Cry Baby: Gareth Writer-Davies, Indigo Dreams
Based in Brecon, Gareth Writer-Davies has been commended in a number of competitions, and has also been twice shortlisted for the Bridport prize. Cry Baby is his second pamphlet published by Indigo Dreams, after Bodies in 2015.
Readers of the earlier booklet will remember his use of the striking phrase, his ability to sweep aside over-sentimentality and cut through to the bone. Often visceral a...
29th January 2018
'Presidents Club' by Shirley-Anne Kennedy is Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Presidents Club’ by Shirley-Anne Kennedy. It’s a topical poem, and each stanza begins with the refrain: “I hoped we had left it all behind.” Poetry is in her blood: her father turned his poems into ditties, and her grandfather sold his poems as song-lyrics...
29th January 2018
'A roll of the dice could send a girl to jail'
I'm writing this column on a very cold day, and it's nice to be inside with a board game to play, but better yet, for me at least, to be inside with a poem about a board game. This Monopoly game by Co...
26th January 2018
Royal audience for Write Out Loud poet Fred Varden at plaque unveiling
A Manchester poet who blogs regularly on Write Out Loud has read a specially-commissioned poem at the unveiling of a plaque by Princess Anne. Fred Varden delivered his poem at the unveiling of a plaqu...
25th January 2018
Ocean Vuong wins £25,000 TS Eliot prize
A poet who was born in Saigon, spent a year in a refugee camp as a baby and migrated to America when he was two years old, where he was raised by his mother, grandmother and aunt, has won the £25,000 ...
23rd January 2018
Susan Evans at launch of new poetry night in Aldershot
Brighton-based performance poet Susan Evans – pictured at last year’s Poetry Book Fair in London - is headlining a new poetry night in Aldershot on Thursday 25 January. The evening at the Gallery at W...
23rd January 2018
Missing Miles: Hannah Stone, Indigo Dreams
Hannah Stone holds an MA in creative writing from Leeds Trinity University. Her first collection, Lodestone, was published by Stairwell Books in 2016. She won the Poetry Business Yorkshire Poetry pri...
22nd January 2018
Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn tonight
Karen Izod is the featured poet at Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn, Send, near Woking on Monday 22 January. Sign up from 7.30pm for this free, open mic poetry night compered by Greg Freeman and R...
22nd January 2018
'100 Reasons to Plant a Tree' by Tim Ellis is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘100 Reasons to Plant a Tree’ by Tim Ellis. In his Q&A he explains that this poem is a part of a collection about climate change. He also talks about how t...
22nd January 2018
'Tomorrow I will begin to try to forget'
Poems that move back and forth through time can be intriguing. In this poem by Pat Schneider, she looks deep into the past and evokes it in compelling detail, though the poem speculates that there wi...
21st January 2018
Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club tonight
Poetry open micers will be convening at Bolton Socialist Club on Sunday 21 January for Bolton Write Out Loud compered by Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola. Entry is £1 plus raffle and doors open at 7.30pm fo...
21st January 2018
'When I am an old woman I shall wear purple': Jenny Joseph dies aged 85
Jenny Joseph, whose 'Warning’, with its much-quoted first line, “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple’, was voted Britain’s favourite poem in a BBC poll, has died at the age of 85. Joseph wrote ...
20th January 2018
Write Out Loud at Marsden library tonight
The theme – always optional, of course - is “animals” at Write Out Loud Marsden on Wednesday 17 January, with poems, songs and even jokes welcomed. The co-ordinator is John Ling at this open-floor poe...
17th January 2018
Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight
Joel Sadler-Puckering and Parveen Butt are the guest poets at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside arts centre, Sale, on Tuesday 16 January. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic poetry event, which starts...
16th January 2018
Farewell, John Togher: Write Out Loud Wigan's organiser to step down after 10 years at the helm
The organiser of Write Out Loud Wigan for the last 10 years, John Togher, is stepping down as organiser. His final stint in the role was on Thursday 11 January at the regular monthly night at the Old ...
16th January 2018
Curlew Calling: edited by Karen Lloyd, Numenius Press
The cover of this anthology of poetry, nature writing and images “in celebration of curlew” shows a distant, indistinct bird in flight, an image that is sadly appropriate.
According to the RSPB, be...
16th January 2018
'They die on the rug. We find them there, eyes open in surprise'
I've had a couple of aquariums (or is the plural aquaria?), but I didn't take very good care of either one. The glass clouded over with algae, and the fish had to live on whatever they could scrounge...
15th January 2018
'Song for the old year' by John Marks is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Song for the old year’ by John Marks, a 14-line poem about winter weather and birdsong. In his answers to our questions John says he is interested in shorte...
15th January 2018
Usaama Minhas wins Hammer & Tongue national slam contest at Royal Albert Hall
Poet and actor Usaama Minhas has won this year's Hammer & Tongue national slam final at the Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Afterwards on his Facebook page Usaama said: “Becoming the na...
13th January 2018
Helen Dunmore wins posthumous Costa poetry prize
Helen Dunmore, who died of cancer last year, has won the Costa poetry award for her final collection, Inside the Wave. The second edition of the collection includes the poem ‘Hold out your arms’, writ...
9th January 2018
Helen Ivory to judge £1,000 Kent and Sussex poetry competition
Helen Ivory will be judging the Kent & Sussex Poetry Society’s £1,000 open poetry competition. The deadline is 31 January 2018. More details
9th January 2018
'How blindly we stumble ahead with such hope, a light flares briefly'
This is the sixth poem we've published by Peter Everwine, which testifies to how much I admire his writing. How fine it is when a memory arrives from the past to surprise us into happiness. Everwine l...
9th January 2018
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Regulars at Stockport Write Out Loud will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 8 January to share poems at this open-floor event that welcomes newcomers. Each month a collage poem is produced...
8th January 2018
'Snippets 2' by Ghost is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Snippets 2’ by Ghost, a young Korean American born in Middletown, New York. ‘Snippets 2’ is a powerful and poignant poem despite its unassuming title. In h...
8th January 2018
Our Beautiful Scars: Jane Seabourne, Offa's Press
Wolverhampton-based poet Jane Seabourne has an MA in English literature and post-graduate certificates in education and mentoring. Now a freelance writer and mentor, most of her adult life has been sp...
3rd January 2018
Geoff Stevens prize offers two poets the chance to have collections published
The Geoff Stevens memorial prize organised by publishers Indigo Dreams each year offers the chance for two poets to have 52-page collections published, with 20 free copies each. The deadline is 31 Jan...
3rd January 2018
Paul Muldoon awarded Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry
The Northern Irish poet Paul Muldoon, who was once described by the Times Literary Supplement as the most significant English-language poet born since the second world war, has been named this year’s ...
1st January 2018
'An otter slaps the water with his paw to feel the current's pulse'
James Crews, now living in Vermont, was for a couple of years our assistant here at American Life in Poetry. He came to us having already won the Prairie Schooner book prize, and his poems have gotten...
1st January 2018
Deadline nears for £600 Tongues & Grooves prose poem prize
Michael Loveday will be judging the £600 prose poem prize organised by Portsmouth’s Tongues and Grooves. The deadline is 1 January 2018. More details
1st January 2018
'Resistance' by John Short is Write Out Loud's first Poem of the Week for 2018
The first Write Out Loud Poem of the Week in 2018 is ‘Resistance’ by John Short. According to his profile, John spent some years in the south of Europe working in fields and factories and as an Englis...
1st January 2018
