Tom Pickard joins tribute to Bunting at Black Huts festival in Hastings
Tom Pickard, who as a teenage poet was instrumental in Basil Bunting's return to writing in the 1960s, will be taking part in an evening of poetry, film and music in honour of Bunting at the Black Huts festival of writing, music and film in Hastings on Saturday 29 October.
In 1963, with his first wife Connie, Pickard founded and ran the Morden Tower Book Room in Newcastle, where he organi...
29th October 2016
Forward prize winner Vahni Capildeo on £20,000 TS Eliot prize shortlist
This year’s Forward prize winner, Vahni Capildeo, pictured, has been named on the shortlist for the £20,000 TS Eliot prize. Four other poets who were shortlisted for Forward prizes – Ian Duhig, Alice Oswald, Denise Riley, and Ruby Robinson – are also on the TS Eliot shortlist. The list also includes...
26th October 2016
Can poetry pay? Panel of experts offer their advice at Society of Authors event
How do you make a living as a poet? Three figures from the poetry world will be discussing this topic at a special event at the Society of Authors on Wednesday 26 October. Tamar Yoseloff, pictured, wh...
26th October 2016
On the way ... a poetry competition run by Write Out Loud on the theme of milestones
Write Out Loud has been chosen by the Milestone Society to run the society’s national poetry competition in 2017, which is being backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Milestone Society, established...
24th October 2016
Putting the boots in: poets continue political blog after publication of anthology
It started as a blog after the 2015 general election. New Boots and Pantisocracies was intended to run for just a year, publishing poems that reacted to the new political regime. Then came Brexit, and...
22nd October 2016
Laura Taylor takes her hard-hitting poetry performance to London
Political and passionate performance poet Laura Taylor is leaving her northern stamping ground and heading down south for a three-date, whistlestop tour of London, starting in Brixton on Friday 21 Oct...
20th October 2016
Mark Pajak and Miller Oberman win Bridport and Ledbury poetry competitions
The winners of two big poetry competitions have been revealed this week. At the weekend it was announced that Mark Pajak, pictured, had won this year’s £5,000 Bridport poetry prize for his poem ‘Spitt...
20th October 2016
Don't think twice, it's all right: Bob Dylan wins Nobel literature prize
Fans of the legendary troubadour Bob Dylan are celebrating after the news that their hero has been awarded the Nobel prize in literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great Ame...
19th October 2016
'Message in a bottle' theme at Write Out Loud Marsden tonight
The theme for Write Out Loud Marsden's open-floor poetry night is “message in a bottle” on Wednesday 19 October. The theme is optional, as always. It’s hosted by Julian Jordon, and starts at 7.30pm at...
19th October 2016
Hollie McNish and Salena Godden are box-office gold at Manchester lit fest
The power of spoken word has been demonstrated at Manchester literature festival, where the double bill of Hollie McNish and Salena Godden at Gorilla on Wednesday 19 October is sold out. But there is ...
19th October 2016
All together now! Write Out Loud Bolton plus Live from Worktown tonight
Write Out Loud Bolton is teaming up with Bolton’s Live From Worktown annual festival at its regular open mic night at Bolton Socialist Club on Tuesday 18 October – and the guest poet is Write Out Loud...
18th October 2016
Ian Whiteley at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight
Ian Whiteley is the guest poet at Write Out Sale on Tuesday 18 October at the Waterside arts centre, Sale. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic event, which starts at 7.30pm. Open mic spaces are available ...
18th October 2016
Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn tonight
There’s another night of open mic poetry in the heart of Surrey at Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn, Send, on Monday 17 October. Sign up after 7.30pm for 8pm start. Entry is free, and your hosts a...
17th October 2016
Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight
Write Out Loud Wigan heads on into the next 10 years at the OId Courts, Crawford Street, Wigan, on Thursday 13 October. Entry is free to this open mic poetry night organised by John Togher. It starts ...
13th October 2016
'No one knew he could sing!': John Cooper Clarke takes on Macarthur Park and other pop classics
Venerated punk poet John Cooper Clarke is making his debut as a lead vocalist on a new album of classic American and British pop with Hugh Cornwell, a former member of the punk band The Stranglers. Th...
12th October 2016
Foyle Young Poets are announced
The Poetry Society has announced this year’s top 15 Foyle Young Poets of the year. They are: Jennie Howitt, aged 17, from Shrewsbury; Eva Brand Whitehead, 14, Oxford; Sophia Carney, 16, London; Robert...
11th October 2016
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 10 October to share their poems at this open-floor poetry night. Each month a collage poems is produced from the poetic cont...
10th October 2016
Write Out Loud's open mic poetry jam at Marsden - and all that jazz!
This weekend sees the Write Out Loud poetry jam at Marsden, which takes place, during the town’s famed jazz festival, every year on Sunday morning between 11am and 1pm at The Railway pub. Poets travel...
7th October 2016
Poets join musicians at events in support of foodbanks
Musicians and poets are getting together over the next few days under the banner of We Shall Overcome at more than 250 gigs across the UK to support foodbanks and to encourage people to make donations...
7th October 2016
Royal recital of Heaney poem kicks off National Poetry Day
The Prince of Wales launched Natonal Poetry Day today by reading Seamus Heaney's poem 'The Shipping Forecast' on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. In addition, 40 BBC local radio stations commissioned 40...
7th October 2016
Poetry anthology backing Corbyn is big success at party conference
A collection of poems in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn proved a soaraway sales success at the recent Labour party conference - and has drawn plenty of media interest, too.
Sky News featur...
4th October 2016
Anthology's tribute to poetry of pubs
Around 30 poets among the winners of a pub poetry competition will be reading at the launch of the anthology, Half Moon: Poetry about Pubs, at the Horse and Farrier pub, on Bridge Street Otley, on 6 O...
3rd October 2016
Paris after the terror attacks: poet publishes pamphlet on the days that followed
A poet based in Paris has written a pamphlet of poems about the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the city on 13 November last year. Paul Stephenson’s The Days That Followed Paris, published by Ha...
2nd October 2016
