbreak of the first world war, and the birth of Dylan ...
28th December 2014
Premier League footballers read Christmas truce poem by Ian McMillan
A century after the 1914 Christmas truce took place, top footballers, including Manchester City's Vincent Kompany, Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal), and Charlie Austin, of Queens Park Rangers, and managers have appeared on the FootballRemembers.com website reciting a special poem in their name.
The v...
27th December 2014
Deadline nears for €10,000 Ballymaloe poetry competition
The Ballymaloe international poetry prize – one of the biggest prizes in the world for a single poem – is to be judged by Forward and Costa prize winner Michael Symmons Roberts. The prize is sponsor...
27th December 2014
End of December deadline for Canterbury poetry competition
Helen Ivory will be judging Canterbury-based SaveAs Writers’ poetry competition. First prize is £100, and the deadline is 31 December 2014. More details
PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ANDREW / WRITE OUT L...
27th December 2014
'Hot spot' Rhythm & Muse goes out with stylish finale of poetry and music at the Ram Jam
All good things must come to an end – especially when a pub changes hands. And so it came to pass that a very successful poetry and music night in Kingston-upon-Thames marked its last event after four...
23rd December 2014
The poetry of dementia: Sarah Hesketh reports back on lives in a care home
Last year Sarah Hesketh spent 20 weeks as a poet in residence with Age Concern. Each week, she would take a train to Preston and spend a day with the staff and residents of Lady Elsie Finney House, a...
23rd December 2014
'Suddenly the phone never stopped ringing': Wendy Cope on publishing her first book of poetry at the age of 40
Wendy Cope has talked of how it felt when she published her first book of poetry, at the age of 40. In an interview with the Observer magazine, Cope said: “I was a single, somewhat lonely, primary sch...
19th December 2014
Friends of slam poet Davy Mac appeal for help to pay for his funeral
A plea has been issued by friends of a poet in Oxford who died without any assets to help pay for his funeral. David MacArnold, better known in poetry circles as Davy Mac, died in hospital last month,...
18th December 2014
Write Out Loud at Marsden tonight
Write Out Loud founder Julian Jordon is organising another gathering of Write Out Loud Marsden at Marsden library, Peel Street, Marsden on Wednesday 17 December. Entry is £2 to this open-floor poetry ...
17th December 2014
Timelines: Carolyn O'Connell, Indigo Dreams
Journeys are a feature of this collection – many of the poems contain lines that operate as reflections on the passing of time, mostly in the context of generations within and beyond a particular fami...
16th December 2014
Ten poets bring Quiet Compere's year-long tour to an end with spice and humour
Sarah L Dixon’s inspired Quiet Compere poetry tour giving 10 poets 10 minutes each to read at every venue bade farewell to 2014 with a night at the Blue Cat Cafe in Heaton Moor, Stockport.
It was a...
15th December 2014
Prize poet John Foggin - and a winning poem that he started working on in 1983
Sir Andrew Motion is clearly a man “of impeccable taste and discernment”, the recipient of two poetry prizes bestowed by the former poet laureate insisted on Friday night. John Foggin, a former teache...
15th December 2014
Actor from Salford who 'hated poetry at school' wins Farrago UK slam title
An actor, spoken word artist and singer/songwriter from Salford won the Farrago Poetry UK slam final at the Courtyard theatre in London on Friday night. Tom Gill, now based in London, won two rounds o...
13th December 2014
That's all, folks: Richard Tyrone Jones looks back on 10 years of 'Utter!' spoken word
Richard Tyrone Jones is calling time on the long-running ‘Utter!’ live event that he has hosted for the last 10 years, and on his spoken word career, with a final gig at the Amersham Arms in London o...
13th December 2014
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
Step into Christmas with Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight
They’ve said their farewells to the Tudor … and now Write Out Loud Wigan has moved on, to its new home at the Bailiff’s Bar, The Old Courts, in Crawford Street, Wigan. It’s a night of Christmas poetry...
11th December 2014
Dylan and Caitlin photographs on show at the Poetry Cafe
A collection of early photographs of Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin, taken by Nora Summers, forms the latest exhibition on the walls of the Poetry Café in Covent Garden, London. In the spring of 19...
10th December 2014
Double Bill: edited by Andy Jackson, Red Squirrel Press
I have just had a stressful few days, but 10 minutes with this volume of gems cleared my mind, refreshed my brain and invigorated my laughing muscles. Double Bill is a worthy follow-up to 2012’s Split...
9th December 2014
Dan O'Brien wins £5,000 Troubadour prize with barrel bombs poem
American poet and playwright Dan O’Brien has won the £5,000 Troubadour international poetry prize. Last year O’Brien won the Fenton Aldeburgh first collection prize for War Reporter, a collection of "...
8th December 2014
On the cards: Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 8 November at 7pm to read and discuss their own poetry, with “cards” this month’s exercise subject. Entry is a £1...
8th December 2014
Sifting through the dustbins of history: new anthology turns up all manner of surprises
Rummaging through a library’s dusty archives – or more likely these days, clicking a few times on Google – can unearth all sorts of historical curiosities.
The anthology Other Countries: Contempora...
6th December 2014
Poetry tennis with Steve Nash and Gaia Holmes at Sowerby Bridge
There’s plenty of poetry at Sowerby Bridge arts festival, from 6-14 December. On Monday 8 December at 7pm a poetry reading by Saboteur award winner Steve Nash and Gaia Holmes features a round of “poet...
6th December 2014
Split Screen, edited by Andy Jackson, Red Squirrel Press
There are lots of poetry anthologies out there these days; some good, some middling, some not so great. But Split Screen - poems inspired by film and television and edited by Andy Jackson - is an anth...
6th December 2014
Nerves in York, laid-back in Brum, triumph in Blackpool: Quiet Compere looks back on her poetry tour
On Sunday 7 December, at the Blue Cat Café in Heaton Moor, Stockport, a remarkable poetry tour will stage its last performance of 2014. The Quiet Compere tour, masterminded by compere Sarah L Dixon, ...
5th December 2014
Exotic, esoteric, freewheeling: an evening with Long Poem magazine
Many calls for poetry submissions specify a maximum length of 40 lines. Long Poem magazine, as the name suggests, takes the opposite view. Ten contributors read at the launch of issue 12 on Wednesday ...
4th December 2014
Lighting up Trafalgar Square tree with poetry
Three London schoolchildren will read a specially commissioned poem by Liz Lochhead at the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree lighting up ceremony on Thursday 4 December.
With the Poetry Society and t...
4th December 2014
Start of the journey: Poetry School's 'Routes' students recapture introductory year with anthology
A poetry celebration took place in the upstairs room of the Betsey Trotwood pub, on London’s Farringdon Road, on Thursday night. The popular poetry venue saw the launch of Recapture, a pamphlet antho...
2nd December 2014
Genghis Khan's bloodline, and Moll Cutpurse: poets take fresh look at history
A poetry anthology that takes a fresh look at events and figures of the past will be launched on Wednesday 3 December at the Star of Kings pub on York Way, King’s Cross, London. Other Countries: Conte...
2nd December 2014
Commonword has arts grant restored after appeal
The Manchester writer development organisation Commonword is celebrating after having its funding reinstated by Arts Council England, five months after it was axed.
Commonword had appealed against...
1st 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
In praise of three poets from the West Midlands
There is no shortage of literary talent coming out of the West Midlands and Offa’s Press is leading the way in promoting some its finest voices to the attention of a wider audience.
Nick Pearson is...
1st December 2014
