The Dark Interval: Rainer Maria Rilke, Random House
What The Dark Interval first highlights is that the life of a poet is often interspersed with letters and other forms of correspondence which, taken as a complement to their poems, helps us to make sense of their temperament and world-view. Similar to what Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet accomplishes, this volume – here collected and published for the first time – brings a different perspective a...
29th August 2018
'Love Garden' by Lynn Hahn is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
This week's Poem of the Week is the wonderful Love Garden by Lynn Hahn. "Thanks for selecting my poem, it means so much to me" said a delighted Lynn when we contacted her to offer our congratulations. Here are the answers she gave us to a few questions we had for her about her work as a poet:
Wh...
28th August 2018
‘The Black Heart’ by Anya is Write Out Loud’s Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘The Black Heart’ by Anya. It’s the second time she has had her work chosen for this – quite an achievement for a poet who’s writing in their second language...
20th August 2018
The Roots of African American Poetry
African American Poetry 1760 - 1900
There are many avenues to travel down in search of poetry. The War Poets of both world wars produced some of the most profound poems which were borne out of terr...
19th August 2018
Leontia Flynn at The Winchester Poetry Festival
Winchester celebrates National Poetry Day and the launch of the third Winchester Poetry Festival with a specially commissioned poem by the award-winning Irish writer Leontia Flynn (pictured). Artisti...
19th August 2018
Edinburgh Fringe Reviews: Porky the Poet and Stand Up & Slam
As the world’s largest arts festival rumbles and ricochets onwards and upwards through to the end of August, there’s still time to visit Scotland’s capital and take in a few cheeky shows. Some are ch...
19th August 2018
Write Out Loud meets Tristram Fane Saunders
I first met Tristram Fane Saunders at a poetry gig in Cambridge and always thought he seemed pretty cool. When he was named a winner in the 2017/18 New Poets Prize, judged by Kayo Chingonyi, it seemed...
19th August 2018
Omphalos 3: Being Home
In the final part of a series of articles exploring the idea of omphalos, or the origin of the poet’s imagination, I asked poet and academic Gail Ashton (author of Ghost Songs and The Other Side of Gl...
19th August 2018
€10,000 Moth Poetry Prize is Open For Business
The Moth Poetry Prize is one of the most prestigious – and lucrative – awards in the world for a single unpublished poem, with an overall prize of €10,000, and three runner-up prizes of €1,000. The p...
19th August 2018
Apple Water/Povel Panni: Raine Geoghegan, Hedgehog Poetry Press
Raine Geoghegan was born in the Welsh valleys, and is half Romany with Welsh and Irish ancestry. She holds an MA in creative writing from the University of Chichester and now lives in West Sussex.
...
19th August 2018
Sabotage Reviews Looking For a New Director
Claire Trevien will be stepping down as Managing Director at Sabotage Reviews, eight years after she originally founded it as a blog, one that has now grown into the biggest review website for indie l...
17th August 2018
Edinburgh Fringe Reviews: Jess Green and Rowan McCabe
As you may be aware the Edinburgh Fringe is well under way. Every August the entire city is taken over by comedians, thespians, promoters, poets, musicians and all manner of downright weirdos in what ...
17th August 2018
Spotlight on Open Mic: Catweazle and Find the Right Words
What made you think you should set up a performance night?
Catweazle: When we started, there was nothing here [in Oxford]. Catweazle is an unplugged performance space for music, poetry, spoken wo...
17th August 2018
New Astronomy Magazine Looking For Submissions
Submissions are open for a new poetry magazine exploring our relationship to the night sky
“Until the Stars Burn Out” is a new online poetry magazine, edited by writer and astronomer Maya Horton. I...
13th August 2018
Jazzman John Clarke, Beat poet
A legendary and much-loved name on the London poetry scene and beyond, John Robert Clarke – aka Jazzman John Clarke – has died. Styling himself as a Beat poet in the tradition of Ginsberg and Kerouac,...
13th August 2018
Housework: Susan Birchenough, KFS
This is a relatively short book – only 20 poems and a total of 30 pages – but it’s perfectly put together in a larger than standard format because of the nature of some of the poems. Susan Birchenough...
13th August 2018
'Sex' by Hallielle Rose Dawson is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
‘Sex’ by Hallielle Rose Dawson is the new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week. In her answers to our questions Hallielle, who is a paramedic, said that she started writing poetry seriously about three ye...
13th August 2018
Spotlight on Open Mic: Taking The Mic
Tim King talks to Write Out Loud about ‘Taking the Mic’
How long has the 'Taking the Mic' night been running?
The event was started in 2008 by Liv Torc (who many of your members will know from the...
10th August 2018
Brace Yourselves. This is Holy Shit from ZatarS
Fancy something, let's say, a little different, in your portfolio of poetry experience?
I offer you: Holy Shit. A three and a half hour computer voice programme poem by the artist ZatarS
"You co...
8th August 2018
Countries of the Mind
Following my recent article on WOL about the idea of omphalos, I spoke with award-winning poet Yvonne Reddick (pictured) and asked for her thoughts on this. Her poetry pamphlet, Translating Mountains,...
8th August 2018
Ready To Do EdFringe Without a Single Ticket?
The Edinburgh Festival is the largest Arts festival in the world by far. With an almost overwhelming array of shows and entertainment on offer, stretching across every conceivable genre of performance...
8th August 2018
The Warmth and Wonderful Poetics of Mary Jean Chan
Mary Jean Chan is a poet, editor and academic from Hong Kong who currently lives in London. I first met her through the Ledbury Poetry Festival Emerging Critic Scheme established in collaboration with...
7th August 2018
'Edward Lear rewrites The Flea by John Donne' by Marnanel Thurman is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
Congratulations to Marnanel Thurman, whose poem 'Edward Lear rewrites "The Flea" by John Donne' is our Write Out Loud Poem of the Week. Here are the responses to our Q&A
How long have you bee...
6th August 2018
Fault Lines: Laura Taylor, Flapjack
When I was young I played a video game featuring a character with a giant mace, who whirled through the battlefield dealing blows left and right, flames spitting out of the end of the weapon, lighting...
6th August 2018
What Price Poetry?
Following an article on Write Out Loud from our Contributing Editor Patrick Wright discussing the merits of poetry competitions (A Gamble Worth Taking), a recent debate on social media sparked some co...
5th August 2018
Have You Been to Bartleby Lately?
Looking for literary inspiration? Perhaps you’re after a particular quotation or just a reminder of exactly who it was that wrote such and such a poem, novel or work of reference? Bartleby is one of...
3rd August 2018
Awesome Event Planning: A Recipe For Success!
Glancing around the room, it was a relief to see that most of the carefully arranged chairs were now being occupied, open mic slots had been filled and all headliners were here and ready to go. Now we...
1st August 2018
Editor's Interview: Can Luke Wright Represent The Entire Nation?
As many of you will know, over the past two decades Luke Wright has toured the world with his poetry, won awards, published books and regularly performs alongside the likes of John Cooper Clarke. Suc...
1st August 2018
