Warmth and wonder from Mandy Coe and Brian Patten
Bolton festival organiser Dave Morgan celebrated a splendid week of Live From Worktown events by introducing this gig with “welcome to Write Out Loud” - a nice inadvertent plug for us which made WOL maestro Julian Jordon sitting next to me laugh out loud.
Morgan had every right to be as pleased as punch with a great week of events behind him, and this Patten/Coe evening ahead. Mandy Coe got it ...
31st May 2015
Camels, guillemots - and a singalong that almost made John Hegley smile
Hegley is a funny bugger. He writes hilariously witty, off-the-wall poetry, sings, plays ukulele and even dances at this show, but despite the audience laughing their socks off, he never smiles. Oh, except once when we were all singing, badly but with enthusiasm - and his face cracked a bit.
But ...
31st May 2015
‘There’s no real reason why poetry should have such a small readership’: Write Out Loud interviews Paul McMenemy about his planned poetry bookshop
A crowdfunding appeal to raise £5,000 to fund a poetry bookshop in London is still looking for more cash, with a few days left to hit its target. In an interview with Frances Spurrier, the man behind ...
31st May 2015
Deadline nears for £250 Wirral Festival of Firsts competition
Gladys Mary Coles will be judging the £250 Wirral Festival of Firsts poetry competition. The deadline is I June. More details
30th May 2015
Roundhouse to recapture the spirit of '65
The spirit of a unique happening almost 50 years ago which saw more than 7,000 people flock to the Albert Hall to listen to poetry will be recaptured at an event at the Roundhouse on Saturday 30 May f...
30th May 2015
'A tremendous sense of occasion': David Andrew on the Albert Hall Incarnation
One of the thousands of people who were at the Albert Hall in 1965 for the International Poetry Incarnation was poet and Write Out Loud gig guide editor David Andrew. He recalls: “I was 26, and had be...
30th May 2015
End of May deadline for £5,000 Bridport poetry prize
Roger McGough will be judging the 2015 Bridport poetry prize. First prize is £5,000, and the deadline is 31 May. More details
PHOTOGRAPH: GREG FREEMAN / WRITE OUT LOUD
28th May 2015
Write Out Loud's Risk a Verse at Huddersfield's Red and Green Club tonight
Write Our Loud founder Julian Jordon will be convening another Risk a Verse night open floor night at the Red and Green Club, Milnsbridge, Huddersfield, on Thursday 28 April. Entry is free, and it sta...
28th May 2015
Ted Hughes in Mexborough: new festival aims to put overlooked Yorkshire town back on poet's map
A new festival is aiming to restore an overlooked landmark in the life of Ted Hughes to its proper place on the map later this year. The Ted Hughes Project (South Yorkshire) plans to develop a Ted Hug...
24th May 2015
Steve Pottinger at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday
Popular performance poet Steve Pottinger is continuing his tour of the north-west and Write Out Loud venues with an appearance at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday 24 May. Steve, who regularly posts ...
23rd May 2015
David Wheatley, Esther Morgan and Sarah Howe to judge National Poetry Competition
The Poetry Society’s 2015 National Poetry Competition is now open and the judges this year are David Wheatley, Esther Morgan and Sarah Howe. The first prize winner will receive £5,000, publication in ...
22nd May 2015
Zones of Avoidance: Maggie Sawkins, Cinnamon
This year’s winner of the Ted Hughes award for new work in poetry was the former poet laureate, Andrew Motion, for his work based on interviews with soldiers returning from Afghanistan. The previous y...
21st May 2015
Best spoken word night, best performer, best show? Voting deadline nears for Saboteur awards
Time is running out for voting in the Saboteur indie lit awards, with the deadline Sunday 24 May. The list of nominations for awards include best regular spoken word night (Bad Language, Bang Said the...
21st May 2015
Poet apologises for 'appropriations' as poems are withdrawn and book is pulped
A poet has apologised “to my readers, the poetry community and most of all to the poets whose work I have unintentionally appropriated”, over a number of uncredited borrowings from other poets in her ...
21st May 2015
Poetry in a time of data: protecting acorns, adders, catkins and herons from language loss
We have a sixth layer of consciousness to assimilate all the “data” we receive from the five senses. In order to differentiate a strawberry from the white, china bowl on which it sits, or the table th...
20th May 2015
Write Out Loud at Marsden library tonight
Write Out Loud Marsden is back at Marsden library, Peel Street, Marsden, on Wednesday 20 May. All are welcome, as always, to share their own poems or favourite published ones (or other short piece of ...
20th May 2015
Poetry ReIncarnation anniversary celebration at Last Word festival at Roundhouse
A festival of spoken word, storytelling and live performance takes place at the Roundhouse in London, starting Saturday 16 May, until 31 May. Included on the bill are Polarbear, Mark Grist, John Hegle...
19th May 2015
Steve Pottinger at Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday
Steve Pottinger, fresh from his appearance in Bolton at the Write Out Loud / Live From Worktown night, will be guest poet at Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday 19 May. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic nigh...
19th May 2015
Van Morrison and Jimmy Page take in some poetry at the Troubadour
Coffee-House Poetry has always made much of its musical roots at the famous Troubadour cellar club in London, where Bob Dylan and Paul Simon both played in the 1960s. Rock music legends Van Morrison a...
18th May 2015
Best spoken word night, best performer, best show? Voting deadline nears for Saboteur awards
Time is running out for voting in the Saboteur indie lit awards, with the deadline Sunday 24 May. The list of nominations for awards include best regular spoken word night (Bad Language, Bang Said the...
18th May 2015
Write Out Loud Bolton at the Brooklyn tonight
Write Out Loud Bolton was on the bill at Bolton’s Live From Worktown festival last weekend, with a “buzzing” open mic night with guest poets Louise Fazackerley and Steve Pottinger. Now it’s back at it...
17th May 2015
Campaign to raise £5,000 to open poetry bookshop
A £5,000 crowdfunding campaign has been launched to raise funds to open a poetry bookshop in London. The man behind the idea is Paul McMenemy, editor of the monthly magazine Lunar Poetry. He said the ...
16th May 2015
Kei Miller, Liz Berry, and Ian McMillan at South Yorkshire poetry festival
Kei Miller, pictured, Liz Berry, Patience Agbabi, Clare Pollard, Kim Moore, Zaffar Kunial and Barnsley’s own Ian McMillan among the leading poets taking part in South Yorkshire poetry festival - 18-24...
14th May 2015
Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight
Isobel Malinowski will be compering and keeping poets in some sort of order at Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts, Crawford Street, Wigan on Thursday 14 May. The free open mic event starts at 8.30...
14th May 2015
Avant-garde poetry in the home counties fails to pull in the crowds
You wouldn’t necessarily consider Guildford to be a hotbed of avant-garde poetry. And that could be why, when 11 people took to the stage to perform Bob Cobbing’s ABC in Sound at the finale of the Sur...
14th May 2015
Taking the long view: election poetry from Live Canon
The three ballot boxes on the stage were, we were told, stuffed with poems. And the lines delivered from memory by three young actors from Live Canon poetry ensemble on the eve of polling day provided...
12th May 2015
Monthly poetry magazine notches up 200th issue
The publishers of a monthly poetry magazine are celebrating after arriving at their 200th issue. Reach Poetry magazine is produced by Indigo Dreams. IDP publisher and editor of Reach, Ronnie Goodyer, ...
12th May 2015
York's Say Owt on Saboteur shortlist for best spoken word night
York’s Say Owt Slam has made the shortlist for best regular spoken word night in the Saboteur indie literature awards, with voting for the awards open from 4-27 May. Also on the spoken word night shor...
11th May 2015
Live Canon perform election poetry on polling day eve
How have poets responded to elections, hustings, and campaigns in previous generations and across the world? How has poetry been used as a form of ballot-box protest? And how did the suffragettes use ...
11th May 2015
Avant-garde poetry in the home counties fails to pull in the crowds
You wouldn’t necessarily consider Guildford to be a hotbed of avant-garde poetry. And that could be why, when 11 people took to the stage to perform Bob Cobbing’s ABC in Sound at the finale of the Sur...
11th May 2015
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 11 May at 7pm to read and discuss their own poetry. Entry is a £1 donation. Each month a collage poem is created ...
11th May 2015
There's poetry in Trainspotting
Somewhere near Liverpool Street Station this evening there will be Trainspotters, as Greg Freeman reads from his well-received collection of that name as part of More Poetry, Ken Champion’s long-runni...
11th May 2015
Do something! If you're not in the Great Manchester Run, tune in to watch - and hear Tony Walsh's poems
Manchester’s unofficial poet laureate, Tony Walsh, was due to be featured on BBC2 today at the beginning and end of the Great Manchester Run, Europe’s biggest 10-kilometre race, with 40,000 runners. W...
10th May 2015
Jackie Hagan: 'I figured I might as well milk the one-legged thing'
Jackie Hagan was a well-known and popular poet on the Manchester scene and beyond when she went into hospital - and came out minus one leg. Now she is touring with her show, Some People Have Too Many ...
10th May 2015
Poetry at St Ives launches Cornish festivals spree
There’s poetry and music in the square each day, readings, a folk opera, Jack and Jenny, in poetry and song about Cornish miners, including Write Out Louders Ann Foxglove and Judi Strega (pictured), a...
8th May 2015
Meltdowns, anthropomorphic puzzles, and other surprises at The Other Room's birthday party
I see Write Out Loud’s Julian Jordon was at The Castle pub on Manchester’s Oldham Street the other night doing a review - and blow me, I was in there the following evening, this time for a birthday pa...
7th May 2015
Manchester moments: Tony Walsh sends sparks flying; Liz Berry's dialect delights
An audience of 250 packed into Manchester’s Frog and Bucket comedy club, at turns whooping and hollering, mad with laughter, and trembling in tears, as the words were made flash and dealt amongst them...
7th May 2015
Reaching for the moon: Lunar Poetry magazine is launched
One door closes, another opens. Last month saw the departure of the long-running Monkey Kettle poetry magazine, suspending publication indefinitely after 15 years. Now some good news … a new poetry ma...
7th May 2015
Brian Patten, John Hegley - and a tribute to Hovis Presley
Brian Patten, Mandy Coe and John Hegley will be headlining Live From Worktown, Bolton’s festival of words, with the main festival events running in the week beginning 18 May. Live From Worktown also f...
4th May 2015
Liz Berry and Jonathan Edwards talk about winning prizes
What would it be like to win a big poetry prize? All poets in their idle or wilder moments must wonder that. At Wenlock poetry festival on Saturday two recent prizewinners were on hand to tell us. Liz...
4th May 2015
Farewell to John Rylands library with readings full of illuminations
Manchester’s immensely popular music and poetry event Poets and Players is fighting back after being surprisingly snubbed by the Arts Council which has supported it for a good while. But if the organi...
3rd May 2015
Kei Miller, and mapping out the truth behind appearances
The gentle, hypnotic voice of Forward prize winner Kei Miller received a rousing reception from a delighted audience at the opening of the 2015 Wenlock poetry festival on Friday night.
His prizewin...
3rd May 2015
Let's hear it for the canal laureate: Jo Bell fans whoop it up
Jo Bell is “a force of nature”, we were told at the Wenlock poetry festival on Saturday. “She keeps a cool head in a crisis on a narrowboat in a tunnel,” said Jonathan Davidson, chief executive of Wri...
1st May 2015
Big names take their turns at busking, and how I ended up in an ambulance
ONE OF the many good ideas and nice touches at Wenlock poetry festival this year was The Poetry Busk – an open mic running for five hours from 12 to 5 on Saturday and Sunday – which featured not only ...
1st May 2015
