Turn up or tune in to Chapel FM's Writing on Air festival
There is a feast of poetry events over the next few days at Chapel FM arts centre in Leeds, which will also be broadcasting its Writing on Air festival over the radio. Tonight, Wednesday 23 November, Chapel FM director Tony Macaluso is in conversation with Peepal Tree Press founder Jeremy Poynting at 7.30pm, with a performance of Seni Seneviratne’s poems inspired by her father’s war service as a r...
23rd November 2022
Open-mic back in Lancaster as Wordarium opens its doors
Lancaster has a spoken word open-mic night again! The Wordarium, run at the Herbarium Bar and Café by poet Benjamin Guilfoyle, aka Woolly Hat Poet, in partnership with Lancaster LitFest and the café, staged a spectacularly successful opening night last month, judging from the pictures, and Benjamin ...
9th November 2022
The view from Japan - and Newcastle: poet launches cross-cultural debut collection on Tyneside
A Newcastle-based poet who lived in Japan for 10 years is launching her first collection. Sing Me Down From the Dark explores the highs and lows of Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana’s sojourn in Japan, two i...
9th November 2022
John Darwin is guest poet at Write Out Loud Bolton on Sunday
Guest poet John Darwin will be reading from his new collection ultrasilence at Write Out Loud Bolton on Sunday 6 November at Bolton Socialist Club. Entry is £2 including raffle. Doors open at 7.30pm f...
1st November 2022
Poet and volunteer teacher who learned lessons from refugees
Chichester poets will be welcoming a writer whose latest collection is based on her experiences as a volunteer teacher in an emergency asylum home in Berlin later this month. Clare Saponia is the head...
11th October 2022
'Don’t go down to the Railway Inn with anyone else but us!': Write Out Loud's poetry jam returns to Marsden jazz festival venue
Yes, the Write Out Loud Marsden Poetry Jam is back on again! After an absence of two years, the poetry jam is returning to its rightful home at the Railway Inn at 11 am on Sunday 9 October 2022, durin...
6th October 2022
Searching for Black Britain: Roger Robinson and Johny Pitts at Manchester literature festival
Last year TS Eliot prize-winning poet Roger Robinson and acclaimed photographer Johny Pitts rented a Mini Cooper and followed the coast clockwise in search of Black Britain. Johny photographed black B...
3rd October 2022
Organiser Matt Panesh looks forward to 'brilliant' line-up at Morecambe's first poetry festival
Two legendary performers described by organiser Matt Panesh, pictured, as “godfathers” of the spoken word scene in the UK, will be headlining the first Morecambe poetry festival next month. Linton Kwe...
24th September 2022
Celebrating Blake, Shelley and Turner at Petworth House
Blakefest, an annual event that celebrates the time William Blake spent in Sussex and his links with Felpham, Bognor Regis and Petworth, will this year also commemorate the bicentenary of the Sussex R...
8th September 2022
Yay! Robert Garnham takes his search for happiness to Edinburgh
Comedy performance poet Robert Garnham is taking his show about happiness to the Edinburgh Fringe. He will be performing Yay: The Search for Happiness from 14-20 August at the PBH Free Fringe, at the ...
10th August 2022
Jazz and poetry at Arundel's Jailhouse
There’s a mix of jazz and poetry at the Arundel festival in West Sussex, when poets Chris Hardy, Raine Geoghegan, Naomi Foyle, and Barry Smith perform alongside the Big House jazz band. The venue is A...
9th August 2022
Wigan's Shaun Fallows at the PBH Free Fringe in Edinburgh
Sunny and Chair is the title of disabled poet Shaun Fallows’ spoken word show at the PBH Free Fringe in Edinburgh this week. Shaun, who was born with cerebral palsy, and has been a regular at Write Ou...
9th August 2022
Food for thought: Muldoon's Picnic on Irish tour
Acclaimed Irish poet Paul Muldoon is assembling a cabaret-style line-up of poetry, prose and music for a short tour of Ireland. Muldoon will be joined by house band Rogue Oliphant, a collective of mus...
4th August 2022
Corbyn and McCluskey to talk politics and poetry in Edinburgh
The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is no stranger to poetry. He has quoted Shelley on the stage at Glastonbury, and also revealed that he wrote poetry on the train during his Labour leadership cam...
30th July 2022
Celebrating the Horovitz poetry family and the Slad valley
A poetry event celebrating the work of Michael, Frances, and Adam Horovitz, and focusing on poetry written during or about the 10 years they lived together in Gloucestershire’s Slad valley, is taking ...
27th July 2022
Lining up a mix of 'radical poetry, music, cabaret and mayhem'
Wig Out! At the Wandle, a night offering “radical poetry, music, cabaret & mayhem” will feature Phil Jeays (England’s answer to Jacques Brel), Project Adorno (Geek electro-pop on libraries, Daleks, an...
20th July 2022
Hollie McNish and John Hegley at Coventry's SkyLines festival
Hollie McNish, with Michael Pedersen, and John Hegley are the headline poets at Coventry’s SkyLines festival of poetry and spoken word, with most live events taking place at the city’s Belgrade theatr...
8th July 2022
Remembering the tragic death of Shelley, 200 years on: news presenter Reeta Chakrabarti and film director Jane Campion head events
The bicentenary of the death by drowning of the Romantic and radical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley at the tragically young age of 29 is to be marked by readings by celebrities early next month. The Keats-...
24th June 2022
Poetry and all that jazz: Grace Nichols and John Agard in Chichester
Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry winners Grace Nichols and John Agard will be performing together with British jazz award winners Julian Stringle (clarinet, vocals) and Dominic Ashworth in a Poetry and J...
19th June 2022
Films celebrating Walt Whitman have UK premiere in Bolton
A British-US collaboration involving seven short films with over 50 global actors and local performers responding to the American poet Walt Whitman has its UK premiere at Bolton on Saturday 28 May at ...
27th May 2022
Newcastle poetry festival's Emergency Poetry Summit
Newcastle Poetry Festival is staging a one-day live poetry event this month at Northern Stage, within the Newcastle University complex. It’s billed as an Emergency Poetry Summit, a day of readings and...
1st May 2022
Jolivia Gaston is guest host at Write Out Loud Sale tonight
Jolivia Gaston will be the guest host of Write Out Loud Sale on Monday 14 March at the Waterside arts centre, Sale. The open-mic poetry night starts at 7.30pm. More details
14th March 2022
Bradford's Talking in Tongues open mic returns at new venue tonight
A popular Bradford open mic poetry night is returning at a new venue. Talking in Tongues will be running every first Wednesday of the month, beginning on Wednesday 2 March, in the Exchange Bar, Market...
2nd March 2022
After six-year 'exile' poets are back at Sowerby Bridge's Puzzle Hall
The Puzzle poetry open mic night has returned to its eponymous home at the Puzzle Hall pub in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, in another welcome sign of live grassroots poetry making a comeback after ...
28th February 2022
Write Out Loud in Worcester tonight
Write Out Loud’s newest poetry night is opening its doors again on Monday 28 February for all those who enjoy writing, reading - or just listening. Worcester Write Out Loud will be meeting at the Hist...
28th February 2022
Mike Booth is guest host at Write Out Loud Sale
Experienced compere Mike Booth will be guest host at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside arts centre, Sale on Monday 21 February. It’s nothing but open mic this month – five-minute slots and it start...
13th February 2022
Book of poetry writing tips to be launched online from Manchester Poetry Library
Why I Write Poetry: Essays on Becoming a Poet, Keeping Going and Advice for the Writing Life, edited by Ian Humphreys, pictured, is being launched online from Manchester Poetry Library on 27 January a...
25th January 2022
