Dim the lights for spoken word: Speakeasy at the Sip Club, Stretford, Manchester
Reading our work in public, whatever the style or genre, can be a daunting experience, even if we have some practice. For the beginner or novice it can be even more scary; sometimes to the extent that we avoid such situations and may choose to keep our work private.
It’s important not to underestimate the achievement of taking a leap into the unknown and sharing what are, often, our most person...
20th February 2019
Brenda's body rub to the rescue in injury time at Licensed to Rhyme
Organised by Midlands poets Spoz and Maggie Doyle, and ably aided and abetted by Fergus McGonigal, Licensed to Rhyme has set out to bridge the gap between events in the cities of Birmingham and Worcester, and bring poetry to Bromsgrove.
The April event found itself sideswiped by balmy spring weat...
18th April 2017
Dodo Modern Poets find a new location on Dylan heritage trail
A number of long-established poetry nights and groups found themselves temporarily homeless when the Poetry Society’s Poetry Café in London closed its doors for refurbishment last summer. Most of them...
29th March 2017
Pause and applause at Speaking Out Midlands in Cannock
It’s always a challenge to build an audience for a new night. Hats off to Charlotte Postings, pictured, for finding a diverse range of poets and an audience who were more than happy to watch them at ...
19th March 2017
Dudley's Grande Slam gets off to a flying start
It’s always a joy to visit poetry nights who’ve got it right, and – judging by their opening night – Dudley’s ‘Grande Slam’, in the Cafe Grande in the heart of the town, has done exactly that. Hosted ...
7th February 2017
'Twee we're not!': whimsy, mysticism and tragedy in Harrogate
Organiser Helen Shay tells of the “staggering” array of poetry – “humorous, whimsical, gut-wrenching, shocking, philosophical, mystical, confessional, tragic, moving” – to be heard at Harrogate’s Poem...
31st January 2017
Permission to Speak in Stourbridge: cool surroundings and no sign of hipsters
Some poetry nights hide themselves away in the back rooms of pubs like a guilty secret. Permission To Speak does no such thing. Instead, it revels in taking over the cool, funky venue which is the Sca...
19th December 2016
Getting in the groove at the Square Tower
Take one historic, atmospheric venue that once helped to guard a key section of Britain’s coastal waters. Add poetry and music there on every third Sunday of the month, and what have you got? It’s Por...
30th August 2016
Stairway to poetic heaven with Puzzle Poets at the Blind Pig
The Puzzle Poets at Sowerby Bridge have a banner on which many guests who have read there have inscribed their names: Andrew McMillan, Steve Ely, Jackie Hagan, Louise Fazackerley, Steve Pottinger, Cha...
20th July 2016
Last Monday at Rio: 'We range from 18-80 with a shifting mash of styles'
A couple of summers ago I headed north in the camper van for a holiday in Scotland, and took the opportunity to drop in on the Last Monday at Rio poetry night in the west end of Glasgow. It was brilli...
27th June 2016
Away With Words: end of the line, start of something special
Write Out Loud has always taken pride in providing a platform for poetry nights around the country to publicise what they’re doing and to show how poetry thrives in what are – perhaps – unexpected pla...
2nd June 2016
Poetry by gaslight: the fire burns bright with Bradford's Beehive Poets
There’s a real warmth at the Beehive Poets in Bradford – and it’s not just from the open fire that gently toasted my behind as I was reading there. The weekly poetry night, a mix of readarounds, reada...
22nd March 2016
Loyal following for the Monkeys helps keep the flag flying in Surrey
The well-heeled county of Surrey is, it has to be said, somewhat of a desert for open mic poetry. But there is at least one place where the flag still defiantly flutters. The 1000 Monkeys, run by Jani...
12th March 2016
Bang Said The Gun still firing on all cylinders in new theatre home
Bang Said The Gun has been a legendary spoken word night in London for a number of years, famed for its riotous atmosphere and its tongue-in-cheek credo: “Poetry for people who don’t like poetry.” Now...
2nd March 2016
Riot of poetry plus two laureates at City Voices in Wolverhampton
The West Midlands is a region of hidden gems. One such gem is the City Voices poetry evening in Wolverhampton. Now in its 15th year, it has hosted visiting poets each and every month since it was firs...
18th February 2016
Quality is the word at Cambridge Pub Poets, the group that meets just twice a year
Cambridge Pub Poetry Group returned to the city where it was formed nearly 20 years ago for a special autumn reading on Tuesday night. Founder member and organiser Colin Shaw said: "It was a highly su...
7th December 2015
Kultura, a literary salon in the land of Tod
Todmorden’s Kava café became 18th century Paris’s Hotel Rambouillet on Thursday as Anthony Costello and Shirley-Anne Kennedy hosted the latest of their events that reflect the philosophy of the salon...
5th November 2015
Keeping the magic alive: Leamington Spa's long-running PGR Poetry
They have to move from one pub to another from time to time, but a nomadic existence does not dim the enthusiasm of PureandGoodandRight (PGR) Poetry regulars in Leamington Spa. For instance, they stil...
17th September 2015
Y Tuesday, Clerkenwell: candles and cake, somewhere between seance and sewing circle
Paul Tims recalls a night at Y Tuesday, upstairs at the Three Kings pub in Clerkenwell, London:
“Number three: Poseidon is Morrissey,” said Kevin Rienhardt, before launching into his poem about tra...
28th June 2015
The Speakers' Corner, York: cosy, crowded, eclectic. Give them a round of applause!
The friendly, welcoming hosts, Laura and Andy, have moved The Speakers’ Corner to the exquisite, community-owned Golden Ball, a time-warp pub with several good (real, of course) ales, and artisan brea...
22nd April 2015
Get your kicks just off the A3? Rich poetic mix at Petersfield Write Angle
I’d been wanting to visit the poetry night Petersfield Write Angle for quite some time. I’d been intrigued as well as informed by the detailed reviews sent in to Write Out Loud on a regular basis by i...
24th February 2015
Creativity, curiosity and generosity at Hard Rain workshop and open mic
Hard Rain is a regular free poetry workshop and reading evening that goes from strength to strength at the Thairish Cafe (formerly Isis) in Levenshulme, on the Manchester-Stockport border.
Held on...
2nd February 2015
Calling time at Words on Tap in Leeds
A poetry night in Leeds that has been running for two years - and has featured a number of top names as guests in that time – is due to close at the end of November. Those who have appeared at Words...
9th September 2014
Write Out Loud Wigan: warm, irreverent, rude, and the odd hiccup, too
They kept telling me, with some puzzlement, that it was much quieter than usual. Compere Isobel Malinowski said at the end of the evening: “The Tudor thrives on noise. People who come here like that b...
19th May 2014
The Spoken Word, York: Here's to 100 more open mic nights
“We started eight and a half years ago, and forgot to stop.” That’s how co-organiser Rose Drew, pictured, refers to The Spoken Word poetry and prose open mic night in York, which she runs with husband...
16th May 2014
Spirit of the 60s inspires poets and musicians at Rhythm & Muse
Rhythm & Muse, a combined poetry and music open mic night at the Ram Jam Club, Kingston, south-west London, has been going for six years – but its roots stretch way back further than that.
Orga...
17th October 2013
Words and Music in the Woods: Queens Wood cafe, Highgate, London
Words and Music in the Woods takes place in Queens Wood cafe, a Swiss-chalet like structure nestling in Highgate Woods, north London. As two women poets waiting for the event to start agreed: “It’...
11th July 2013
Paperless at festival - but no complaints about the Ravenstonedale loos
I have just spent the weekend at one of the north’s best-kept secrets – Ravenstonedale festival, in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria. A small but perfectly formed festival with approximately 500 punters, se...
25th June 2013
Poetry and all that jazz: Birmingham's Sunday Xpress at Adam & Eve
The spirit and diversity of Sunday Xpress open mic, hosted by Birmingham’s unofficial poet laureate, Brendan Higgins, pictured, has been captured in a video made by emerging film-maker Ilvars Veinb...
19th May 2013
Loose Muse: redressing the balance for women writers
When I first set up Loose Muse in the summer of 2004, I honestly didn’t think that eight years later it would have grown into London’s premier night for women who write, or that it would have becom...
11th January 2013
The Spoken Word: an American in York
Are you planning on being in York around the first of January and want a “bracing start to the year” (to steal a quote from the WOL editorial staff)? If so, somewhere around 7 pm on Tuesday evening...
29th December 2012
Word of Mouth, The Last Refuge, Peckham
It’s funny where life takes you. If three years ago someone had told me I’d be organising my own poetry open mic event I would probably have laughed in their face. Yet there I was, on 29 July 2012 ...
20th November 2012
The right mix: the rationale behind creating an event
Canal – poetry for two voices will take place at the Poetry Café on Thursday 22 March. What was the rationale behind creating a reading equally shared by two speakers?
An early short poem of m...
21st March 2012
Help us fill a big gap in mid Wales
As a Montgomeryshire poet, I have long bemoaned the absence of an informal open mic evening in my local area. Several times a year I travel the three-hour round trip to Chester to perform at - and ...
7th March 2012
Nearly no More Poetry; or, who'd be a poetry organiser?
‘You can tell me to sod off if you like, but our guest poet’s from Northumberland and it’s a long way to come to read in this noise. I’ve no right to ask you to move, you’ve come for a drink and yo...
4th March 2012
