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Cry Baby: Gareth Writer-Davies, Indigo Dreams

Based in Brecon, Gareth Writer-Davies has been commended in a number of competitions, and has also been twice shortlisted for the Bridport prize. Cry Baby is his second pamphlet published by Indigo Dreams, after Bodies in 2015.

Readers of the earlier booklet will remember his use of the striking phrase, his ability to sweep aside over-sentimentality and cut through to the bone. Often visceral a...

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Review

'Presidents Club' by Shirley-Anne Kennedy is Poem of the Week

The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Presidents Club’ by Shirley-Anne Kennedy. It’s a topical poem, and each stanza begins with the refrain: “I hoped we had left it all behind.” Poetry is in her blood: her father turned his poems into ditties, and her grandfather sold his poems as song-lyrics...

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Poem of the week

'A roll of the dice could send a girl to jail'

I'm writing this column on a very cold day, and it's nice to be inside with a board game to play, but better yet, for me at least, to be inside with a poem about a board game. This Monopoly game by Co...

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American Life in Poetry

Royal audience for Write Out Loud poet Fred Varden at plaque unveiling

A Manchester poet who blogs regularly on Write Out Loud has read a specially-commissioned poem at the unveiling of a plaque by Princess Anne. Fred Varden delivered his poem at the unveiling of a plaqu...

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News

Ocean Vuong wins £25,000 TS Eliot prize

A poet who was born in Saigon, spent a year in a refugee camp as a baby and migrated to America when he was two years old, where he was raised by his mother, grandmother and aunt, has won the £25,000 ...

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News

Susan Evans at launch of new poetry night in Aldershot

Brighton-based performance poet Susan Evans – pictured at last year’s Poetry Book Fair in London - is headlining a new poetry night in Aldershot on Thursday 25 January. The evening at the Gallery at W...

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News

Missing Miles: Hannah Stone, Indigo Dreams

Hannah Stone holds an MA in creative writing from Leeds Trinity University. Her first  collection, Lodestone, was published by Stairwell Books in 2016. She won the Poetry Business Yorkshire Poetry pri...

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Review

Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn tonight

Karen Izod is the featured poet at Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn, Send, near Woking on Monday 22 January. Sign up from 7.30pm for this free, open mic poetry night compered by Greg Freeman and R...

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News

'100 Reasons to Plant a Tree' by Tim Ellis is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week

The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘100 Reasons to Plant a Tree’ by Tim Ellis.  In his Q&A he explains that this poem is a part of a collection about climate change.  He also talks about how t...

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Poem of the week

'Tomorrow I will begin to try to forget'

Poems that move back and forth through time can be intriguing.  In this poem by Pat Schneider, she looks deep into the past and evokes it in compelling detail, though the poem speculates that there wi...

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American Life in Poetry

Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club tonight

Poetry open micers will be convening at Bolton Socialist Club on Sunday 21 January for Bolton Write Out Loud compered by Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola. Entry is £1 plus raffle and doors open at 7.30pm fo...

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News

'When I am an old woman I shall wear purple': Jenny Joseph dies aged 85

Jenny Joseph, whose 'Warning’, with its much-quoted first line, “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple’, was voted Britain’s favourite poem in a BBC poll, has died at the age of 85. Joseph wrote ...

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News

Write Out Loud at Marsden library tonight

The theme – always optional, of course - is “animals” at Write Out Loud Marsden on Wednesday 17 January, with poems, songs and even jokes welcomed. The co-ordinator is John Ling at this open-floor poe...

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News

Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight

Joel Sadler-Puckering and Parveen Butt are the guest poets at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside arts centre, Sale, on Tuesday 16 January. Entry is  £3/£2 to this open mic poetry event, which starts...

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News

Farewell, John Togher: Write Out Loud Wigan's organiser to step down after 10 years at the helm

The organiser of Write Out Loud Wigan for the last 10 years, John Togher, is stepping down as organiser. His final stint in the role was on Thursday 11 January at the regular monthly night at the Old ...

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News

Curlew Calling: edited by Karen Lloyd, Numenius Press

The cover of this anthology of poetry, nature writing and images “in celebration of curlew” shows a distant, indistinct bird in flight, an image that is sadly appropriate.

According to the RSPB, be...

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Review

'They die on the rug. We find them there, eyes open in surprise'

I've had a couple of aquariums (or is the plural aquaria?), but I didn't take very good care of either one.  The glass clouded over with algae, and the fish had to live on whatever they could scrounge...

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American Life in Poetry

'Song for the old year' by John Marks is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week

The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Song for the old year’ by John Marks, a 14-line poem about winter weather and birdsong. In his answers to our questions John says he is interested in shorte...

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Poem of the week

Usaama Minhas wins Hammer & Tongue national slam contest at Royal Albert Hall

Poet and actor Usaama Minhas has won this year's Hammer & Tongue national slam final at the Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Afterwards on his Facebook page Usaama said: “Becoming the na...

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News

Helen Dunmore wins posthumous Costa poetry prize

Helen Dunmore, who died of cancer last year, has won the Costa poetry award for her final collection, Inside the Wave. The second edition of the collection includes the poem ‘Hold out your arms’, writ...

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News

Helen Ivory to judge £1,000 Kent and Sussex poetry competition

Helen Ivory will be judging the Kent & Sussex Poetry Society’s £1,000 open poetry competition. The deadline is 31 January 2018. More details

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Competitions

'How blindly we stumble ahead with such hope, a light flares briefly'

This is the sixth poem we've published by Peter Everwine, which testifies to how much I admire his writing. How fine it is when a memory arrives from the past to surprise us into happiness. Everwine l...

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American Life in Poetry

Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight

Regulars at Stockport Write Out Loud will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 8 January to share poems at this open-floor event that welcomes newcomers. Each month a collage poem is produced...

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News

'Snippets 2' by Ghost is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week

The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Snippets 2’ by Ghost, a young Korean American born in Middletown, New York. ‘Snippets 2’ is a powerful and poignant poem despite its unassuming title.  In h...

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Poem of the week

Our Beautiful Scars: Jane Seabourne, Offa's Press

Wolverhampton-based poet Jane Seabourne has an MA in English literature and post-graduate certificates in education and mentoring. Now a freelance writer and mentor, most of her adult life has been sp...

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Review

Geoff Stevens prize offers two poets the chance to have collections published

The Geoff Stevens memorial prize organised by publishers Indigo Dreams each year offers the chance for two poets to have 52-page collections published, with 20 free copies each. The deadline is 31 Jan...

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Competitions

Paul Muldoon awarded Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

The Northern Irish poet Paul Muldoon, who was once described by the Times Literary Supplement as the most significant English-language poet born since the second world war, has been named this year’s ...

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News

'An otter slaps the water with his paw to feel the current's pulse'

James Crews, now living in Vermont, was for a couple of years our assistant here at American Life in Poetry. He came to us having already won the Prairie Schooner book prize, and his poems have gotten...

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American Life in Poetry

Deadline nears for £600 Tongues & Grooves prose poem prize

Michael Loveday will be judging the £600 prose poem prize organised by Portsmouth’s Tongues and Grooves. The deadline is 1 January 2018. More details

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Competitions

'Resistance' by John Short is Write Out Loud's first Poem of the Week for 2018

The first Write Out Loud Poem of the Week in 2018 is ‘Resistance’ by John Short. According to his profile, John spent some years in the south of Europe working in fields and factories and as an Englis...

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Poem of the week

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