Wenlock poetry festival says farewell with celebratory anthology
Organisers of Wenlock poetry festival in Shropshire, which hasn’t been staged for several years, have taken the decision that there won’t be another one. It's sad news for many, including here at Write Out Loud, where we have fond memories of reporting on and photographing Wenlock poetry festival weekends back in the day.
But its passing will be marked with a celebratory anthology, with the the...
29th December 2022
'When the war started, I was distraught'
I interviewed the editor of Disbelief, Julia Nemirovskaya, by email about the anti-war anthology - about how it came about and evolved, the risks of speaking out, the dangers some writers still living in Russia might face. I found her answers fascinating – and also, very moving.
How did you ...
23rd December 2022
Peace poet Antony Owen reads Nagasaki poem at Westminster
Peace poet Antony Owen read a poem from his collection The Nagasaki Elder at the culmination of a meeting at the House of Lords that looked at how nuclear disarmament and peace education should be tau...
23rd December 2022
Discovering Northumberland with poet Noel Hodgson
I first encountered Noel Hodgson’s poetry in a shop in Wooler, in rural and wild north Northumberland. We had driven to the area in search of red squirrels, and had succeeded in spotting a couple. Aft...
20th December 2022
Brian Bilston's poetic guide to Christmas ... as we wish everyone happiness and health!
Earlier this year the ‘poet laureate of Twitter’, Brian Bilston, published an impressive new volume of poetry. Titled Days Like These, it contains “an alternative guide to the year in 366 poems” – and...
20th December 2022
'Now he answers to everything that reminds him of her'
In this moving elegy to his infant daughter, Saddiq Dzukogi reminds us of how complex grief can be. The body’s responses to grief offer a way for us to cope with its deep pain. Here, the poem, 'So Muc...
20th December 2022
Jonathan Edwards to judge Kent and Sussex poetry competition
Jonathan Edwards will be judging the £1,000 Kent and Sussex poetry competition. The deadline is 31 January 2023. More details
18th December 2022
Fiona Benson to judge Teignmouth poetry competition
Fiona Benson will be judging the £600 Teignmouth poetry festival competition. The closing date is 31 January 2023. More details
18th December 2022
Poetry festival in plea for support after losing Arts Council grant
Cheltenham poetry festival is appealing for fundraising support after failing in its bid for an Arts Council grant for the first time in 13 years. In a statement it said: “The feedback we have receive...
18th December 2022
'Joe stopped, stooped, picked a flower'
It seems clear enough that Quincy Troupe wants his poem, 'Picking a Dandelion', to achieve the coveted status of “timelessness” while being rooted in a historical moment. Here are Joe and Jill, two pe...
12th December 2022
From PhD thesis on everyday sexism to award-winning poetry collection: Kim Moore wins £10,000 Forward prize
Kim Moore has won this year’s £10,000 Forward prize for best collection for All The Men I Never Married, a book that first emerged from a PhD thesis in Poetry and Everyday Sexism at Manchester Metropo...
9th December 2022
Claire Askew's collection named Scottish Poetry Book of the Year
A poetry collection about witchcraft which traces historic atrocities, and celebrates the lives of those accused of witchcraft with empathy, tenderness and rage has won Scottish Poetry Book of the Yea...
9th December 2022
Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands: Sarah Wimbush, Bloodaxe
Sarah Wimbush is a Leeds poet who originates from Doncaster, and whose debut poetry pamphlet, Bloodlines, won the Mslexia/PBS poetry pamphlet competition. She has also been a winner in the Poetry Busi...
7th December 2022
Billy Casper's Tears: Paul Summers, Smokestack
Paul Summers is a poet born in Northumberland and currently living in North Shields. He has published a number of poetry collections, written for TV, film, radio and the theatre, and recently edited W...
7th December 2022
Kate Wakeling's 'and a tree' is Poetry Society's Christmas poem
Children’s poet Kate Wakeling is the author of this year’s poem ‘and a tree’ commissioned by the Poetry Society to celebrate the arrival and lighting up of the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree. The tre...
7th December 2022
Jonathan Edwards wins £2,000 Troubadour prize
Award-winning poet Jonathan Edwards has won the £2,000 Troubadour prize with his poem ‘My Grandfather’s Car’. One of the two judges, Victoria Kennefick, said: “It is a glorious poem in both theme and ...
6th December 2022
New performed poem category at Forwards next year 'to rebalance historical inequities'
There was an intriguing moment last week at the Forward prizes ceremony at Contact theatre in Manchester, when organisers revealed that next year there will be a new prize category - Best Single Poem,...
6th December 2022
'While there is still some light on the page, I am writing now a history of snow'
Allison C Rollins manages, in this striking poem, to contain the anxiety of those facing sightlessness, and the urgency they feel to try to preserve in memory, that which is fleeting. For her, the poe...
5th December 2022
A Pocketful of Chalk: Claire Booker, Arachne Press
I emerged from Claire Booker’s A Pocketful of Chalk refreshed, as if from a journey across the downs and cliff-tops that she so clearly loves. In my reading I had accompanied the poet as she melded wi...
1st December 2022
The Illustrated Woman: Helen Mort, Chatto
In The Illustrated Woman Helen Mort guides us through a roadmap of the body, its personal and political journeys, from adolescence to motherhood, to constructions of identity that question and shatter...
1st December 2022
