Why I admire Dylan Thomas: the influences on Argentinian poet Luis Benítez
Luis Benítez is an Argentinian poet who has been honoured in France, Italy, Uruguay, and Mexico, as well as in his own country. His books have been published in Chile, France, Mexico, Romania, Sweden, Uruguay, the US and Venezuela, and his translated poems have been published in UK magazines. In an interview with Neil Leadbeater, he speaks of his appreciation of TS Eliot, WH Auden and Philip Larki...
31st August 2014
Anthology of Fatherhood, ed. Rachel Piercey and Emma Wright, Emma Press
This anthology of fatherhood arrived hot on the heels of its companion anthology of motherhood, but that’s not surprising. The Emma Press specialises in anthologies and pamphlets; it has produced several already, and another, on homesickness and exile, is due to be launched next month. The anthologi...
31st August 2014
The creativity of survivors: poetry at festival celebrating disabled artists
A night of poetry that is part of Unlimited, a festival that celebrates the artistic vision and originality of disabled artists, will be staged in the Poetry Library at London’s Southbank Centre on We...
29th August 2014
Kate Tempest joins Slambassadors search to find new young performers
Performance poetry star Kate Tempest will be on the judging panel for Slambassadors UK, the Poetry Society’s national youth slam championships, aimed at finding and nurturing the next generation of sp...
28th August 2014
'Wandering Celt' poet Desmond O'Grady dies aged 78
An Irish poet who played an Irish poet in the Federico Fellini film, La Dolce Vita, has died at the age of 78. Irish president Michael D Higgins led tributes to Desmond O’Grady, describing him as one ...
28th August 2014
Stop yer swithering! Elvis McGonagall joins independence debate
Scottish stand-up poet Elvis McGonagall has entered the debate about Scottish independence in the runup to the vote with a poem aimed at helping “the indecisive amongst the Scottish electorate to reac...
27th August 2014
Foyle Young Poets award notches up new record
The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2014 has hit a new record to become the largest poetry competition in the world, say its organisers. Last year's competition attracted entries from 7,478 young...
26th August 2014
Emma Press enters politics with calls for poems on election and voting
Anthology and pamphlet publisher the Emma Press is seeking poems about UK politics in the run-up to the general election, as well as poems about voting.
The poems about UK politics will be publishe...
26th August 2014
Niall Campbell wins £20,000 Edwin Morgan award for young Scottish poets
Niall Campbell has won the inaugural £20,000 Edwin Morgan poetry award for Scottish poets aged 30 or under, the largest poetry prize in the UK, for his first collection Moontide, published by Bloodaxe...
25th August 2014
'Lioness of Iran' Simin Behbahani dies aged 87
The Iranian poet Simin Behbahani, known as the “Lioness of Iran”, who wrote of the joys of love and demanded equal rights for women, has died aged 87. She had been in hospital and died of heart failur...
25th August 2014
Carol Ann Duffy, Lemn Sissay, Kate Tempest and John Siddique at Canterbury's festival
Carol Ann Duffy, Lemn Sissay and Kate Tempest will be appearing at Canterbury’s Wise Words festival, from 12-21 September. John Siddique will be running morning coffee and journal writing sessions, as...
25th August 2014
Wanted: guest poets for open mic night in Buxton
An open mic venue in Buxton is looking for guest poets. Spoken Words is a poetry/short story night held on the first Tuesday of each month at the Tea Chest in George Street, from 7.45-10.15pm. They sa...
24th August 2014
Mum and daughter Katie and Ashleigh team up at Write Out Loud Middleton tonight
There will be two generations of poetry at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday 24 August, when guest poets Katie Haigh and her daughter Ashleigh are appearing. Entry to this open mic event, starting at...
24th August 2014
Deadline nears for Nantwich poetry competition
Luke Wright will be judging the shortlisted entries at the Nantwich Words and Music festival poetry competition. The deadline is 19 September, and the winners will be announced at the festival on 7 Oc...
21st August 2014
Poetry School unveils autumn courses as online community notches up 1,000 members
The Poetry School’s online community Campus now has more than 1,000 members, it has announced. Its online courses take place on Campus, and from next month there is Clare Pollard on The Poetry of Pare...
20th August 2014
Short Days, Long Shadows: Sheenagh Pugh, Seren
This consummate collection has the certainty of touch one has come to expect from Sheenagh Pugh, one of our finest contemporary poets. The opener, ‘Extremophile’, recently a Guardian Saturday Poem, is...
20th August 2014
Spoken word at the Edinburgh Fringe: here's a guide to some of the shows
Write Out Loud is offering a guide to some of the spoken word highlights at the Edinburgh Fringe. Spoken word makes up just 4% of the total fringe programme - but that is up from 2% last year, with a ...
20th August 2014
High hopes for new festival at Winchester
A new poetry festival that is aiming high will be staged in Winchester next month. The festival’s Stephen Boyce said in an interview with Write Out Loud earlier this year that it was hoped that Winche...
19th August 2014
Kieren King and Andrew Lawson at Write Out Loud Sale tonight
Kieren King, pictured, and Andrew Lawson are the guest poets at Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday 19 August at the Waterside arts centre, Sale. The open mic event starts at 7.30pm, so get there in good t...
19th August 2014
Billy Collins, Carol Ann Duffy, Paul Muldoon at Edinburgh book festival
The renowned US poet Billy Collins will be appearing at the Edinburgh Book Festival during August, as part of a stellar poetry lineup at the festival, that also includes Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitag...
18th August 2014
Pollard, Horovitz, and O'Riordan to judge £10,000 Manchester poetry prize
Clare Pollard, Adam Horovitz, and Adam O’Riordan will be judging the £10,000 Manchester Writing Competition, organised by Manchester Metropolitan University's Writing School. The deadline is 29 August...
18th August 2014
Paragram seeks anthology submissions
The Surrey-based writing group Paragram has launched a call for submissions to a new anthology of poetry and short fiction, with the theme Remember, and a deadline of 31 August. Entry is free, with th...
18th August 2014
Live From Worktown: Bolton's poetry festival anthology
Write Out Loud’s roots are in the north-west; it actually started in Bolton. And this anthology, put together to coincide with the town’s first international poetry festival, Live From Worktown, earli...
7th August 2014
Deadline nears for £700 Torbay poetry competition
RV Bailey will be judging the £700 Torbay poetry competition. The deadline is 15 August, and the winners’ names will be announced on 25 October at the Torbay poetry festival. More details
6th August 2014
Middleton remembers ... how an estate in Manchester wrote a ballad to mark the first world war
Marking this week's centenary of Britain’s declaration of war on Germany, a community film-poem project from a deprived estate in Greater Manchester has provided a moving testament to the legacy of th...
5th August 2014
Mid-August deadline for £600 Buzzwords competition
Jonathan Davidson is the judge of the £600 Buzzwords competition, organised by the Cheltenham open mic night. Poems can be up to 70 lines, and the deadline is 17 August. More details
4th August 2014
Survivors: ed. by Thomas Ország-Land, Smokestack
True poetry is immune to propaganda and social control; it is immune to infiltration by the far right and to the rewriting of history. That is why we need it. Of vital importance – now, perhaps, more...
3rd August 2014
In Between: John Wedgwood Clarke, Valley Press
This slim volume contains a sequence of 18 poems about York’s snickets, passageways, courts and yards, from ‘Mad Alice Lane’ to ‘Whip ma whop ma gate’, and was commissioned for a project that explores...
3rd August 2014
