What Is Write Out Loud?

Write Out Loud is a national (indeed, international) hub for participation in poetry, encouraging everyone who writes poetry – from still-too-nervous-to-do-open-mic to Nobel Prize winner – to share their words with others. We're not just the website (more on that later), but seeing as you're here, let's tell you all about that first.

The Write Out Loud website has been around since 2005. It's unique in what it brings together, and what it offers to our members. Here you’ll find our unparallelled news section (covering news from publishers, poets, events, gig reviews and book reviews), our gig guide (where you can find out what's happening near you) and, of course, our blogs (where you can post your work, and read and comment on work posted by others).

All of this is designed to encourage interaction in a comfortable and inclusive atmosphere, which helps explain why over 45,000 people visit the website each month, and why they keep coming back. In order for you to get the most benefit out of the Write Out Loud site, here’s a guide to what you’ll find here.

news: the latest news from the world of poetry, including reviews of events and books, details of competitions, and much much more. If you think there’s something we should know about, or you want to submit a review of an event you have attended, you can contact our Features editor at news@writeoutloud.net
gig guide: poetry events are an opportunity to share your work, meet up with other poets, socialise, and listen to a wide range of styles, ideas, forms, voices, and experiences. Our gig guide is the best way to find out what's going on in your area, and is one of the most comprehensive guides there is. If you find a night near you which isn't using it, do let them know they can post their events on the site for free (and updating or changing it is easy). If they need a helping hand, they can email gig@writeoutloud.net
blogs: the place where you can share your work and read work other WOL members have posted. Unsurprisingly, this is one of the busiest areas of the site! If someone's poem moves you, makes you laugh, or inspires you to go off and write a piece of your own, do take a minute or two to let the author know by commenting on their work. We all love to get feedback on what we've posted.
profiles: creating a profile when you join Write Out Loud gives you the opportunity to tell us a bit about yourself. What brought you here? What does poetry do for you? What do you hope others will get from your work? Let us all know.
galleries: photos from poetry events and readings, showing poets of all ages, backgrounds, poetic styles and levels of experience.
discussions: want to chat about a particular subject or issue in depth? This is the place to go.
poetry directory: a directory of festivals, publishers, poetry magazines, competitions and more.

As we said earlier, WOL isn’t just the website. In 2015, we became a Community Interest Company (CIC) with a mission to make poetry more widely appreciated and available. We believe passionately in the power of poetry to bring enjoyment, fulfillment and positive change to people’s lives, and our aim is to bring more people to poetry and poetry to more people. WOL is an information resource for people wanting to set up poetry events where they live, and we also support individual poets, poetry organisations and groups across the country, via a monthly newsletter (and this website). As you’ll see from the gig guide, we have monthly open-floor poetry nights in Marsden, Huddersfield, Middleton, Sale, Stockport and Wigan, as well as irregular events across the North of England.

We have a reputation for attracting audiences, and are asked to support other organisations' work putting together tours, open-floor poetry events, major performances, slams and similar, for festivals and arts groups. If you'd like to know more, email us at info@writeoutloud.net to discuss how we can help use our expertise and enthusiasm to make your event as successful as possible.

Finally... Write Out Loud is currently run by a hard-working team of volunteers, and the site is completely free to use. So that we can keep the site going and growing, and continue promoting poetry as being something everyone can enjoy, we do ask you to consider making a donation. Giving just the price of a cup of coffee once or twice a year will help. You’ll find more details here.