'Write Out Loud was life-changing for me': Tony Walsh on how he became a poet
Leading performance poet Tony Walsh paid a heartfelt tribute to Write Out Loud at our fundraising Facebook event on Thursday night. Tony, who touched a global nerve with his poem ‘This is the Place’ at the vigil for those killed in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, said he went “way back” with Write Out Loud, to the days “when I first shuffled on to the Manchester, north-west scene with my has...
30th January 2021
How to combat lockdown: poetry group's online magazine has readers in 20 countries
Poetry groups have reacted in different ways to the pandemic. Quite a few have shut up shop, waiting for it to blow over so we can all return to live venues. A number have switched to online events on platforms like Zoom and found it surprisingly easy to get used to. Judging from the green shoots of...
30th January 2021
TOP POETRY PERFORMERS LINED UP FOR WRITE OUT LOUD'S FUNDRAISING EVENT AS APPEAL NEARS DEADLINE
Top poetry performers Tony Walsh, Rachel Long, Louise Fazackerley, Luke Wright and Antonia Jade King will be taking part in an online Write Out Loud fundraising event on Thursday 28 January as our Cro...
27th January 2021
'The dead are still here holding our hands': Jackie Kay's moving poem on BBC's Newsnight
The Scottish makar, Jackie Kay, contributed a moving and memorable poem on BBC’s Newsnight on Wednesday night, during a programme that centred on the government’s announcement earlier in the day that ...
27th January 2021
'Do Not Ask': a poem to mark Holocaust Memorial Day
Today – 27 January - is Holocaust Memorial Day. The Holocaust Memorial Trust (HMDT) encourages remembrance in a world scarred by genocide, remembering the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaus...
27th January 2021
Calling all primary schools and children at home - roll up for a Giant Poetry Party today!
Primary schools and children learning at home during lockdown are being invited to an online Giant Poetry Party on Tuesday 26 January starting at 2pm. Poets Matt Abbott and Louise Fazackerley, assiste...
26th January 2021
The Beauty Within Shadow: Henry Normal, Flapjack
I am going to admit that during lockdown I have found it very hard to read anything of any substance. Newspapers, magazines, periodicals, online dross were all tolerable, but for the first five month...
26th January 2021
The 'man in the cardigan' was gently ribbed by Ian McMillan. But does he have a point?
Over the last few years, I have got out of the habit of attending the TS Eliot Prize readings at the Royal Festival Hall at London’s Southbank Centre. My growing involvement with local, grassroots poe...
26th January 2021
How to Make Curry Goat: Louise McStravick, Fly on the Wall Press
Louise McStravick describes herself as “a writer, a teacher and proud Brummie”. She is also a slam-winning poet and performer, and has said in an interview: “I started out doing spoken word due to the...
26th January 2021
The Hundred Years' War anthology, Newbury, 2015
The Hundred Years’ War, a touring production of modern war poetry in performance inspired by the Bloodaxe anthology, has the barest of sets – a table, two teacups and saucers, a few stools and an acco...
25th January 2021
'Democracy can never be defeated': Amanda Gorman is youngest poet to perform at inauguration
Amanda Gorman became the sixth and youngest poet to perform at a presidential inauguration on Wednesday, winning wide praise for her inspirational and thoughtful poem 'The Hill We Climb'. The 22-year-...
23rd January 2021
Trains, trolleybuses, rag and bone men: Ray Pool publishes online book of archive photographs
Write Out Loud regular Ray Pool is known to many here as a professional musician. But what may be less well known is that before he turned to music, he was a photographer. Now he has published a splen...
20th January 2021
POETRY IS IMPORTANT IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES - HELP US TO HELP OTHERS CREATIVELY, IF YOU CAN
We hope you managed a well-earned rest over the festive period in spite of all the plans that had to be cancelled. We know things are looking gloomy and the last thing you need is a plea for support f...
20th January 2021
'All I knew was that I was to go to Abbey Road and bring three poems'
One of the poets involved in the Cerys Matthews poetry and music album project has spoken of his “joyous surprise” at being asked to contribute, and of attending a recording session at the famous Abby...
19th January 2021
A Sense of Tiptoe: Karen Hayes, Holland Park Press
Karen Hayes spent the earlier part of her working life as an actor and musician and later artistic director of the Bristol-based theatre collective Public Parts. From theatre she moved towards lyric a...
18th January 2021
Marianne Faithfull to release album of Romantic poetry readings
Legendary 1960s figure Marianne Faithfull has unveiled her latest album project – reading the works of the Romantic Poets, including Keats’ To Autumn, and Ode to a Nightingale, Shelley’s Ozymandias, a...
18th January 2021
TV programme on Cornwall pays tribute to poet Jack Clemo
A tribute has been paid during a TV series about Cornwall to “one of Cornwall’s most celebrated poets”, Jack Clemo. In a section of Rick Stein’s Cornwall, Stein talks to writer Philip Marsden about ...
18th January 2021
Singer and DJ Cerys Matthews in album project with 10 poets
Musician and DJ Cerys Matthews is a great champion of poetry. The singer, songwriter and broadcaster, who hosts a weekly music show on BBC Radio 6 Music, has chaired the Forward prize judges in 2014, ...
18th January 2021
Schools to celebrate International Mother Language Day with poetry
Write Out Loud board member Julia Clark, headteacher of Lily Lane primary primary school in Moston, Manchester, and the school’s poet-in-residence Louise Fazackerley will be taking part in an online e...
17th January 2021
National Poetry Day, Southbank Centre, London, 2014
The new Forward prize winner, Kei Miller, looked out at the audience, smiled, and apologised for the downbeat nature of his final poem on National Poetry Day Live at the Southbank Centre in London. Hi...
14th January 2021
Alexa, what's the latest about Brian Bilston, poet laureate of Twitter?
The poet laureate of Twitter, Brian Bilston, is a bit less of a mystery man these days. For a while it’s been known that he is actually Paul Millicheap, a former academic publisher from Oxford, aged 5...
14th January 2021
TS Eliot Prize readings and announcement of winner to be streamed on Sunday 24 January
The £25,000 TS Eliot Prize readings will be combined with the chair of the judges’ announcement of the winner in a streamed event hosted by Ian McMillan at 7pm on Sunday 24 January. Tickets for the ev...
12th January 2021
Forest moor or less: Dawn Bauling and Ronnie Goodyer, Indigo Dreams
Exercise to preserve physical and mental health has become even more important during the pandemic. And walking is still a relatively easy way – and currently permitted, within certain boundaries – t...
11th January 2021
Wendy Klein to judge £200 Slipstream competition
Wendy Klein will be judging the £200 Slipstream Poets open poetry competition. The deadline is 28 February. More details
11th January 2021
Write Out Loud regular offers free copy of spare poetry pamphlet to first email claimant
Write Out Loud regular MC (Mark) Newberry is offering a free copy of a poetry collection about the American civil war that was recently reviewed on this website to the first email claimant. Following ...
9th January 2021
'Walking generates poetic ideas ... I always come back with a couple of good adverbs': Simon Armitage on BBC's Saturday Live
Simon Armitage spoke about the process of becoming poet laureate on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live at the weekend. He said that at first, “as I understand it, there were a number of conversations going o...
9th January 2021
Poetry is precious in these '24-7' times, says Carol Ann Duffy
Poetry can provide an antidote to a “24-7 babble … which is not good for our mental health”, the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy told listeners on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour this week.
She add...
9th January 2021
Stockport Write Out Loud member David Keyworth publishes debut collection
A member of Stockport Write Out Loud Group, David Keyworth, has published his first pamphlet collection. The Twilight Shift is available from Wild Pressed Books.
David was born in West Bromwich b...
8th January 2021
Looking back to the first lockdown ...
Do you still remember the first lockdown? How it felt quite different to this one? Back then we were moving into spring, then summer. There were a whole lot of strange new feelings to inspire us. So m...
8th January 2021
Eavan Boland wins posthumous Costa poetry prize
The Irish poet Eavan Boland, who died last year aged 75, has been posthumously awarded the Costa poetry prize, it was announced on Monday night. Her final collection, The Historians, published in Octo...
4th January 2021
Poems from the Borders: ed. by Amy Wack, Seren
Poems from the Borders forms a part of Seren’s attractively produced pamphlet series celebrating the spirit of place in Wales. The other pamphlets in the series are titled Poems from Cardiff; Poems fr...
4th January 2021
Rishi Dastidar to judge Kent & Sussex poetry competition
Rishi Dastidar will be judging the £1,000 Kent and Sussex Poetry Society open competition. The deadline for entries is 31 January 2021. More details
3rd January 2021
'What we call the beginning is often the end / And to make an end is to make a beginning'
The subject of Brexit has – let’s face it – been the subject of much poetry – and much debate - on the blogs of Write Out Loud over the last few years. So as Britain finally exited from the European U...
3rd January 2021
Helen Ivory to judge £500 Teignmouth poetry festival competition
Helen Ivory will be judging the £500 Teignmouth poetry festival competition. The deadline is 31 January 2021. More details
3rd January 2021
Belongings: David Constantine, Bloodaxe
A map on the cover of a poetry collection is always a promising sign to me. And that promise is fulfilled in Belongings by David Constantine, recent recipient of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. Jus...
1st January 2021
OUR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN IS UP AND RUNNING – AND 'ONE COMMUNITY' WILL DOUBLE YOUR DONATIONS
Two months ago, we told you that we’d be launching a fundraising campaign to start building the new era for Write Out Loud. Since then, we’ve been working hard behind the scenes to put the campaign to...
1st January 2021
Hope you had a merry little Christmas - and that things can only get better in 2021
Write Out Loud would like to wish all our regular readers and friends a happy Christmas and a much better new year - wherever you are (maybe somewhere you didn’t intend to be), and whoever you’re with...
1st January 2021
