One day, perhaps all towns will be like Bolton, which had an original poem on display in each of 36 town-centre shops, cafés, hairdressers and the theatre, so as to bring poetry to a wider audience. It was all part of a town-wide arts festival running from 15-21 June. The Poems in Shops project has been organised by Write Out Loud for Bolton Arts Forum, part of the university with which we have been in creative partnership for the past four years. The poems were selected from 175 total entries submitted by members of the Write Out Loud website online poetry community which was created in Bolton in 2006. Though most are locally-produced, displayed work comes from as far afield as Chicago (yes, Illinois!).

The Write Out Loud website was valuable to this project both as a way of promoting the call for entries amongst our thousands of users, and enabling them to upload their work directly to the site.

Already delight has been expressed at the quality of the work as shop owners start to see the poems arrive for display. They range from funny poems through serious work, classic forms and the idiosyncratic, to the slightly daft and the odd political rant; all as you’d expect from Write Out Loud poets!

After display in the shops the verses will be available on the Bolton Festival of Arts website www.boltonartsfestival.co.uk and in an anthology being published by the festival organisers.

A huge thanks goes to the many poets who submitted work, helping make the project such a success and to the whole Write Out Loud community for your support.