'A burnt matchbox in the sky': Ben Okri's angry poem about Grenfell Tower
Novelist and poet Ben Okri has written a powerful, angry poem about the victims of Grenfell Tower, who died when their tower block in Kensington was engulfed in flames on 14 June. The blaze, which killed at least 79 people – the death toll is expected to rise further - was spread by unsafe cladding, and has led to 95 buildings across the country being found to be at similar risk.
Okri’s poem wa...
28th June 2017
'Ye are many - they are few!' Jeremy Corbyn quotes Shelley at Glastonbury
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn enlisted the power of poetry when he delivered a rousing speech to thousands at Glastonbury music festival at the weekend. Concluding his speech on the main Pyramid stage by quoting Shelley, “one of my favourite poets”, he said: “I’m inspired by many poets, and by many pe...
28th June 2017
Tony Walsh's Manchester poem 'This is The Place' is released as a single
Tony Walsh’s poem ‘This is The Place’, which went global after he read it at the vigil for the Manchester Arena bombing victims, has been released as a single.
The Manchester Evening News reports...
28th June 2017
Spaced out on cosmic poetry in starry night at the Troubadour
Out in space the numbers are mind-boggling – and so it proved at Monday’s reading at the Troubadour, too. I’m still trying to get my head round the fact that around 60 poets took to the basement stage...
28th June 2017
Derek Walcott museum in St Lucia closes after budget cut and tourism row
A museum in St Lucia on the site of the boyhood home of the Nobel prize-winning poet and playwright Derek Walcott has closed amid a funding shortfall that has been linked to disputes over tourism dev...
28th June 2017
Penelope Wilton lends a hand at launch of poems written by pupils in literacy project
TV, film and stage star Dame Penelope Wilton was at Square Chapel Arts Centre, Halifax to launch and read from a collection of poems written by Halifax schoolchildren who had taken part in the PoetryQ...
28th June 2017
'Boys who knew when you were posing, waiting for someone to say, "smile" '
"You can't go home again," said Thomas Wolfe, and you can't put your hand in the same river twice. Change is relentless. But we can still, in memory, go back to where we were. This poem is by P Ivan Y...
28th June 2017
Articles of War: Marilyn Longstaff, Smokestack
Marilyn Longstaff has published four poetry collections: Puritan Games (2001), Sitting Among the Hoppers (2004) and Raiment (2010). Articles of War, brought out this year by Smokestack Books, is groun...
28th June 2017
This was the place to be: primary pupils inspired by Manchester poem perform with panache
This is the place where our future begins; this is the place where hope is alive, in a north Manchester primary school in Moston, just two miles from the Manchester Arena bombing. This is the place wh...
27th June 2017
Gillian Clarke to judge £750 Wells festival poetry competition
Gillian Clarke will be judging the £750 Wells festival of literature poetry competition. The deadline is 30 June. More details
PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ANDREW / WRITE OUT LOUD
27th June 2017
'I slice as close as I dare to the core'
One of my favourite poems is Louise Bogan's 'The Crossed Apple' which mentions two species, Meadow Milk and Sweet Burning, and since reading it many years ago I have made notes of the names of apples,...
26th June 2017
'The Concrete Road' by Becky Sowray is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘The Concrete Road’ by Becky Sowray. On her profile page Becky describes herself as living “the ordinary dream in an off-white tower, getting high on radio-n...
26th June 2017
Deadline nears for £700 Battered Moons poetry competition
Malika Booker will be judging the £700 Battered Moons poetry competition. The deadline is 30 June. More details
25th June 2017
Jackie Hagan, Raymond Antrobus, and Jane Commane win £15,000 poetry awards
Poets Jackie Hagan, Raymond Antrobus, and Jane Commane have each been awarded £15,000 inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships, in a collaboration between the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Art...
25th June 2017
Remember that game: football anthology launched in aid of Alzheimer Scotland project
An anthology of football poetry featuring more than 100 poems in aid of Alzheimer Scotland’s Football Memories project has been launched at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park.
Contributi...
24th June 2017
The Write Out Loud poem of the week is Stay Put by Mark Mr T Thompson
The Write Out Loud poem of the week is Stay Put by Mark Mr T Thompson, a popular, highly-regarded poet on the Write Out Loud poetry blogs. The reference isn’t difficult to discern given that the advic...
23rd June 2017
Tony Walsh gives poetic verdict on election result alongside Carol Ann Duffy
It began when Tony Walsh read his poem about Manchester, ‘This is The Place’, at the vigil for the 22 victims of the Manchester Arena suicide bombing. Tony’s reading went round the world. He was asked...
23rd June 2017
Tracy K Smith is new US poet laureate
Tracy K Smith is the new poet laureate of the United States, it has been announced. The poet laureate - Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry of the United States is the full title - is appointed by the...
23rd June 2017
Sarah Howe to judge £1,000 Winchester poetry prize
Sarah Howe will be judging the £1,000 Winchester poetry prize. The deadline is 31 July. More details
23rd June 2017
Northern Irish poets Michael Longley and Sinead Morrissey on Forward list
Michael Longley, who recently won the PEN Pinter prize, is one of five poets shortlisted for the £10,000 Forward prize for best collection, it was announced on Monday. At 77, Longley is the oldest of ...
23rd June 2017
Out of the Weather: Julie Mellor, Smith/Doorstop
It is always reassuring when you pick up a book of poetry and it’s immediately obvious that the writer is entirely at home with the concept of crafting her work, and equally at home in presenting the ...
23rd June 2017
'Only one hour here stiffens the barbs into thousands of quick retorts'
Kelly Madigan lives in Nebraska and this poem is from her book, The Edge of Known Things, from Stephen F Austin University Press. Did you think that you were all that different from a porcupine? Well,...
15th June 2017
It's a rap! Write Out Loud's theme is movies tonight at Marsden library
Write Out Loud Marsden is switching nights again – and this month it will be held on Thursday 15 June at Marsden library, in Marsden Mechanics Hall. The theme is “motion pictures”, inspired by the fac...
15th June 2017
The National is open for entries - plus award for emerging poets in NW
The £5,000 National Poetry Competition is now open for entries in 2017, with judges Hannah Lowe, Andrew McMillan and Pascale Petit. The competition’s organisers, the Poetry Society, have also announce...
14th June 2017
Sinéad Morrissey to judge £2,000 Mslexia poetry competition
Sinéad Morrissey will be judging the £2,000 Mslexia women’s poetry competition, and Amy Wack, poetry editor of publishers Seren, will be judging Mslexia’s poetry pamphlet competition. The deadline for...
13th June 2017
Poet and novelist Helen Dunmore dies aged 64
The poet, novelist and children’s author Helen Dunmore has died at the age of 64. She had been suffering from cancer. Her poetry publisher Bloodaxe said that “we are immensely saddened by the news”.
...13th June 2017
The Meaning of Things: Elaine Randell, Shearsman
There are some poets who have stayed with me for a long time, and Elaine Randell is one of them. I first came across her work in a 1970s copy of the Poetry Review, and her ‘Diary of a Working Man’, th...
13th June 2017
'We have to seek ... for something like the beetle scuttling between grass'
Judith Harris's poetry has appeared in this column several times. She lives in Washington, DC. Here's a meditation from her most recent book of poems, Night Garden, from Tiger Bark Press.
HOW QUIET
12th June 2017
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 12 June to share their poetry. Every month a collage poem is created from members’ contributions. You can read Ma...
12th June 2017
Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn tonight
Write Out Loud Woking will be at the New Inn, Send, near Woking on Monday 12 April for another night of free, open-mic poetry. Your hosts are Rodney Wood and Greg Freeman. Sign up to read from 7.30pm ...
12th June 2017
'The day my dad went mad' by Patricia Hughes is Poem of the Week
The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘The day my dad went mad’ by Patricia Hughes. The title of the poem speaks for itself. On her profile page Patricia says: “The written word has helped get me th...
11th June 2017
Jess Green and her affirmation of nightlife on London's evening of terror
It was when the train was leaving Waterloo that news of the London Bridge terror attacks started appearing on people’s mobiles. I had to leave early to catch the last train home after attending Tubthu...
9th June 2017
London's Poetry Cafe reopening after nine-month refit
One of London’s most popular poetry venues, the Poetry Cafe, is reopening after being closed for nine months for a refit. The cafe is run by the Poetry Society, whose offices are above it in Betterton...
9th June 2017
Kate Tempest in Brixton: politics suffused with hope and humility
Where better than Brixton for Kate Tempest to perform her latest album Let Them Eat Chaos? Where better than a community riven by the repercussions of gentrification; a community whose long-serving so...
9th June 2017
Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight
Gather ye at Write Out Loud Wigan on Thursday 8 June at the Old Courts for another session of free, free-range, open mic poetry. It starts at 8.30pm. More details and Map
8th June 2017
Saboteur award winner Maria Ferguson to launch spoken word night in Lincoln
Saboteur award winner Maria Ferguson will be performing her show Fat Girls Don’t Dance at the launch of a new monthly spoken word night in Lincoln on Thursday 15 June.
The WORD theatre project at L...
6th June 2017
Michael Longley wins PEN Pinter prize
The Northern Ireland poet Michael Longley has been named winner of this year’s PEN Pinter prize. Longley is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for P...
6th June 2017
'I will not speak ill of Jack Flick. I will rarely look at the scar he made on my cheek'
We're taught to never speak ill of the dead. Well, then, what do we do? Perhaps we forgive. Here's a lovely poem by Sarah White, who lives in New York. It's from her book from Deerbrook Editions, Wars...
5th June 2017
Tony Walsh reads 'This is The Place' at Ariana Grande concert for Manchester bombing victims
Leading performance poet Tony Walsh will be reading his world-famous poem about Manchester, ‘This is The Place’, which he delivered at the vigil for the Manchester Arena bomb victims, at a remembrance...
4th June 2017
'A Day Such As This' by Tom Harding is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘A Day Such As This’ by Tom Harding, a poem that appears to be about a wet day in the garden. Tom’s poems are invariably accompanied by his drawings. In his ...
4th June 2017
Yes, there's no apostrophe - Walsall's new poetry night
Jonny Fluffypunk will be headlining a new spoken word night at the Pretty Bricks pub in Walsall on Sunday 4 June at 7pm. Yes, We Cant – no, the apostrophe’s not missing - is organised by the Poets, Pr...
3rd June 2017
National Poetry Day and BBC team up with OED to unearth local words for poems
National Poetry Day and the BBC are joining forces to seek out and celebrate the nation’s great local words in 12 specially commissioned poems – one for each of the 12 BBC regions in England.
3rd June 2017
Spreading the word: launch of anthology by D/deaf and disabled poets
An anthology of poetry, essays and photographs - Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back - that was backed by a Crowdfunder appeal will be launched at Birmingham City University on S...
2nd June 2017
Deadline nears for £500 Welsh poetry competition
Kathy Miles will be judging the £500 Welsh poetry competition. The deadline is 18 June. More details
1st June 2017
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