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Poetic splendour: festival tour around Northumberland's Seaton Delaval Hall

Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland is a ruined mansion with a rich history. The Delavals came over with the Normans, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that the current mansion was erected, designed by Vanbrugh.

The Delaval family were notorious for their theatricals, wild parties and practical jokes, putting up guests in upside-down bedrooms, and organising contests for the locals that in...

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Review

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 more intimate surroundings, sitting in an armchair in a corner of an art gallery at the Little Felton B...

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Review

Foyle Young Poets of the Year award is open for entries

The Foyle Young Poets of the Year award is once again open for entries. It’s organised by the Poetry Society and supported by the Foyle Foundation, and invites new poems from young writers aged 11–17 ...

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Young Write Out Loud

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  

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Competitions

‘Lyricism of an abduction’: Imogen Wade’s ‘The Time I Was Mugged in New York City’ wins National Poetry Competition

A poem described by the judges as “extraordinary and thought-provoking … whose paradoxical lyricism in the account of an abduction demands reading and re-reading”  has won first prize in this year’s N...

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News

Poet laureate's collection and tour celebrating blossom

The poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has launched a collection in celebration of spring, and in collaboration with the National Trust. He has spent a year travelling the country visiting gardens and rem...

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News

Printemps for poetry! France's 25th spring festival

Running from 9th to 25 March, France is currently holding its 25th annual Printemps des Poètes, or Springtime Poetry Festival, a truly nationwide celebration of poetry and poets, in venues ranging fro...

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News

And now for something completely different ... Write Out Loud poets turn out nonet after nonet to mark World Poetry Day!

We didn't know if it would take off ... but poets on Write Out Loud did us proud in taking up our challenge to write a nonet to mark World Poetry Day! We thought we’d invite our poets to try their han...

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World Poetry Day

Away from home, just round the corner: New York's Nuyorican poetry slams at The Bowery

Described by Allen Ginsberg (writer of Howl, the poem that changed US obscenity laws) as “the most integrated place on the planet”, the Nuyorican Poets Café closed its doors in November 2023 for a $24...

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Events

Away from home, just round the corner: New York's Nyorican Poetry slams at The Bowery

Described by Allen Ginsberg (writer of Howl, the poem that changed US obscenity laws) as “the most integrated place on the planet”, the Nuyorican Poets Café closed its doors in November 2023 for a $24...

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Events

Away from home, just round the corner: New York's Nyorican Poetry slams at The Bowery

Described by Allen Ginsberg (writer of Howl, the poem that changed US obscenity laws) as “the most integrated place on the planet”, the Nuyorican Poets Café closed its doors in November 2023 for a $24...

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Events

Programmes you may have missed: Rick Stein on Cornwall's Charles Causley

An episode of Rick Stein’s Cornwall recently repeated on BBC2 features the Cornish poet Charles Causley, who spent his life in the Cornish border town of Launceston. Stein talks to the Cornish writer ...

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Media

National Poetry Centre coming to Leeds gets £5m levelling-up boost

The National Poetry Centre planned for Leeds, which was announced by Simon Armitage as one of his ambitions as poet laureate, has received a £5 million funding boost from the government’s Department f...

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News

All the Birds: Mark Totterdell, Littoral Press

Mark Totterdell is the author of three previous collections of poetry: This Patter of Traces (Oversteps Books, 2014), Mapping (Indigo Dreams, 2018) and Mollusc (The High Window, 2021). His poems have ...

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Review

Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight

Write Out Loud Wigan is at the Old Courts, Crawford Street, Wigan on Thursday 14 March from 7.30pm. More details

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Events

Liz Berry wins £30,000 Writers prize for novel in verse

Liz Berry has won the £30,000 Writers’ prize, formerly known as the Rathbones Folio prize, for her collection The Home Child, a novel in verse inspired by the poet’s great-aunt, who at the age of 12 w...

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News

Wirral Poetry Festival competition is open for entries

David J Costello be judging the Wirral Poetry Festival open poetry competition. First prize is £250, and the deadline is 31 May. More details 

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Competitions

Out of Gaza: new anthology includes poems by two Palestinian poets killed by bombings

A new anthology about Gaza which includes poems by two poets who have been killed during intensive Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave - in response to atrocities committed by the Palestinian g...

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News

National Poetry Centre coming to Leeds gets £5m levelling-up boost from government

The National Poetry Centre planned for Leeds, which was announced by Simon Armitage as one of his ambitions as poet laureate, has received a £5 million funding boost from the government’s Department f...

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News

Best-selling artist Taylor Swift 'related to reclusive Emily Dickinson'

The hugely successful US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is related to the renowned 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson, a genealogy company has revealed.  The link, reported in the Guardian, i...

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News

Over the Edge: Norbert Hirschhorn, Holland Park Press

Norbert Hirschhorn is a public health physician, commended in 1993 by President Bill Clinton as an American Health Hero in the tradition of physician-poets. More recently he was the recipient of the P...

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Review

What a performance! Robert Garnham looks back at ‘faffing around’ and ‘flopping at slams’

Comedy performance poet Robert Garnham has published a collection of essays, covering topics ranging from advice on “how not to do the Edinburgh Fringe”, fishing for poetic material off the coast of D...

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News

Two years on: tireless poet of war in Ukraine issues new collection to mark grim anniversary

A poet who has regularly and untiringly posted poems about the war in Ukraine on Write Out Loud since Russia’s invasion has produced a new selection of his work to mark the second anniversary of Vladi...

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News

Lifeboat station runs poetry competition to mark RNLI's 200th anniversary

An open poetry competition, Carry Us Home, to celebrate 200 years of the RNLI is being run by Sheringham lifeboat station in Norfolk. The judge is Moniza Alvi, and the deadline is 5 April. Poems are i...

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Competitions

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