Roger McGough to judge Arts Richmond poetry prize
Roger McGough will be judging the £250 Arts Richmond poetry prize. The theme is 'Changes'. The deadline is 17 January 2025. More details
30th December 2024
Poets Imtiaz Dharker and Ian McMillan to take part in Shipping Forecast Day on BBC radio
Poets Imtiaz Dharker and Ian McMillan are among celebrities that will read special versions of radio’s The Shipping Forecast to mark the centenary of the forecast on New Year’s Day.
The Shipping Forecast has been described as a daily prose poem with its repeated strange phrases such as “falling m...
28th December 2024
Why not welcome in the new year - with your own haiku for 2025!
Here’s a poetry challenge for you, to welcome in 2025. Following the success of your reverse-nonet ‘Christmas tree’ poems, we’re inviting you to compose a haiku – or several – to consider what the new...
27th December 2024
We're sorry that we have been experiencing delays
APOLOGIES to those users - many of us, in fact - who have found it slow going at times on the Write Out Loud website this month. We are working on the problem, which has coincided with an unexpected h...
27th December 2024
Season's greetings! Thank you for all your poetry throughout 2024!
Season's greetings from everyone at Write Out Loud to all our users! We just wanted to say how grateful we are to all our Write Out Loud members and visitors. Thank you for all your poetry throughout ...
25th December 2024
Singer-songwriter and poet laureate work together on wintry tales
Singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy, pictured, has released a new single, a winter-themed song written in collaboration with the poet laureate, Simon Armitage.
The link-up came after Armitage read o...
22nd December 2024
George Szirtes to be awarded King's Gold Medal for Poetry
The Hungarian-born poet George Szirtes, who came to England as a boy with his family following the Hungarian uprising and Soviet clampdown in 1956, is to be awarded the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry.
...17th December 2024
BBC's tribute to Benjamin Zephaniah on anniversary of his death
A tribute to Benjamin Zephaniah was screened on BBC4 on Saturday night to mark the first anniversary of the poet’s death. Dread Poets Society, a high-spirited and often hilarious fantasy in which Zeph...
15th December 2024
Ayres, Antrobus, Normal: BBC's The Verb looks back at Morecambe poetry festival
BBC Radio’s The Verb will be presenting a special programme looking back at this year’s Morecambe poetry festival at 9pm on Friday 3 January. The programme was recorded at the festival in September th...
14th December 2024
Christmas tree poem unveiled at Trafalgar Square
This year’s Poetry Society poem to celebrate welcoming the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree was performed by three pupils from the St Vincent’s Catholic primary school, Westminster at the lighting-up c...
6th December 2024
Scotland appoints Gaelic speaker as national poet
A native Gaelic speaker from the isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides has been appointed as Scotland’s new Makar, its national poet. Academic, writer and broadcaster Peter Mackay [Pàdraig MacAoidh] is ...
6th December 2024
Starmer quotes Larkin at Lord Mayor's Banquet
The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, quoted a couple of words from the poet Philip Larkin in his speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet on Monday night. Sir Keir said: “My Lord Mayor. We have so much to ...
3rd December 2024
Time in Pleats and Folds: Audrey Ardern-Jones, Indigo Dreams
An important aspect of the poetry of Audrey Ardern-Jones is its humanity. Perhaps it is a failure of mine, to perceive it that often in the poems of others. Certainly, in Time in Pleats and Folds, it ...
3rd December 2024