Best-selling poets will team up to perform together as ‘Worst Poets Club’ later this year in a cheery riposte to critics
Four female poets who between them have been largely responsible for any increase there has been in poetry sales over the last few years – but who have nevertheless faced criticism from poetry critics - are teaming up together later this year for two events in London and Edinburgh. The instigator of the events, Hollie McNish, came up with the idea of confronting the criticism head-on, by calling t...
15th March 2026
U-turns by two magazines as poets’ work is dropped over social media posts
The editor of a poetry magazine has drawn attention to the way another literary journal first published a review of a poet’s book, then withdrew it on the grounds that social media posts by the poet, Polly Clark - pictured - ran the risk of causing offence. Gerry Cambridge, long-standing founder and...
15th March 2026
Poet laureate hopes building work on National Poetry Centre in Leeds will begin ‘some time this year’
The poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has said he hopes that work on the National Poetry Centre in Leeds - one of his key declared aims when he became laureate in 2019 – will begin later this year. In an...
8th March 2026
Take an ambulance, add prescriptions, and now pharmacies: poetry apothecary's magic formula
The poetry world has its festivals, awards, creative courses, workshops, readings, and open mic nights. And these are all well and good. But every now and again someone has a brainwave, that no one el...
6th March 2026
Michael Laskey to receive King's Gold Medal for Poetry
The founder of Aldeburgh poetry festival, Michael Laskey, is to receive the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry, it has been announced. Laskey, aged 81, who was once shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize, said ...
6th March 2026
