Poetry aid: Bradford's Barbara Howerska raises £150 for food bank
Bradford poet Barbara Hoswerska has raised £150 for a local food bank after staging a reading from her recent poetry collection, and donating all the money raised from sales of her book.
She said: "It was a wonderful evening. I had lots of fun and read 15 poems." Barbara's collection is titled The Widow Witch, and is published by Half Moon Press. The evening was on Wednesday 15 December at the...
30th December 2021
Feeling down at Christmas? Let Liz Berry's seasonal poem lift the heart
Christmas? Bah, Covid! Again! It's easy to feel downbeat about December 2021. Just as December 2020 turned out to be not as we'd hoped, with families locked down or separated, December 2021 has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. The year started so promisingly, with the youngest poet to read at a ...
22nd December 2021
Light Makes It Easy: Rosie Jackson, Indigo Dreams
The 2020-21 global pandemic and lockdown in particular form the background to this pamphlet collection of topical poems by teacher and prize-winning poet Rosie Jackson.
Jackson’s poem ‘Because Thes...
21st December 2021
'Pioneering voice' awarded Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
Guyanese poet Grace Nichols has been awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, it has been announced. Nichols moved to Britain in 1977. Her first poetry collection, I Is a Long-Memoried Woman, was pu...
18th December 2021
Worcestershire laureate's new role as hospital trust poet in residence
Worcestershire's poet laureate Ade Couper has a new role - as the first poet in residence of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. As the Worcester News reported, his task will be to explore how p...
17th December 2021
Manuscript of Emily Brontë's poems saved for the nation in £15m library acquisition
The Friends of the National Libraries (FNL) has successfully raised over £15 million to acquire the Honresfield Library for the nation, it was announced today. The collection includes manuscripts by t...
16th December 2021
Chance of anthology publication in Plath competition
The deadline is 31 December to enter poems for the £1,000 Sylvia Plath prize, to mark the 90th anniversary of her birth. Winners will receive cash prizes and publication in After Sylvia, a celebratory...
16th December 2021
Be Feared: Jane Burn, Nine Arches Press
The poems featured in Be Feared trace a challenging and at times fearful journey towards self-awareness and liberation. The poet is the hero, or better the heroine, of this journey that is a relentles...
15th December 2021
The gift of poetry: pharmacy swept off its feet with orders after mention in Christmas gift guide
The Poetry Pharmacy in Shropshire, which offers “poetry on prescription – an alternative therapy for your emotional ailments”, has been swamped with orders after appearing in a national newspaper Chri...
12th December 2021
Poet donates copies of book to raise cash for food bank at Christmas
A poet is giving away copies of her poetry collection to raise money for a local food bank at Christmas. Barbara Howerska will be giving a poetry reading at the Exchange Craft Beer House in Bradford o...
12th December 2021
'I dislike the idea of being a religious poet': former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
The former Archbishop of Canterbury and poet, Rowan Williams, will be discussing his new Collected Poems with fellow Carcanet poet Rachel Mann at an online launch event on Wednesday 15 December.
Hi...
10th December 2021
Before Them, We: new poetry anthology digs deep into African family histories
A fascinating new poetry anthology celebrating intergenerational African family histories will be published next month. Poets such as Inua Ellams, Nick Makoha, Yomi Sode and many more are included in ...
10th December 2021
Unearthed: Ruth Taaffe, Dempsey & Windle
Ruth Taaffe, who is from Manchester, has taught in the UK and in international schools for over 25 years. She holds a Masters degree in creative writing from Lancaster University and her poems about h...
10th December 2021
Poet’s tribute to ‘Fourth King’ Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square
The Poetry Society has unveiled a new poem, ‘The Fourth King’ by Sinéad Morrissey, in welcoming the Norwegian Christmas tree to Trafalgar Square. Every year, the Poetry Society commissions a poet to ...
7th December 2021
The Bicycles of Ice and Salt: Jean Atkin, Indigo Dreams
This pamphlet of poems concerns two long bicycle journeys in Europe, one with a female companion, and a later one with a male, undertaken in the 1980s. Jean Atkin has said about the journeys in a blog...
7th December 2021
Nocturnes: David Olsen, Dempsey & Windle
David Olsen is the American author of four full-length poetry collections published in UK and four poetry chapbooks from the US. He is also a playwright, a writer of short fiction, and former freelanc...
7th December 2021
Pascale Petit to judge Shepton Mallet poetry competition
Pascale Petit will be judging the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival poetry competition on the theme of ‘Hope in Nature’. First prize is £200, and the deadline is 9 January 2022. More details
P...
4th December 2021
'The coast affirms that lines are always changing'
For Kayleb Rae Candrilli, as for many of us, the dramatic change of setting - in their case, the arrival at the coast facing the grand Atlantic - can shift our sense of being in significant ways. For ...
4th December 2021
