Earth Walker: Ros Woolner, Offa's Press
Ros Woolner grew up in the Thames Valley. After studying and working in Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Germany and West Africa, she now lives in Wolverhampton, where she works as a translator. She is a member of Bilston Writers and Cannon Poets. She won the Guernsey International Poetry Competition in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize run by the Rebecca Swift Foundation in 2022...
28th May 2023
Picture this: poets give their support to north-east photographic gallery forced to close
A much-loved photographic and film gallery in the centre of Newcastle was forced to close in April after losing its Arts Council grant, and facing rising energy bills. But that’s not the end of the story.
A fundraising campaign has been launched to aid the reopening in 2024 of the Side Gallery, r...
28th May 2023
Open-mic poets welcomed at Tunbridge Wells poetry festival
There’s a decidedly open-mic flavour to this year’s three-week Tunbridge Wells poetry festival, with grassroots poets encouraged to take part in a series of Vocal & Live events, all free to attend. Po...
24th May 2023
Steve Pottinger to judge £300 PPP competition
Steve Pottinger will be judging the inaugural Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists (PPP) poetry competition. First prize is £300, and the deadline is 30 June. All proceeds, once costs are covered, wil...
24th May 2023
Forward prizes founder to judge £1,000 Wells competition
The founder of the Forward prizes, William Sieghart, will be judging the £1,000 Wells Festival of Literature open poetry competition. The deadline is 30 June. More details
24th May 2023
What, no poetry? Prosaic reception for new book awards
It seemed like the best of news when it was announced that Caffè Nero was launching a new set of writing awards, a year after fellow coffee shop chain Costa scrapped its popular book awards.
Like t...
24th May 2023
Beat poet and Cream lyricist Pete Brown dies aged 82
The Beat poet Pete Brown, who appeared at the Albert Hall in the 1960s with Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Michael Horovitz, and also co-wrote hit songs for the band Cream i...
20th May 2023
'When it's done it's done. It's not yours any more': Kae Tempest on a new collection and the creative process
“Once the poem’s finished, the poem’s got nothing to do with me. You put everything into it and you work on it and you work with it, but when it’s done it’s done. It’s not yours any more. It was never...
20th May 2023
The Spaces Between Us, eds. Kathleen Morgan, Jamie Stewart and Oz Hardwick, Indigo Dreams
This miscellany of poetry and prose comprises the eighth annual Wordspace anthology produced in collaboration with Indigo Dreams Publishing. All of the 30 contributors in this volume, ranging from est...
20th May 2023
Who follows Alice Oswald? Four candidates set out stalls to become Oxford Professor of Poetry
Four candidates have thrown their hats in the ring to succeed Alice Oswald, pictured left, as the next Oxford Professor of Poetry. They are Christian Bök, Mark Ford, Don Paterson and AE Stallings. Mem...
19th May 2023
Anthony Anaxagorou wins £10,000 Ondaatje prize
British-Cypriot poet Anthony Anaxagorou has won the £10,000 Ondaatje prize for his collection titled Heritage Aesthetics. The award, run annually by the Royal Society of Literature, recognises an outs...
11th May 2023
'It's more of a puzzle than a poem': ovation for opening words at Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool
Actor Ricky Tomlinson helped get the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool off to an emotional start with his rendition of a poem by Frank Cottrell-Boyce packed with Liverpool and Beatle reference...
9th May 2023
'An Unexpected Guest': Simon Armitage's poem to mark coronation of King Charles III
The poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has published his poem to mark the coronation of King Charles III. Titled ‘An Unexpected Guest’, it views Saturday’s coronation through the eyes of an ‘ordinary’ inv...
8th May 2023
Poem by Daljit Nagra lights up the Coronation Concert
A poem performed by actor James Nesbitt and written by the chair of the Royal Society of Literature, Daljit Nagra, pictured, illuminated the Coronation Concert at Windsor on Sunday night.
The poem...
8th May 2023
Play up, Pompey! Richard and Chris issue writing call-out to Portsmouth football fans
Two Portsmouth football fans are celebrating their club’s 125th anniversary by becoming the club’s creative writers in residence for next season. Long-standing supporters Richard Williams, pictured ri...
7th May 2023
To the lighthouse? Pointing out new directions at bookshop reading
Before the bookshop reading I spoke to another early arrival, a man who had only recently retired. Since retiring he had discovered writing, and now rarely thought of anything else. He had come, he sa...
5th May 2023
Poet provides poem at first 'Lonely Funeral' in Scotland
A poet who last year launched a project to provide eulogy poems for people who have no one present at their funeral has attended and provided a poem at the first such service in Scotland.
Andy Jack...
3rd May 2023
