New Helen Dunmore collection looks back over 40 years
The family of Helen Dunmore and some of her close friends will be at Waterstones in London’s Piccadilly on Tuesday 26 February for the launch of the late poet’s collection Counting Backwards: Poems 1975-2017.
Helen Dunmore won the Costa Book of the year prize in 2018 with her posthumous collection Inside the Wave. As well as critically acclaimed fiction, she also published 10 collections of po...
20th February 2019
Write Out Loud Woking at the Lightbox on Thursday
Write Out Loud Woking is at the café at the Lightbox gallery and museum in Woking on Thursday 21 February at 7.30pm. Entry is free to this open-mic poetry event although there will be a bucket collection to support the Lightbox. Your compere is Greg Freeman. More details and Map
20th February 2019
Write Out Loud at Marsden library tonight
The voluntary theme at Marsden Write Out Loud on Wednesday 20 February is “Out of Place”. The place to be is Marsden library, in Peel Street, Marsden, from 7.30pm. Entry is £2. Share you own poems, r...
20th February 2019
'I believe that poetry can help in so many ways with good mental health': the Emergency Poet
The Emergency Poet Deborah Alma – who dispenses poetic remedies from her special ambulance – plans to park her much-travelled vehicle and set up a permanent poetry pharmacy in a former ironmonger’s sh...
20th February 2019
Dim the lights for spoken word: Speakeasy at the Sip Club, Stretford, Manchester
Reading our work in public, whatever the style or genre, can be a daunting experience, even if we have some practice. For the beginner or novice it can be even more scary; sometimes to the extent that...
20th February 2019
Husbands for Breakfast: Trisha Broomfield, Dempsey & Windle
Trisha Broomfield was born in Lincolnshire, grew up in Australia and now lives in Surrey. As well as poetry, she’s a writer of short stories and unfinished crime novels. Husbands for Breakfast is her...
19th February 2019
John Darwin at Write Out Loud Sale tonight
Former Write Out Loud Sale organiser John Darwin will be back at his old stamping ground on Tuesday 19 February to promote his forthcoming debut solo poetry collection. Its title? I meet Myself Return...
19th February 2019
Poetry replaces politics at Welsh Senedd
It’s been nearly 200 years of waiting, but today - Tuesday 19 February - poets in Wales will finally receive their acknowledgement as they take over Y Senedd, (the renamed Welsh Assembly building), an...
19th February 2019
Ted Hughes, eco-criticism and the common reader
“What do I want in a critic of poetry? I am a slow and basic reader: clarity, first of all. Everything else, the enthusiasm, the insight, even little bits of esoteric knowledge, can all come later. I ...
19th February 2019
'In April I will walk out across the warming grass and right the chair'
John Stanizzi is a poet living in Connecticut, whose work we've published before. His most recent collection of poems is Chants, from Cervena Barva Press. Our column has published a number of poems ab...
19th February 2019
'There we are in our lives as if we had all time'
Marge Saiser, who lives in Nebraska, is a fine and a very lucky poet. With the passing of each year her poems have gotten stronger and deeper. That's an enviable direction for a writer. This poem was ...
18th February 2019
Roger McGough to judge Richmond competition
Roger McGough will be judging a compettion named after him and organised by Arts Richmond. The theme is Time, entrants must be 16 or over, and poems will be limited to no more than 200 words. The dead...
17th February 2019
The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Pay Attention’ by Kate G
This week’s Poem of the Week is ‘Pay Attention’ by Kate G, an ode to the world’s ultimate givers, the oft overlooked tree. ‘Pay Attention’ is rich with colour and imagery and utilizes an excellent las...
17th February 2019
Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club tonight
Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola will be compering Bolton Write Out Loud’s supportive and welcoming night of open-mic poetry at Bolton Socialist Club on Sunday 17 February. Time is 7.30pm for 8 pm start. En...
17th February 2019
The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Pay Attention’ by Kate G
This week’s POTW is ‘Pay Attention’ by Kate G, an ode to the world’s ultimate givers, the oft overlooked tree. ‘Pay Attention’ is rich with colour and imagery and utilizes an excellent last line to br...
17th February 2019
Anatomy of a Whale: Matt Barnard, Onslaught Press
Matt Barnard’s Anatomy of a Whale is disarmingly accessible and at times startlingly original. He explores the underside of the ordinary and aspects of the familiar that are best seen by looking sidel...
16th February 2019
Hollie McNish to judge Bridport poetry prize
Spoken word star Hollie McNish will be judging this year’s £5,000 Bridport poetry prize. She said: "I’m looking for poetry that interests, perhaps surprises, tickles or pulls me in upon first reading,...
16th February 2019
Saving Poetry Wigan – starting tonight at the Tudor
Wigan Write Out Loud returns to the Tudor on Thursday 14 February - for its last session? It's one of the most iconic, idiotic, idiosyncratic - and, for many, career-launching - open-mic poetry nights...
14th February 2019
Going for goal! Man City conference looks at how poetry can improve pupil language skills
A conference on Friday 15 January for primary school teachers and heads at Manchester's City's stadium will discuss the potential for raising attainment in English by bringing live poetry and poetry p...
12th February 2019
The Weather in Normal: Carrie Etter, Seren
Carrie Etter is one of the few writers who, when I hear she has a new book coming out, I get all excited about because I know it’s not going to disappoint. Her last book, Imagined Sons, was a series o...
12th February 2019
Anna Saunders to judge Brian Dempsey Memorial competition
The founder of Cheltenham poetry festival, Anna Saunders, will be judging the Brian Dempsey Memorial poetry competition, organised by publishers Dempsey & Windle. There is a pamphlet prize, for entrie...
12th February 2019
This Phantom Breath: Henry Normal, Flapjack
The cover of Henry Normal’s collection The Department of Lost Wishes features a youthful poet in a garish jacket and a huge badge that asks “Are we having fun yet?”. The answer from me is a resounding...
12th February 2019
Archers star Ben Norris to compere slam at StAnza festival
A member of the cast of long-running radio series The Archers is one of the “stars of the future and new voices” that will be taking part in Scotland's International StAnza poetry festival between 6-1...
11th February 2019
The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Win Sum’ by Steven Arthur
11th February 2019
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Stockport Write Out Loud will be gathering at Stockport art gallery on Monday 11 February to share poems at another open-floor poetry night. Entry is a £1.50 donation, and it begins at 7pm. More detai...
11th February 2019
Whose life is it, anyway? Writing poetry about real people
A couple of years ago, I was writing in my own blog, the great fogginzo’s cobweb, about the way I had found myself conflicted about learning things about my granddad’s life that that didn’t fit with p...
10th February 2019
The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Win Sum’ by Steven Arthur
10th February 2019
'In here, the water moves behind the glass'
Liz Ahl was once a very talented graduate student in our creative writing programme at the University of Nebraska, but she's long since moved on to teach at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire....
8th February 2019
'Ice Skating in New Orleans' by Paris Tate is Poem of the Week
This weeks POTW choice is ‘Ice Skating in New Orleans’ by Paris Tate, a wonderful, chilly slice of nostalgia. Placing us alongside her on a makeshift ice-rink in the early 90s, Paris shows a remarkabl...
4th February 2019
The Healing Next Time: Roy McFarlane, Nine Arches Press
Roy McFarlane’s second collection, published during Black History Month last year, is a serious and determined attempt to document in poetry institutional and everyday racism in Britain. There is ange...
4th February 2019
Knowing your place: locating the poetry of landscape
Poetry and ‘landscape’. This lodged in my mind last week, probably because I’ve just finished an essay/review/guest blog post which has taken me, one way or another, more than nine months to write. It...
4th February 2019
Blackbird, Bye Bye: Moniza Alvi, Bloodaxe
Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. After working for many years as a secondary school teacher in London, she is now a freelance writer and tutor, and lives in Wymondham, No...
3rd February 2019
Welcome to a new voice at Write Out Loud: John Foggin, aka The Great Fogginzo
It gives us great pleasure to welcome John Foggin as a regular guest blogger to Write Out Loud. John’s weekly poetry blog, The Great Fogginzo’s Cobweb, is ardently followed by many poets. We’re hoping...
3rd February 2019
Molly Underwood wins £10,000 Manchester Poetry Prize
Molly Underwood has won this year’s £10,000 Manchester Poetry Prize, awarded for a portfolio of poems. Her win was revealed at a gala ceremony on Friday, February 1, in the Baronial Hall at Chetham’s ...
1st February 2019
