Hi
Happy New Year and already we can see that it is going to be a great year for the performance poetry world. In our constant quest to tell you about what's going on we have an article from Joe Hakim about Hull! See below..

Loads of stuff going on in Liverpool as the capital of culture, including the usual Dead Good Poets Society events (though I'm sure they will have some surprises too), a twice monthly "poetry cafe" which will run throughout the year and informal storytelling circle sessions running through the first few months.

There's the Word Market Festival in Cumbria in February; in London there's the Children's Literature Festival at the South Bank Centre and Surreal Art, Magical Poetry At Tate Modern, London; the Poetry Train toots off in Shropshire; whilst it looks as though there are going to be lots of events across the country on National Book day (6th of March).

Details of these and other events can be found our online gig guide www.writeoutloud.net/public/yearsevents.php

Meanwhile here at Write Out Loud we intend to relaunch our regular Oldham night at a new venue shortly plus we are developing plans to hold more exciting new regular & one off events in the North of England and perhaps instigate one or two poetry forays abroad - watch this space. January and February are going to be busy with our regular events as well as a special event at the Octagon Theatre on the 30th and a "Riders on the storm" event on 1st February.

At the same time there will be more developments on our highly successful web site www.writeoutloud.net, actually it's worth exploring the site for the explosion in blogging and comments taking place- feel free to join in! Don't forget you can put your profile on the Poets' showcase very easily, advertise yourself to the world and become eligible for consideration of your work in our Poem of the Month competition.

And soon we'll be unveiling innovative ways of using new technology though I'd have to eat myself if I told you any more.

Hope to see you at a poetry event soon....

The Press Team, Write Out Loud.

The Hull it is!

Hull is probably best known for the negative image propagated by the popular press; nothing more than a flooded shit hole populated by savage morons, a forgotten city.

But when you consider some of the many aspects of Hull’s history - the turning away of Charles I during the Civil War, the continuous bombing it received during World War II, the tragic decimation of the fishing industry which crippled many of the communities within its core - it is surprising to find that it is ultimately Hull’s literary heritage that defines it, and will continue to do so.

Phillip Larkin is inevitably the first name to be associated with Hull. After making Hull his home, Larkin eventually went on to be recognised as one of the 20th century’s greatest poets. But Hull’s contribution extends much further than that - Andrew Marvel, Stevie Smith, Roger McGough, Douglas Dunn and Pete Didsbury are all poets synonymous with Hull in some way, each giving body to the identity of a vintage port in their own inimitable style. As recently as this year, Sean O’Brien, a Hull based poet, has gone on to win both the Forward prize and the TS Elliott prize, an unprecedented first in the poetry world.

But it doesn’t end there; there is a new generation of voices emerging from the heart of the Humber. The internet has enabled poetry to be distributed and consumed in a more accessible way, and performance poetry is currently enjoying a resurgence of popularity, due in part to technology that enables artists to produce their material and then display it in a variety of different formats. http://www.Thisisulll.com, a local alternative website, is currently nurturing and developing Hull’s future
literary heroes. Joe Hakim, after having work published on thisisull.com, has gone on to perform around the country, culminating in a winning performance at a major London spoken-word event. This, in turn, has inspired new poets such as Mike Watts and Michelle Dee amongst others to step out, to explore and be heard themselves.

The more we are written off, the louder we will speak. Hull’s voice will continue to resonate, to reach out and be recognised.

Joe Hakim.

Thank you for the fantastic and informative January Newsletter. It shows great plan for the weeks and moths ahead of Write Out Loud..The feeling of discovering more about some interesting writers as well as the poetry reading. This is all fascinating. I regret that I am far away living across the Pond and will not be able to participate in those Evenings with the poetry reading. Thank you for the patronage over this fantastic site, really enjoying all the creative readings.
Keep up the fabulous job!

Sincerely,
Zuzanna Musial