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Dominic Bury wins National Poetry Competition

Dominic Bury has won this year’s National Poetry Competition with his poem ‘The Opened Field’. The chair of the judges, Pascale Petit, said: " ‘The Opened Field’ is a neutron star of a poem compressed inside the restraining machinery of a sestina. It’s a dark allegory of six boys in a field, but I did not realise it was a sestina until a second reading, when I started to work out what the boys wer...

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News

New anthology includes poems by those close to tragedy

An anthology of poems in aid of victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster will be launched next month. Poems for Grenfell Tower, which includes poems by Anne Stevenson, Michael Rosen, George Szirtes and many others, will be published by Onslaught Press on 30 March.

Seventy-one people, according to o...

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News

Dylan Thomas Day's international Appeal

Dylan Thomas Day, celebrating the poet’s life and work, has been announced, with an open, international invitation to join in.

For the past three years, Dylan Thomas Day has been held on 14th May, ...

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News

Foyle Young Poets of the Year award is open for entries

The Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year award, open to anyone aged 11-17, will be judged this year by Caroline Bird and Daljit Nagra. Caroline has said that she will be looking for “a poem ...

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Young Write Out Loud

'They remind us of our own hearts ... quivering in the lightest wind'

I've never seen a frigate bird (or a frigate) but wanted to offer you a poem to prove that the hawks and crows of the Great Plains aren't the only ones that get attention in this column. Sally Bliumis...

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American Life in Poetry

Deadline day to nominate your favourite spoken word performer or regular spoken word night

It’s time to nominate your favourite spoken word performer or regular spoken word night in the 2018 indie-lit Saboteur awards. The awards, organised by the Sabotage Reviews website, cover a host of ca...

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News

Project inspired by Northumberland coast at Newcastle poetry festival

Waves and Bones, a project sponsored by the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding National Beauty Partnership, will be launched at Newcastle poetry festival at the beginning of May.

A group of p...

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News

‘A Memory of Rhinoceroses’ by Ian Whiteley is our Poem of the Week

Ian Whiteley is a Write Out Loud regular – his profile has had over half a million views – and very active on the live poetry scene, performing as part of political/music/comedy four-piece combo Bard ...

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Poem of the week

Sinéad Morrissey to judge £1,500 McLellan prize

Sinéad Morrissey will be the judge of the £1,500 McLellan poetry prize. The deadline is 21 June. More details

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Competitions

Nia Davies to judge £1,000 Ledbury poetry festival competition

Nia Davies will be judging the £1,000 Ledbury poetry festival competition. The deadline is 12 July. More details

 

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Competitions

Seven contenders on shortlist for Ted Hughes award

Jay Bernard, Caroline Bird, Kayo Chingonyi, Inua Ellams, Matthew Francis, Antony Owen and Greta Stoddart have been shortlisted for the £5,000 Ted Hughes award for new work in poetry, the Poetry Societ...

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News

'What do I have that she could want enough to risk such failure?'

With Dorianne Laux I've shared the experience of having a bird enraged at her reflection in a window.  Laux lives in North Carolina and this is her third poem to be published in this column. Are you f...

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American Life in Poetry

Poets from more than 20 countries at World Poetry Day reading in Preston

Poets from more than 20 countries will be reading at a special World Poetry Day event in Preston on Wednesday 21 March. The free event is taking place at the Ham & Jam Coffee Shop, in Lancaster Road, ...

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News

Something to get your teeth into at Write Out Loud Marsden tonight

The theme is food at Write Out Loud Marsden at Marsden Mechanics, Peel Street, Marsden on Wednesday 21 March. Bring tasty poems, stories or songs, and even food, for a feast of words. Entry is £2 to t...

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News

Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight

Carol Robson and Lenni Sanders are the guests at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside arts centre, Sale, on Tuesday 20 March. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic poetry event. It begins at 7.30 pm. More d...

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News

Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight

Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting this month on Monday 19 March at Stockport art gallery for another readaround of poems. Each month poetic contributions are stitched into a collage poem, and y...

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News

Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn tonight

Kitty Coles is the featured poet at Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn, Send, near Woking, on Monday 19 March. Sign up from 7.30pm for the open-mic, at this free poetry night compered by Greg Freema...

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News

'You'll see our neighbours bathed in gold'

I'm devoted to yard and garage sales, and love to spend time with friendly strangers in scuffed front yards and oily, dim garages.  Here's a poem by Matthew Brennan, who lives in Indiana, from his 201...

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American Life in Poetry

'St Matthew and the Beatles' by Alex W is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week

The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘St Matthew and the Beatles’ by Alex W. It’s a poem about the instruction in St Matthew’s Gospel in the Bible to “love thy neighbour”. In the poem he asks wh...

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Poem of the week

'Courtyard in Snow' by Tom Harding is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week

The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Courtyard in Snow’ by Tom Harding. Tom lives in Northampton and edits the Northampton Poetry Review, an online and print journal that also covers fiction an...

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Poem of the week

Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club on Sunday

It’s Write Out Loud Bolton at Bolton Socialist Club on Sunday 18 March. Your hosts are Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola at this open mic poetry night. Doors open from 7.30pm for 8pm start. Entry is £1 plus ...

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News

John Cooper Clarke to publish memoirs and new poetry collection

John Cooper Clarke is to publish both his autobiography, and his first new poetry collection in 37 years, publisher Picador has announced. The memoir is said by Picador to cover “an extraordinary life...

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News

Farewell to Ken Dodd ... but tongue-twister poem lives on

A funny thing happened on Write Out Loud, on the day that veteran comedian Ken Dodd’s death was announced … a poem that was first blogged on the site back in 2011 received a remarkable 1,554 views.

...

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News

We're looking for a poetry journalist - or two - for Write Out Loud

Write Out Loud is looking for a dedicated volunteer – or volunteers – with a love of poetry to take over the running of its poetry news and features operation.

Greg Freeman, Write Out Loud’s news e...

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Opportunities

Deadline nears for competition to mark end of first world war

A national poetry competition has been launched by the Duke of Cambridge to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war. The Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, which will relocate...

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Competitions

I'm Having the Rhyme of My Life: George Melling, Talentvine Press

Flapjack Press, an independent publisher of north-west performance poetry and poetry theatre for adults and children, also produce collections and anthologies for schools, workshop groups, festivals a...

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Review

'Their breasts and backs as dark as low bruised banks of cloud'

I can identify most of the birds that live in my part of Nebraska, but I can't tell one warbler from the next. But Kevin Cole, in his new book, Late Summer Plums, from Scurfpea Publishing, has identif...

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American Life in Poetry

Belongings: Trevor Hughes, Kingston Press

This is not an easy review to write. Not because the poems in Trevor Hughes’ debut collection, Belongings, are “hard”, in the sense of releasing their meaning with difficulty. Not even because of the ...

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Review

Animal magic: editors seek fantastic poems for anthology

The editors of a forthcoming anthology associated with animals are seeking poetry and short fiction submissions. Humanagerie, to be co-edited by Allen Ashley and Sarah Doyle, will be inspired by the c...

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Publications

International Women's Day launch for #MeToo anthology

It’s International Women’s Day on Thursday 8  March – and an important anthology of women’s poetry is being launched on the same day. #MeToo, an anthology of women’s experiences and responses inspired...

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News

Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight

Write Out Loud Wigan is back at the Old Courts in Crawford Street, Wigan on Thursday 8 March. Entry is free for this open mic poetry event, beginning at 8.30pm. More details and Map

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News

Kate Tempest to publish new poetry collection on heartbreak and redemption

Kate Tempest is to publish a new collection of “free-standing poetry” including “formal poems, spoken songs, fragments, vignettes and ballads” later this year, her publisher Picador has announced.

...

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News

Daljit Nagra to judge £5,000 Bridport prize

Daljit Nagra will be the judge of this year’s Bridport £5,000 poetry competition. The deadline is 31 May. In his guidance to poets he says: “When judging a poetry competition, I approach the poems wit...

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Competitions

'He was at his work bench, a rich man straightening nails'

My late friend, the poet and novelist Jim Harrison, used to tease me about the buckets of bent nails in my barn, which I planned to straighten on some rainy day but which only accumulated.  Here's a f...

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American Life in Poetry

'Far Away in My Living Room When We Have Real 3d Television' by Suki Spangles is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week

The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Far Away In My Living Room When We Have Real 3d Television’ by Suki Spangles, a futuristic poem – although not too futuristic – about watching “real people ...

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Poem of the week

Looking South: Stuart A Paterson, Indigo Dreams

Stuart A Paterson writes in English and his native Scots, and lives by the Solway coast in Galloway. He is a past recipient of an Eric Gregory award, in 1992, and his pamphlet collection, Border Lines...

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Review

Collection of art and poetry on stillbirth to be launched

A book of art and poetry about stillbirth - the death of a baby, over 24 weeks old, before or during delivery – is to be launched in Newcastle later this month. Still Born is by artist Adinda van ’t K...

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News

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