Deadline nears for Morecambe festival competition
The deadline is nearing for Morecambe poetry festivalâs competition, which is open to poets worldwide, for poems of no more than 50 lines on any subject. The winning poets will be invited to read their poems at Morecambe poetry festival and will also be included in this year's festival anthology.
All entries will be read by the judging panel chaired by John Hegley, along with Rachel Pantechnico...
25th July 2025
Blake Morrison sends protest poem to newspaperâs letters page
Itâs not often that a letter is sent to a national newspaper in the form of a poem â even when itâs from a poet. But Blake Morrison chose to do so in a letter headed âA compilation of terroristsâ â itâs also the title of the poem - that was published in the Guardian.
In it Morrison lists people ...
20th July 2025
BSL poets shortlisted among 20 contenders for this year's Forward prizes
Raymond Antrobus and Zoë McWhinney have been shortlisted in the performance poem category for the 2025 Forward prizes, in the first year the prize has been open to poems performed in British Sign Lang...
20th July 2025
Poetry pupils launch pamphlet as school showcases its range of creativity
Five members of a school poetry club stood up and performed their poems on Thursday night at the launch of a pamphlet of their work at Alnwickâs Bailiffgate museum in Northumberland.
Dorit Greene, ...
20th July 2025
Poet's 'mixed feelings' about collection that won Wales Book of the Year award for poetry
A poetry collection that has been said to confront experiences of abuse in a lesbian relationship as well as the relationship between a mother and daughter has won the Wales Book of the Year award for...
18th July 2025
Spare some stanzas? An anthology of 100 poems by 100 poets
Poetry doesnât alter anything, right? As WH Auden more or less pronounced. In his foreword to Words on a NE Street, a remarkable anthology of 100 poems by 100 poets about the homeless, its instigator ...
18th July 2025
Fiona Benson to judge Winchester poetry prize
Fiona Benson will be judging this yearâs ÂŁ1,000 Winchester poetry prize. The deadline is 31 July. More details
18th July 2025
Environment festival sees poets going wild about the planet
This was an eco-festival - with plenty of poetry - that put forward a positive view for the future of our world. Alnwickâs What a Wonderful World festival in Northumberland began on Thursday at Rothbu...
18th July 2025
Beside the seaside ... Write Out Loud is going to Morecambe!
Write Out Loud is going to Morecambe poetry festival in September! To mark our regard for this fabulous festival combining top names and grassroots poets - and to celebrate our 20th anniversary year -...
17th July 2025
Tribute event in memory of poetry legend Hovis Presley
Itâs 20 years since the passing of northern poetry legend Richard Henry McFarlane aka Hovis Presley, who died of a heart attack aged 44. A unique talent straddling the worlds of stand-up, alternative...
8th July 2025
Being Gemini: Marilyn Longstaff, Smokestack
Marilyn Longstaff lives in Darlington and is a member of Vane Women writing collective. In 2003, she received a Northern Promise Award from New Writing North, and her third poetry book Raiment (Smokes...
8th July 2025
Unflinching poet Suzanna Fitzpatrick maps loss and grief
The launch of Suzanna Fitzpatrickâs debut full collection Crippled in London on Tuesday evening came with a trigger warning. The book explores a childhood shadowed by a motherâs chronic illness, culmi...
3rd July 2025
âReading poetry at an open-mic night changed my life!â
Heartening news about the healing power of open-mic poetry â something we at Write Out Loud have always evangelised about â has come in an article in the Guardian.
1st July 2025
National Poetry Competition is open for entries
The 2025 National Poetry Competition, run by the Poetry Society, is open for entries. This yearâs judges are Denise Saul, Ian Duhig and Susannah Dickey. The first prize is ÂŁ5,000. The entry fee is ÂŁ8 ...
21st June 2025
A view of the bridge: the 'love-nest' cottage of Monica Jones and Philip Larkin
To Haydon Bridge in Northumberland, to find the cottage where the poet Philip Larkin and his long-time lover, Monica Jones, met four or five times a year â a place that is rather archly described as a...
17th June 2025
Minding her language: Scots poet Len Pennie speaks out
In her mid-20s, Len Pennie is already a poetry phenomenon. She became renowned on social media such as TikTok during lockdown for posting a "Scots word of the day" and poetry videos. Her debut collect...
14th June 2025
An Alphabet of Storms: Henry Normal, Flapjack Press
For two decades or more, the name Henry Normal was most often associated with an illustrious string of hit television comedies such as The Mrs Merton Show, The Royle Family, The Mighty Boosh and Gavin...
13th June 2025
Set in stone: words from three makars on Scottish Parliament's Canongate Wall
Words from three of Scotlandâs leading poets have been unveiled on the Scottish Parliamentâs Canongate Wall, on Edinburghâs Royal Mile. Earlier this year, over 5,000 public votes were cast to choose w...
12th June 2025
Footballer-cricketers and other curiosities: the entertaining poetry world of Matthew Paul
I am an unashamed fan of Matthew Paulâs poetry â so to describe his second collection as long-awaited is no exaggeration, as far as I am concerned. I gladly undertook the train journey from Northumber...
9th June 2025
Mike Jenkins to judge Welsh poetry competition
Mike Jenkins will be judging the ÂŁ500 Welsh poetry competition. The deadline is 29 June. More details
6th June 2025
Poets add voices to writersâ call for immediate Gaza ceasefire
Dozens of poets have added their names to a petition signed by 380 writers from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and ...
28th May 2025
Do the Locomotion! Novelist and poets mark Stockton & Darlington bicentenary
Poetry was the support act in Hexham on Saturday when novelist David Wiliams re-launched a novel he first published in 2012, to mark this yearâs bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington, the worldâs f...
26th May 2025
Bringing it back home: local lad Simon Armitage gives Marsden fresh inspiration
The last few months have been a busy time for Young Write Out Loud. After our successful pedal-powered event in February at the Moonraking festival in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, we were busy prepari...
25th May 2025
Farewell to Barry Fantoni, creator of Private Eyeâs EJ Thribb
Barry Fantoni, author, cartoonist, jazz musician, and creator of the satirical magazine Private Eyeâs poet in residence, EJ Thribb, has died at his home in Turin at the age of 85.
As Wikipedia puts...
22nd May 2025
âLetâs call a spud a spudâ: poetry crowd-pleasers Henry Normal and Brian Bilston
Henry Normal is a stand-up comic supreme, who with fellow poet Brian Bilston, has been attracting bumper and appreciative audiences during the pairâs current tour.
He has maintained a prolific outp...
22nd May 2025
Di Slaney wins Write Out Loudâs âEchoesâ competition with âDolly Partonâs wigâ - in memory of a âdear friend and inspirationâ
Di Slaney has won Write Out Loudâs 20th anniversary âEchoesâ poetry competition with her poem âDolly Partonâs wigâ, written in memory of the late poet Kathryn Bevis, who died last year from cancer two...
22nd May 2025
Our team members: meet the folk behind the scenes at Write Out Loud
This is the first in a series - to mark our 20th anniversary year - where we go behind the scenes at Write Out Loud to meet those key players who work hard to keep our website ticking over. First up i...
22nd May 2025
Surge of sales as Welsh rivers anthology is launched
A publisher that produced a bestselling anthology about the main trunk road through Wales is launching a new collection of poems about Welsh rivers. Editors Sian Northey and Ness Owen, who put togethe...
21st May 2025
Oneironaut: Leah Larwood, Indigo Dreams
Leah Larwood is an award-winning poet, a freelance writer and a gestalt psychotherapist. She has an MA in creative writing and her poems have won or been placed in a number of poetry competitions. One...
20th May 2025
Meet Neil Astley, celebrated Bloodaxe editor - and our competition judge
Bloodaxe ⊠what an arresting name for a poetry publisher. I may have first come across Neil Astleyâs name when my wife gave me the second anthology in the Bloodaxe Staying Alive series, Being Alive, a...
15th May 2025
Pam Ayres, nationâs poetry sweetheart? For many, she still is!
When I retired from my newspaper job a dozen or so years ago, and was looking forward to pursuing my new life as a poet, of sorts, my colleagues gave me as one of my parting gifts a copy of the select...
15th May 2025
âLifelong republicanâ Henry Normal turns down MBE - and tells his poetry audience why
The popular writer, comedian, poet and film and TV producer Henry Normal is turning down an MBE, he revealed to an audience at Whitley Bay during a performance last night. He made the announcement and...
9th May 2025
An evening of poetry and song with Vane Women in Darlington
Vane Women, a Darlington-based writing, performing and publishing collective formed in 1991, are staging an evening of poetry and song on Wednesday 14 May at 7pm at Vesuvio wine bar at Houndgate, Darl...
6th May 2025
Campaign to save Wordsworth home as museum after Rydal Mount goes up for sale
A campaign has been launched to preserve William Wordsworthâs family home at Rydal Mount in the Lake District, as a site of literary heritage. The poet lived there from 1813 to his death in 1850. It i...
4th May 2025
Carcanet poet Katherine Horrex is guest at Write Out Loud Bolton tonight
âThis, you must know, is the growlery. When I am out of humour, I come and growl here.â - Charles Dickens, Bleak House
So youâve been working your way up the greasy pole of qualifications to get to...
4th May 2025
Pam Ayres looks back and forward at Hexham book festival
There is plenty of poetry among the literary events at Hexham book festival in Northumberland next month. On Friday 9 May Pam Ayres will be talking about her new collection, Doggedly Onward: A Life In...
3rd May 2025
It's never too late! Graham Sherwood makes live poetry debut
A momentous occasion has taken place in the poetry realm, an event rarer than henâs teeth. Write Out Loud âold timerâ Graham Sherwood took to the stage for the very first time at Waterstones in Milton...
28th April 2025
The Hawthorn Bride: Victoria Gatehouse, Indigo Dreams
Victoria Gatehouse is a zoologist, award-winning poet and childrenâs writer. Her poetry has been broadcast on BBC radio and published in several leading magazines. Her pamphlet The Mechanics of Love (...
27th April 2025