Heather Moulson at Write Out Loud Woking tonight
Heather Moulson is the guest poet at Write Out Loud Woking on Thursday 30 May, at the Lightbox gallery in Woking. It’s now on the last Thursday of the month at the Lightbox, and at a new start time of 8pm. Sign up from 7.30pm for the open mic, with hosts Greg Freeman and Rodney Wood. More details and Map
30th May 2019
'It is lost, hiding somewhere out back'
I don't suppose there are many of our younger readers who have started to worry about the possibility of memory loss, but I'd guess almost everybody over fifty does. Peter Schneider lives in Massachusetts and this is from his book Line Fence, from Amherst Writers and Artists Press.
LOST IN P...
28th May 2019
Hat-trick for Jamie Thrasivoulou as he wins Saboteur award for best spoken word performer
It was a great night for Derby at the Saboteur awards on Saturday night. Jamie Thrasivoulou, who is the official poet for Derby County FC, with his poem ‘We Are Derby’ played on the big screen before ...
27th May 2019
The Poem of the Week is 'The Only Band That Mattered!' by Jeffarama
This weeks Poem of the Week is The Only Band That Mattered! by Jeffarama. The poem takes us back to the heady, punk rock, days of 1977. We are in the throng as The Clash come on stage – guitars wailin...
27th May 2019
My kind of poetry: Carole Bromley
I was trying to decide between three possible posts for this Sunday, when my mind was made up for me by two things. On Wednesday I had a great time as a support reader at Seven Arts in Chapel Allerton...
27th May 2019
Wandering poet Benjamin Guilfoyle treks to 12 shows in 12 days to raise charity cash
When Write Out Loud caught up with him – by phone – he had walked 50 miles in four days, and was about to perform in his fourth show. Benjamin Guilfoyle, aka the Woolly Hat Poet, or at the moment the ...
24th May 2019
Oxford contender Alice Oswald looks forward to 'extreme poetry events'
Alice Oswald, one of the candidates to succeed Simon Armitage as the next Oxford professor of poetry, has talked of wanting to stage some “extreme poetry events … all-night readings of long poems, poe...
23rd May 2019
Survivors' accounts of Hillsborough disaster is on Forward shortlist for best first collection
A collage of verbatim survivor testimonies from the Hillsborough disaster, which has been published to mark its 30th anniversary, and is described as an epic-poem that is “part oral history and part d...
23rd May 2019
Raymond Antrobus is first poet to win £30,000 Folio prize
Raymond Antrobus has become the first poet to win the £30,000 Rathbones Folio prize, with his collection The Perseverance, which also won this year’s Ted Hughes award for poetry.
The British-Jamaic...
21st May 2019
Let me count the ways: the things that lists can do
I shall start a tad self-indulgently. Last Monday I was running an open mic at the Puzzle Poets Live in Sowerby Bridge. It was a special night with a guest poet of rare talent ... Peter Riley, the fir...
21st May 2019
Amy Kinsman and Kate Garrett at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight
Amy Kinsman and Kate Garrett are the featured poets at Write Out Loud Sale tonight, Tuesday 21 May, at the Waterside arts centre, Sale. Tonight’s open-mic night is hosted by Debz Butler. Entry is £3, ...
21st May 2019
Outsider candidate in Oxford Professor of Poetry poll calls for change
Andrew McMillan, Alice Oswald, and Todd Swift have emerged as the three candidates to succeed Simon Armitage as the next Oxford Professor of Poetry.
Voting will open on Thursday 23 May and close on...
20th May 2019
The Poem of the Week is 'Imogen – 10 months old' by Trevor Homer
This weeks Poem of the Week is the delightful 'Imogen - 10 months old' by Trevor Homer, a beautiful poetic tribute to a specific young girl as well as an ode to the innocence of youth itself and the j...
20th May 2019
The music of time: Roger McGough still welcomes us all into poetry's big tent
Time was when Roger McGough was regarded as one of the voices of a new poetry generation. As one of the Liverpool Poets, with Brian Patten and Adrian Henri, he encouraged thousands to have the confide...
19th May 2019
Celebrating Walt Whitman at Bolton Write Out Loud tonight
Bolton Write Out Loud will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of American poet Walt Whitman on Sunday 19 May at Bolton Socialist Club. Why Walt Whitman? Because although the American p...
19th May 2019
Of Course, the Yellow Cab: Ken Champion, The High Window
Ken Champion is a poet, novelist and critic whose work has been published widely both at home and abroad. His publications include three full collections of poetry, a volume of short stories, two nove...
15th May 2019
'The dogs, I note, are smaller, the owners less ferocious'
Ibbetson Street is a journal that comes out twice a year and does a fine job selecting its poems. I like this one by Kenneth Lee, a gynaecological pathologist in Boston, whose most recent book is Grav...
14th May 2019
Deadline nears for Marsden the Poetry Village competition on 'Together' theme
Patience Agbabi will be judging an international poetry competition run by Marsden the Poetry Village for poems submitted on the theme of “Together”, with a deadline of 1 June 2019. First prize is £30...
13th May 2019
'I feel it's time to give something back': Simon Armitage is the new poet laureate
There is a sense of celebration at Write Out Loud with the news that Simon Armitage, who grew up in the West Yorkshire Pennine village of Marsden, has been appointed as the new poet laureate. Write Ou...
13th May 2019
The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is 'Stuff and Nonsense' by Twilbury Wist
This weeks Poem of the Week is the fabulous 'Stuff and Nonsense' by Twilbury Wist, a seemingly lightweight drip of words that, once fully digested becomes a cutting piece of satire and reminds us that...
13th May 2019
My kind of poetry: Gaia Holmes
Gaia Holmes's third collection was recently longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje prize. That’s all the prompt I need to revisit things I’ve written about her in the past, and to urge you to rush out and bu...
12th May 2019
'Star Scran and Honey Madness' by Kealan Coady is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
Our Poem of the Week is 'Star Scran and Honey Madness' by Kealan Coady, a breathless piece of psychedelia that drips with deep space imagery and invites us to trip the light fantastic. Though we start...
11th May 2019
Going to bed with the moon: Jenny Hockey, Oversteps
In my copy of Going to bed with the moon Jenny Hockey has written: “Hope you enjoy some of these – a few new faces of death included.” Hockey is a retired sociology professor from Sheffield. Her speci...
10th May 2019
She meant to go places in it: camp in its back seat and cook on its stove
How many of our mothers set aside what they wanted to do with their lives and chose instead to make good lives for us? This poem is from Faith Shearin's sixth book, Darwin's Daughter, published in 201...
10th May 2019
Poetry workshops, the ins and outs: line breaks
This will be a slightly edited version of a post I wrote some time ago. I hope it’ll be useful.
There should be a reason why every line ends where it does.
Think about this handwritten letter, b...
6th May 2019
Negative of a Group Photograph: Azita Ghahreman, trans. Maura Dooley, Bloodaxe
This is a rich selection of poems from five books written over the last 40 years by the Iranian poet Azita Ghahreman, and translated into English by Maura Dooley with the help of the filmmaker Ellum S...
4th May 2019
Sixty poets to read in 10-hour Poetry Cafe fundraiser
Sixty poets, each reading for eight minutes, will be taking part in the Poetry Society’s Poem-A-Thon fundraiser on Saturday 18 May at the Poetry Café in Covent Garden from noon to 10pm. Entry is by do...
4th May 2019
Imtiaz Dharker turns down poet laureateship
The poet tipped to succeed Carol Ann Duffy as the new poet laureate has turned down the job. Imtiaz Dharker, who won the Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry in 2015, and who has described herself as a “Scot...
4th May 2019
