From Seville to Bradford: Yorkshire poet Ian McMillan adapts Rossini's classic opera for city festival
Rossini’s The Barber of Seville has been adapted into Yorkshire dialect by poet Ian McMillan for a premiere performance at the first Bradford opera festival next month. The event on 23 November at St George’s Hall will feature the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and Bradford Festival Choral Society, with Alex Chisholm directing and Ben Crick conducting.
“It is an opera that was just made for the p...
29th October 2023
Beauty of an explosion? Challenging words win first Forward prize for best performed poem
Popular Midlands spoken word performer Bohdan Piasecki has won the first Forward prize for best single performed poem with ‘Almost Certainly’, which begins “It’s almost certainly impossible to appreciate the beauty of an explosion …” After his £1,000 win was announced he told the audience at Leeds P...
20th October 2023
'We've had our money's worth ... now poets should speak up for nature': Simon Armitage in the Arctic
The poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has made a BBC Radio 4 series about a “life-changing” journey to the Arctic. In the first episode, he says poets have had their "money's worth when it comes to natur...
16th October 2023
Nobel prize-winning poet Louise Glück dies aged 80
The Nobel prize-winning American poet and essayist Louise Glück has died at the age of 80. She was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 2020, with the Nobel judges praising “her unmistakable poet...
13th October 2023
First Corbyn quoted Shelley ... now Braverman 'shamelessly' claims Conservatives are 'the many'
You know how rock musicians sometimes complain that politicians – particularly American ones – seize on their songs as a backdrop to their campaigns, without asking permission?
I wonder if the Roma...
7th October 2023
Welcome back onstage, Jackie!
This picture of popular spoken word performer Jackie Hagan, taken backstage recently at Morecambe’s Winter Gardens – with headliner Roger McGough in the background – tells an important, heartwarming s...
6th October 2023
Poets pay tribute to Paul Blackburn - a founding father of Write Out Loud - after death at festival
Write Out Loud has been saddened to hear of the sudden death of Paul Blackburn, a leading figure in the north-west poetry scene for many years, who also played a key part in the growth and success of ...
5th October 2023
It's National Poetry Day! What does this year's theme of 'Refuge' mean to you?
This year's theme of National Poetry Day on Thursday 5 October - the annual mass celebration on the first Thursday of October that encourages everyone to make, experience and share poetry with family ...
5th October 2023
Shortlisted TS Eliot prize poets 'all reflect current disruption'
The 2023 TS Eliot prize shortlist has been announced, and it includes a former winner and two previously shortlisted poets, and poets from the UK, Ireland, Jamaica, Hong Kong and the US: Jason Allen-P...
4th October 2023
