Michael Lavers wins £5,000 Bridport poetry prize
Michael Lavers has won the £5,000 Bridport poetry prize with his poem ‘Low Tide’, it was announced on Thursday evening. He is the author of After Earth, published by the University of Tampa Press. His poems have appeared in Crazyhorse, 32 Poems, The Hudson Review, Best New Poets 2015, TriQuarterly, and the Georgia Review. He lives with his wife, writer and artist Claire Åkebrand, and their two chi...
30th October 2020
Poetry from the allotments to give you a glow ... Steve Pottinger, Emma Purshouse, and Dave Pitt
If you’re looking for something to cheer you up in these dispiriting times of Covid phase two, look no further … I stumbled across this on social media the other day, a wonderful film-poem by the masterly performance poet Steve Pottinger, called ‘Come to Me Now.’
It’s a poem written for a communi...
27th October 2020
Caroline Bird's 'The Air Year' wins £10,000 Forward prize for best collection at online ceremony
Caroline Bird has won the £10,000 Forward prize for best collection with The Air Year, it was announced on Sunday at a special online ceremony. After receiving the award, she thanked her Carcanet publ...
25th October 2020
'I will be happy if the whole world knows': Nigerian poet protests at Lagos killings in poem on Write Out Loud
A young Nigerian poet has used Write Out Loud as a platform to draw attention to protests in his country that are believed to have claimed the lives of at least 12 people, and brought condemnation fro...
25th October 2020
Margaret Atwood returns to poetry with first collection in more than 10 years
The bestselling and award-winning Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood – author of The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, and Alias Grace among many others - publishes her first book of poetry for over a decade...
25th October 2020
Ten contenders on TS Eliot prize shortlist are revealed
The 2020 TS Eliot prize shortlist has been announced by judges Lavinia Greenlaw, Mona Arshi and Andrew McMillan, chosen from 153 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers. The list ...
15th October 2020
Linton Kwesi Johnson shares PEN Printer prize with missing Eritrean poet detained since 2001
An Eritrean poet, Amanuel Asrat, who was arrested in 2001 when editor-in-chief of the leading Eritrean newspaper Zemen, and has been held incommunicado since, has been named International Writer of Co...
14th October 2020
Last day for posting poems on Places of Poetry map as anthology is published
Last year’s popular Places of Poetry project, in which poets were able to post their poems on a map of England and Wales, is being revived for a few days from the start of October.
In 2019 poets we...
11th October 2020
Louise Glück awarded Nobel literature prize for 'austere beauty' of 'unmistakeable poetic voice'
The American poet Louise Glück has been awarded the 2020 Nobel prize in literature for her “unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”.
Glück, who is w...
8th October 2020
Happy to be alive, grateful to the NHS: recovering Michael Rosen talks about Covid
The poet and author Michael Rosen, who spent 47 days in intensive care earlier this year after contracting Covid-19, and came close to death, has talked about his rehabilitation, and about how it has ...
7th October 2020
Dr John Cooper Clarke to launch 'I Wanna Be Yours' autobiography
The Bard of Salford, Dr John Cooper Clarke, will be launching his memoir I Wanna Be Yours, published by Picador, on 15 October with a live online event at Vout-O-Reenee's in London. He will be joined ...
3rd October 2020
Write Out Loud's Beyond the Storm anthology plays its part in a different kind of National Poetry Day
Write Out Loud played its part during National Poetry Day, with BBC Radio Leeds broadcasting a 'montage' of selected poems from our Beyond the Storm anthology of poems about the Covid era during the d...
3rd October 2020
Pascale Petit's 'Mama Amazonica' wins inaugural £5,000 Laurel prize
Pascale Petit’s seventh poetry collection Mama Amazonica has won the inaugural eco-poetry Laurel prize, which was inaugurated by the poet laureate Simon Armitage. The announcement was made at an onlin...
3rd October 2020
Dr John Cooper Clarke to launch 'I Wanna Be Yours' autobiography
The Bard of Salford, Dr John Cooper Clarke, will be launching his memoir I Wanna Be Yours, published by Pan Macmillan, on 15 October with a live online event at Vout-O-Reenee's in London. He will be j...
3rd October 2020
Ireland's Derek Mahon, whose poem caught pandemic mood, dies aged 78
One of Ireland’s leading poets, Derek Mahon, whose poem ‘Everything Is Going to be All Right’ is said to have captured the national mood during the pandemic, has died at the age of 78, the Irish Times...
2nd October 2020
