John Baylis Post's 'Track' wins Write Out Loud's Milestones competition
The £500 Milestones competition run by Write Out Loud on behalf of the Milestone Society has been won by John Baylis Post with his poem ‘Track’. The winning poem was described thus by the competition judge, famed Liverpool poet Brian Patten: “I was interested that the writer of this poem was instinctively drawn to the Romans. The Latin mille passus means - of course - one thousand paces. The endle...
23rd August 2017
Find out more about the Milestones winners - and their poems
Milestones poetry competition winner John Baylis Post’s poems have been published in Ireland, England, France, and Italy, and he was judged Canterbury Poet of the Year 2014. He now helps to run Hungry Hill Writing's competitions and publications. Selected poems and some other writing, together wit...
23rd August 2017
Deadline nears for £1,000 Oxford Brookes poetry competition
Helen Mort will be judging Oxford Brookes University’s £1,000 poetry competition, which also has an English as an Additional Language category. The deadline is 28 August. More details
23rd August 2017
'We used social media, flyers, sought out reviews ... we've been lucky'
Steve Pottinger, pictured left, has been performing poetry - with Emma Purshouse and Dave Pitt - at Edinburgh's Free Fringe for the first time. As a newcomer he reflects on the buzz, the camaraderie a...
23rd August 2017
'A Tale of Two Sandals' by Paul Waring is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘A Tale of Two Sandals’ by Paul Waring, a retired clinical psychologist who, his profile tells us, was once a menswear designer and also, during the 1980s, a...
23rd August 2017
Tribute to 'warmth and humanity' of poet Christo James
The poet and arts commentator Christopher James Heyworth, known to many of his poetry friends as Christo James, has died suddenly in hospital aged 71. Christo James was a retired college lecturer and ...
23rd August 2017
Publishers Templar to stage day of poetry at Keats House
Poetry publishers Templar are presenting a day-long festival at Keats House, Hampstead in London on 27 August, including readings and workshops. Poets taking part are Oliver Comins, Alex McMllen, Paul...
23rd August 2017
'I extract each melodic tooth and sort them in octaves for rinsing'
Just as I prefer to read good travel writing more than I like to travel, I look to poems to offer me experiences I'm quite likely never to have. Here's a poem by Rebecca Macijeski, a native New Englan...
23rd August 2017
Translating Mountains: Yvonne Reddick, Seren
This pamphlet by Yvonne Reddick was the winner of the 2016 Mslexia poetry pamphlet competition. Born in Glasgow, Reddick won a Northern Writers’ award for poetry in 2016 and is currently an academic r...
23rd August 2017
Call for poems to display in shop windows at Marsden jazz festival
Could you write a short poem to delight the thousands of visitors to the Marsden jazz festival? Marsden the Poetry Village is inviting submissions of original poems to be displayed on A3 posters in sh...
23rd August 2017
Poetry on the upsurge at Edinburgh book festival
A few years ago Write Out Loud was in Edinburgh for the Fringe and the book festival – and was a little disappointed at the amount of poetry on offer at the latter. It is fair to say things have chang...
23rd August 2017
Write Out Loud's Milestones competition - get ready for the results!
The results of Write Out Loud’s Milestones competition, which has been judged by Brian Patten and is being run on behalf of the Milestone Society, are almost ready to be announced. The list of first, ...
22nd August 2017
This is Not A Rescue: Emily Blewitt, Seren
Several things are clear from this collection: Emily Blewitt loves cats and she adores reading Jane Austen. She also has a penchant for American documentaries. Blewitt was born in Carmarthen, studied ...
22nd August 2017
'Chipped and grubby like old friends with egg on their faces'
Lois Parker Edstrom, a retired nurse, lives on Whidbey island, off the coast of Washington, and her 2016 book Night Beyond Black, from MoonPath Press, has many accessible and moving poems. Here's just...
22nd August 2017
'I extract each melodic tooth and sort them in octaves for rinsing'
Just as I prefer to read good travel writing more than I like to travel, I look to poems to offer me experiences I'm quite likely never to have. Here's a poem by Rebecca Macijeski, a native New Englan...
22nd August 2017
Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn on Monday
Write Out Loud Woking returns to the New Inn at Send, near Woking, for another night of free, open-mic poetry on Monday 21 August. Your compere is Greg Freeman. Sign up from 7.30pm for 8pm start. Mor...
20th August 2017
Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club tonight
Write Out Loud Bolton is back at Bolton Socialist Club on Sunday 20 August at 7.30pm for 8pm start. Entry is £1 plus raffle for this open mic poetry event hosted by Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola. More de...
20th August 2017
Bobowler, cheeselog, dimpsy ... 12 poets to highlight forgotten dialect words
Twelve poets have been commissioned to write poems using local dialect words from a shortlist drawn up by Oxford English Dictionary experts to help celebrate National Poetry Day.
The #freetheword p...
18th August 2017
Michael Symmons Roberts to judge £1,000 Plough poetry prize
Michael Symmons Roberts will be judging the £1,000 Plough poetry prize and the £1,000 Ronald Duncan short poem competition. The deadline is 31 January 2018. More details
16th August 2017
Write Out Loud returns to Wednesday slot at Marsden library
Write Out Loud Marsden returns to its traditional slot of Wednesday evening at Marsden library on 16 August - and the theme is money. You can read your own poems, someone else's or just listen. Ignore...
16th August 2017
Director launches plea for new trustees to keep poetry festival going
South Downs poetry festival has launched an appeal for new trustees to take over and keep the festival running for a third year. In a message to supporters, the festival director, Tim Dawes, pictured,...
16th August 2017
Fiona Sampson to judge £1,000 Graves prize
The £1,000 Robert Graves prize is a new poetry prize launched this year as a collaboration between Roehampton Poetry Centre and Wimbledon BookFest. The judges will be Fiona Sampson, professor of poetr...
15th August 2017
Thorn Kings: Clare Mulley, Battlefields Trust
The 16 poems in this pamphlet collection are inspired by the four major battles in English history. Clare Mulley is a young Yorkshire-born poet, journalist and teacher, and poet in residence at the Ba...
15th August 2017
'Trysting in the tall grasses, resting fingers lightly in tousled hair'
Here's a poem celebrating milkweed by Bradford Tice, whose most recent book of poetry is What the Night Numbered, from Trio House Press. Our Monarch butterfly population depends upon milkweed, and per...
14th August 2017
'For Antoinette' by David Cooke is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘For Antoinette’ by David Cooke. The poet is a Gregory award winner and has published several poetry collections. His latest, After Hours, published by Cultu...
14th August 2017
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting on Monday 14 August at Stockport art gallery to share and discuss their poems. Each month a collage poem is produced from the group’s contributions,...
14th August 2017
Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight
There’s another feast of open-mic poetry at Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts on Thursday 10 August. Entry is free, and it starts at 8.30pm. More details and Map
10th August 2017
Tour of three locals to launch village's poems in pubs project
A journey that would gladden the heart of Dylan Thomas – and a few other poets besides – will take place in the West Yorkshire village of Marsden on Thursday 10 August. Poets will visit three pubs in ...
10th August 2017
Spoken word at Edinburgh Fringe, from Attila the Stockbroker to Carol Ann Duffy
Edinburgh in August! The buzz of the Royal Mile, the flyers thrust at you every few seconds, the dilemma of which shows to go to, and how much you can cram in … Write Out Loud has produced its annual ...
9th August 2017
Story of lost war poet of Wales is screened on BBC2
The story of a Welsh poet who won one of the main literary prizes at the national Eisteddfod but was killed in the first world war before he was able to claim it has been told on BBC2. Hedd Wyn’s succ...
8th August 2017
Deadline nears for £600 Buzzwords competition
Adam Horovitz will be judging the £600 Buzzwords open poetry competition, organised by the regular poetry night in Cheltenham. The deadline is 26 August. More details
7th August 2017
'The white feathers she began to pluck fell all around us'
Poets are experts at capturing those moments when one thing reminds us of another. Here snow reminds Catherine Stearns of something we can imagine took place years before. Stearns lives in Massachuset...
7th August 2017
'Incoming' by Jonathan Humble is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the week is ‘Incoming’ by Jonathan Humble, about a close encounter with a curlew. The poem appears in a recent anthology, Curlew Calling, which was put together to raise...
6th August 2017
Plan to curb 'huddled masses' turns spotlight on Statue of Liberty poem
A row between a journalist and a White House adviser at a Washington press briefing – not much of a story there – has nevertheless turned the spotlight on the famous Statue of Liberty line, “Give me y...
6th August 2017
Water Chits: Denise Bennett, Indigo Dreams
Denise Bennett is a prize-winning poet, editor and teacher who runs poetry workshops in the local community. She has previously published a pamphlet and and two full-length collections. With several p...
6th August 2017
Deadline nears for Poetry Book Fair's £500 competition
Daljit Nagra will be judging the Poetry Book Fair’s £500 poetry competition on the theme of hope, alongside book fair organisers Joey Connolly and Chrissy Williams. They’re looking for a short poem (1...
5th August 2017
Michael Gove quotes Larkin's lament for England in speech on environment
Jeremy Corbyn isn’t the only leading politician with a penchant for poetry. The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has quoted Philip Larkin at length in a recent speech, while at the same time confe...
4th August 2017
Making waves: Luke Wright to judge sound files in spoken poetry contest
Leading performance poet Luke Wright will be judging Making Waves, a new spoken poetry competition in which poets are invited to send in short spoken poems of 200 seconds as digital sound files. The f...
2nd August 2017
Born, living, or working in Sussex? You can enter the £1,000 Brighton & Hove poetry competition
If you were born in, or are resident, working or studying in Sussex, you’re eligible to enter the Brighton and Hove arts council’s £1,000 poetry competition. The deadline is 15 October, and prizes wil...
1st August 2017
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