The 31 October deadline is nearing for the Poetry Society's £5,000 2024 National Poetry Competition entries. This year's judges are Stephen Sexton, Romalyn Ante and John McAuliffe. More details here

ILLUSTRATION: KATE DEHLER 

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A well-known north-west poet has written a poem that will be performed in the final episode of the current hit TV comedy series ‘Alma’s Not Normal’. Gerry Potter told his Facebook followers: “The wors...

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Irish-born Pratibha Castle, who currently resides in Sussex, holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Chichester. A former singer, artist and holistic therapy workshop facilit...

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Did you know that the Write Out Loud website started out as just a gig guide, emailed to poets in Bolton and the surrounding area back in 2004? In the following year it turned into a website, and deve...

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John Burnside, who died earlier this year aged 69, has been posthumously awarded the 2024 Laurel prize for his collection Ruin, Blossom (Jonathan Cape), it was announced on Saturday night.

The £5,0...

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Patrick Osada’s collection The Warfield Poems is a lament for his village in Berkshire that over the last few decades has largely been swallowed up by the “tentacles” of housing development reaching o...

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Shaun Fallows was born with cerebral palsy, and is a wheelchair user. Last year the Wigan-based poet appeared on a Channel 5 programme to talk about disability, and also published his first poetry col...

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Some traditions simply refuse to die. Back in 2010 Write Out Loud’s website founder Julian Jordon inaugurated the first Write Out Loud open-mic poetry jam at the Tunnel End Inn during Marsden jazz fes...

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“Poetry is one of the things that religion does to you … I believe that good poetry comes from the same sort of place as religious faith.” Thus spoke Rowan Williams, former archbishop of Canterbury, a...

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The New Zealand poet Fleur Adcock, who celebrated her 90th birthday in February with the publication of her Collected Poems, has died in the North London Hospice in Finchley, after a short illness.

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Originally from Greater Manchester, Ron Scowcroft has lived in the Lancaster area since 1985. After a career in teaching and academic research, he began writing poetry in 2006. He is the author of two...

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Weighing in at over 600 pages, this is a substantial volume. Too big to be delivered through the letterbox, but handed in at the front door, it has given me an opportunity to renew my acquaintance wit...

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Katrina Naomi grew up close to the sea in Margate and now lives in Cornwall, where she combines her love of writing with sea swimming and a passion for wild places. Her poetry collections have won Aut...

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The American poet Victoria Chang has won the £10,000 Forward prize for best collection with ‘With My Back to the World’ (Corsair), which engages with the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, the ce...

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“It means the world to me to win the Foyle Young Poets award. I have been writing for a very long time – privately, always hunched over the family computer, letting my ideas meander onto the document,...

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Write Out Loud returns to Marsden in West Yorkshire for its popular annual open mic poetry jam at the jazz festival on Sunday morning 13 October 11am-1pm. This year we are delighted to have secured a ...

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Jacqueline Saphra will be judging the £400 Waltham Forest poetry competition on the theme of Friendship. There is also an extra prize for the funniest poem. The deadline is 14 October. More details

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“It was the perfect tree, in the perfect place.” So said poet, performer, writer and broadcaster Kate Fox, in launching a book of poems at Waterstones in Newcastle to commemorate the shocking felling ...

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A posthumous collection by a young poet who was found dead after a festival last year is among the shortlisted books for this year’s £25,000 TS Eliot prize. Adam, which is Gboyega Odubanjo’s debut ful...

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The theme of this year’s National Poetry Day is ‘counting’ – and here’s just a taste of some of the events today. One event is an attempt to break the world record for the largest poetry lesson, colla...

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A young poet and climate activist who took part in a Just Stop Oil protest which involved throwing soup over Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London in 2022 has been jailed.

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