Started writing, couldn't stop ... poet's daily poems tot up to 1,000!
At the start of the Covid lockdown, Paul Cookson set out to write a poem a day. After the end of lockdown, he just kept going. Now he has published his daily thoughts on Covid, plus Brexit, the NHS, the US election, Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, the Lionesses’ Euros victory, the Queen’s death, the UK government, as well as his observations on many personal, and other national and global incidents...
29th April 2023
Laurie Bolger wins €6,000 Moth poetry prize
Laurie Bolger has won this year’s €6,000 Moth Poetry Prize with her poem ‘Parkland Walk’. The prize was judged by Nobel laureate Louise Glück, who said: “My own preference inclines to the irregular over the regular, to suggestion over assertion, to dissonance over harmony … I respond to poems that s...
29th April 2023
David Cooke looks back on poetry stops and starts as he unveils a bumper volume of poems
We at Write Out Loud have been lucky over the years to include the accomplished poet David Cooke as one of our number. David has regularly posted his poems on this site for well over a decade. Now upo...
25th April 2023
Ada Limón to get second term as US poet laureate in historic move
Ada Limón has been appointed to a two-year second term as the nation's 24th poet laureate – the first time this has happened. The act of Congress establishing the poet laureate position states that th...
24th April 2023
Out for Air: Olly Todd, Penned in the Margins
What do poetry and skateboarding have in common? The answer might well be Olly Todd. Former professional skateboarder turned poet, Todd now lives in East Sussex. His poems have appeared in Ambit, The ...
24th April 2023
After: Mark Connors, Yaffle
Too many fine poetry collections are published and then languish, unsung. That’s just the way it is. This review is an attempt to redress the balance in the case of just one of those collections – Aft...
21st April 2023
Carolyn Forché, Ilya Kaminsky elected to US Academy of Arts
Poets Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky have been elected to the American Academy of Arts, it has been announced. The Poetry Foundation has said of Forché that she “is perhaps best-known for coining th...
21st April 2023
Under the Ice: the sounds of Antarctica, by poet, composer, and scientists
“Immense creaks, cracks, rumbles …” a few of the opening words from Northumberland poet Katrina Porteous’s ‘Under the Ice’, a 30-minute poetry performance with electronic music by the late Peter Zinov...
17th April 2023
Remembering Henry: poets gather to aid children’s cancer charity
This weekend marks the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering, a three-day festival of street entertainment, indoor events, music, dance, craft, dialect, heritage and general fun that’s held the weekend after...
15th April 2023
Poetry competition in honour of Hexham poet
A new £200 poetry competition for adults and children has been launched in Hexham, Northumberland, in honour of a local-born feminist poet, Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne. She was the sister of the first wor...
13th April 2023
President Biden quotes Belfast laureate Sinéad Morrissey in Good Friday Agreement speech
The concluding lines of a poem by prize-winning poet Sinéad Morrissey were quoted by US President Joe Biden on Wednesday during his visit to Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agr...
13th April 2023
US poet with tragic back-story wins National Poetry Competition
An American poet with a traumatic family background has won this year’s National Poetry Competition, organised by the Poetry Society. Lee Stockdale won with his poem ‘My Dead Father’s General Store in...
10th April 2023
Roger Robinson to judge £5,000 Bridport prize
Roger Robinson will be judging the 50th Bridport poetry competition prize. The deadline is 31 May 2023. More details
5th April 2023
An attic room with a view of the railway sidings: on the trail of Norman Nicholson
There’s an app for almost everything these days, isn’t there? And there’s certainly one for the poet Norman Nicholson, who spent almost his entire life in the same house in the town of Millom, in the ...
2nd April 2023
New open-mic night to be launched in North Shields
A new addition to the lively poetry scene on North Tyneside is being launched later this month. Poet Dean Jolly will be compering an open-mic poetry night at Barista Boho in North Shields on 22 April ...
1st April 2023
Poetry magazine appeals for renewed support to stay in business
The editor of the bi-annual poetry magazine Butcher’s Dog has warned that it faces closure after 10 years of publishing unless sales improve. Jo Clement said on Twitter: “With a very heavy heart and a...
1st April 2023
