On Not Being Observed: Dave Morgan, Flapjack Press
I began to read this collection from the end first. Don’t ask me why, it’s not something I usually do. Perhaps it’s because Dave Morgan and I are both of a certain age. The final poem, ‘Bravado’, starts off in the style of a villanelle, with Dylan Thomas very much in mind: “Do not presume to tell me how to age.” But halfway through it abandons all pretence at the form, in a poetic ‘Oh, sod it!’ mo...
30th April 2024
Hippie's tale: Pratibha Castle at Write Out Loud Woking on Zoom
Pratibha Castle will be reading from her pamphlet Miniskirts in The Waste Land, about her hippie days in London and India, as guest poet at Write Out Loud Woking on Zoom on Wednesday 8 April. More details
30th April 2024
Celebrating Byron bicentenary - and his Italian connections
2024 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of the poet Lord Byron (22 January 1788-19 April 1824), who was a genuine European in his tastes and enthusiasms. In Italy, where he spent six years, he i...
29th April 2024
It was sixty years ago this year ... university plans festival event to honour poetry landmark
An historic poetry landmark in Newcastle that hasn’t been open to the public for a long time but still captures literary imaginations reaches its 60th anniversary this year. Morden Tower, built around...
29th April 2024
Cut a long story short: what one poet did after Write Out Loud
Where do poets go when they leave Write Out Loud? It’s an interesting question, with of course many answers. In Steve Black’s case, he has recently been published along with five other contemporary ha...
25th April 2024
Back after break-in havoc ... Write Out Loud Woking at the Fiery Bird tonight
Write Out Loud Woking’s open-mic poetry night at the Fiery Bird music and community arts venue in Woking will be going ahead on Thursday 25 April after all, after last month’s event - along with many ...
25th April 2024
Hot flushes, nostalgia, The Joy of Sex: meet the Booming Lovelies
Heather Moulson, left, Sharron Green, and Trisha Broomfield are three regulars at Write Out Loud Woking who have teamed up to form a poetic trio called The Booming Lovelies that celebrate “ladies of a...
24th April 2024
'The beauty of imperfection': a look at Japanese poetic forms
Things Japanese is a six-week Writing School evening course with Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana on Japanese culture and poetical forms. The course will introduce forms such as the haibun, tanka, zuihitsu ...
24th April 2024
From sleepy Shropshire to London's Oxford Street ... Poetry Pharmacy branches out
The unique Poetry Pharmacy, which has been dispensing poetry prescriptions as well as books and coffee from its home in the sleepy Shropshire town of Bishop's Castle for several years, is to open a br...
12th April 2024
Poetry for the Many: ed. Jeremy Corbyn, Len McCluskey
A would-be prime minister who confessed to liking – and writing - poetry? Was that why the ‘Red Wall’ working-class voters turned so decisively against him at the 2019 election, and gave Boris Johnson...
9th April 2024
Graham Mort to judge Frogmore Press prize
Graham Mort will be judging the Frogmore Press poetry prize. The prize is 250 guineas, and the deadline is 31 May. More details
9th April 2024
Keeping the dialect poetry flag flying at Morpeth's Northumberland Gathering
Morpeth’s Northumberland Gathering is all about tradition: maintaining the county’s music, dance, crafts, folklore, dialects and customs at an annual three-day festival in the town.
And Eileen Beer...
9th April 2024
Donating to Write Out Loud made easier - just as you asked us to do
Important news! You can now make direct donations to Write Out Loud, so more of your contribution is retained by our community interest company. Thanks to those potential subscribers and donors to Wri...
7th April 2024
In praise of Milton Keynes: Graham Sherwood wins poetry competition in home city
Congratulations to Write Out Loud’s meeter and greeter and moderator Graham Sherwood, who has won first prize in a poetry competition in his home city of Milton Keynes!
Graham won with his poem ‘MK...
7th April 2024
No mere trifle: recovery and discoveries from armchair poets at village book festival
The last time I saw Richie McCaffery read was at Aldeburgh poetry festival at Snape Maltings, more than 10 years ago, with fellow up-and-coming poets such as Kim Moore. On Sunday he was reading in mor...
5th April 2024
Shetland poet wins £140,000 US literary prize
Shetland poet Jen Hadfield has been awarded around £140,000 as one of eight winners of the US Windham-Campbell prize, based at Yale University.
Writers do not apply for the prize, which celebrates ...
3rd April 2024
High Nowhere: Jean Atkin, Indigo Dreams Publishing
Shropshire-based poet, writer and educator Jean Atkin is the author of two previously published collections from Indigo Dreams, How Time is in Fields (2019) and The Bicycles of Ice and Salt (2021). Sh...
2nd April 2024
