Young Slambassadors winners to perform at Royal Festival Hall
Seven winners aged 13-18, and 13 highly commended young poets have been chosen by the judges of the Poetry Society’s Slambassadors 2014 national youth poetry slam. The judges - Kate Tempest, Slambassadors artistic director Joelle Taylor, and Tom MacAndrew from the Poetry Society - had to select from approximately 900 entries from across the UK, more than double the number received in 2013. The sev...
28th October 2014
Celebrating Dylan Thomas: 36 hours of readings by celebrities in Swansea Dylathlon
An extraordinary, 36-hour,non-stop reading of the works of Dylan Thomas as part of celebrations to mark the centenary of his birth today started yesterday on Sunday 26 October at 11am and will end tonight on Monday 27 October at 11pm. The “Dylathlon” is taking place at Swansea Grand theatre, and wil...
27th October 2014
Two poets share £10,000 Manchester Writing Competition prize
Two poets, Mona Arshi and Michael Hudson, have shared the £10,000 poetry prize in the Manchester Writing Competition this year.
Mona Arshi, who was born to Punjabi Sikh parents and grew up in west ...
27th October 2014
Poetry Book Society announces £20,000 TS Eliot Prize shortlist
The Poetry Book Society has announced the shortlist for the 2014 TS Eliot Prize. It includes three poets who were on this year’s Forward shortlist for best collection – John Burnside, Louise Glück, an...
27th October 2014
'Keeping the voices alive': poetry show's producer on The Hundred Years' War
A dramatisation of poetry from Bloodaxe's The Hundred Years’ War anthology, focusing on around three dozen poems from more than 500 in the book, covering conflicts from the first world war to today’s ...
27th October 2014
Deadline nears for Bare Fiction magazine's £500 poetry prize
Adam Horovitz will be judging Bare Fiction magazine’s £500 poetry prize. The deadline is 31 October, and there are short story and flash fiction competition categories, too. More details
27th October 2014
Jackie Kay appointed chancellor and writer in residence at University of Salford
Jackie Kay has been appointed as the University of Salford’s new chancellor. She succeeds Dr Irene Khan, who stepped down earlier this year after her five-year term came to an end.
Kay is a novelis...
27th October 2014
Natalya Anderson wins the £5,000 Bridport prize with her poem 'Clear Recent History'
Canadian Natalya Anderson has won the Bridport poetry prize with her poem ‘Clear Recent History’. Judge Liz Lochhead said she liked it “for what it doesn’t say as well as for what it does. I like it ...
26th October 2014
Bert Flitcroft launching 'Thought-Apples' collection at Lichfield library
Bert Flitcroft is launching his new collection, Thought-Apples, published by Shropshire’s Offa’s Press, at Lichfield library on 30 October at 7pm. Bert, whose first collection was titled Singing Pucci...
26th October 2014
Write Out Loud Middleton at the Ring O' Bells tonight
Write Out Loud Middleton reconvenes at the Ring O’ Bells, St Leonards Square, Middleton, on Sunday 26 October at 7pm.Entry is a £2 donation to this open mic event, hosted by Norman Warwick. More detai...
26th October 2014
Psst! Mystery poetry gig discovered in Yorkshire front room
A cryptic email a few minutes after the gig started, from someone I don’t know very well inviting me to a “house concert” (neither did I) put me more in mind of an invitation to an illicit rave than a...
24th October 2014
End of October deadline for the £5,000 National Poetry Competition
Roddy Lumsden, Glyn Maxwell and Zoe Skoulding are the judges this year in the Poetry Society’s £5,000 National Poetry Competition - one of the biggest poetry competitions in the world. Last year it a...
23rd October 2014
Write Out Loud at the Red and Green Club in Huddersfield tonight
Write Out Loud is back at Huddersfield’s community-run Red and Green Club, on Thursday 23 October at 7.30pm. Risk a Verse is hosted by Julian Jordon, and entry is free to this open mic event, where al...
23rd October 2014
Brass bands, clogs, the rail ale trail and all that jazz at Write Out Loud's poetry jam
“This is as legitimate a form of poetry publishing as any other,” insisted compere and founder Julian Jordon, towards the end of Write Out Loud’s fifth annual poetry jam, a popular, regular fixture at...
23rd October 2014
From the Mersey and the Tyne - to Aldeburgh
Two poets who burst on to the poetry scene as young men in the 1960s and are still live and kicking today will be appearing at the Aldeburgh poetry festival next month.
Brian Patten, pictured, was ...
22nd October 2014
Louise Fazackerley at Write Out Loud Sale tonight
Rising poetry star Louise Fazackerley, a Radio 3 New Voices winner, is guest poet at Write Out Loud sale on Tuesday 21 October, at 7.20pm at Sale’s Waterside arts centre. Entry is £3/£2 to this open m...
21st October 2014
Suits you, sir: footslogging poet Joe is a winner as he sells new poems on the streets
Wandering poet Joe Nodus as you’ve never seen him before … in a suit. The footslogging poet, whose epic journey, mainly on foot, from the north to London and back earlier this year, was reported in Wr...
19th October 2014
Waiting for the dawn: lyrical perfection from Alice Oswald
All the lights went out last evening and we sat in pitch dark at the Purcell Room on the Southbank for the commencement of Alice Oswald’s Tithonus: 46 minutes in the life of the Dawn, commissioned by ...
17th October 2014
Deadline nears for £5,000 Troubadour poetry prize
Poetry editors Neil Astley (Bloodaxe) and Amy Wack (Seren) will be judging this year’s Troubadour poetry prize, and reading all the entries. The top prize has been increased to £5,000, and the deadli...
16th October 2014
Tower of strength: Julia Bird's poem for Jaywick
The rundown coastal location of Jaywick in Essex has received a lot of flak during the recent Clacton byelection, as officially the most deprived area in England. But that doesn’t mean it can’t inspir...
16th October 2014
Family odyssey: Hannah Lowe's tale of the first ship that brought Caribbean migrants to Britain
Hannah Lowe, whose debut collection, Chick, was shortlisted for the Forward and Aldeburgh best first collection prizes and Seamus Heaney first collection prize, is launching a new pamphlet, Ormonde, ...
15th October 2014
Poets back for more at Write Out Loud Marsden tonight
Recovery time for poets? Pah! They don’t need any. Only three days after the hugely successful poetry jam at Marsden jazz festival, where local poets in particular gave a good account of themselves, m...
15th October 2014
Good evening, America: Stateside poets reinforce Troubadour's transatlantic reputation
Billy Collins, Sharon Olds, Jorie Graham and CK Willams are just some of the host of American names that have appeared at the famous Troubadour poetry venue in west London over the years. You can now ...
14th October 2014
Photographic portraits of leading poets on display at touring exhibition
This photographic portrait of John Agard by Maud Sulter is one of a number of poets on display at Picture the Poet, a travelling exhibition currently at the Graves Gallery in Sheffield until Saturday ...
14th October 2014
Owen Lowery and David Constantine at Lancaster literature festival
Former British judo champion, Owen Lowery, pictured, who suffered a spinal injury while competing and is now a tetraplegic, will be reading at Lancaster literature festival on Sunday 19 October. His f...
14th October 2014
'Unforgettable!' Newcomer Dorinda takes the open mic plunge at the Write Out Loud poetry jam
“WOW!!! - My first reading at an open mic event: what a marvellous experience! Julian, thank you for your warm welcome; your encouragement; your hospitality..... an event I will never forget!” That wa...
14th October 2014
Write Out Loud Stockport in Halloween mood tonight at Stockport art gallery
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 13 October at 7pm to read and discuss their own poetry. Entry is a £1 donation. Each month a collage poem is cre...
13th October 2014
Broadcasting tonight: Radio Wildfire reschedules after problems
Radio Wildfire, an independent online radio station that blends spoken word, poetry, performance literature, comedy, storytelling, short stories and more, including music, usually broadcasts live betw...
13th October 2014
Passionate poetry on Chanje Kunda's journey to Amsterdam
What happens when a perfectly responsible woman gives in to the pull of passion and adventure? That’s the subject of this one-woman show by Manchester poet/playwright/performance artist Chanje Kunda w...
10th October 2014
From Outback to Hull central library: Poetry London's special night at the zoo
Poetry London, insisted last year’s Forward prize winner, Michael Symmons Roberts, “is in my view the finest poetry magazine in Britain”.
The magazine was launching its latest issue, number 79, and...
10th October 2014
Poets for justice: top lineup at Liverpool open mic night
Louise Fazackerley, Kieren King, Rod Tame, and Jackie Hagan will be performing at the Casa Bar, in Hope Street, Liverpool, at the United Against Injustice open mic night on Saturday 11 October at 7pm....
9th October 2014
Joy France takes the mic at Write Out Loud Wigan at the Tudor tonight
Award-winning performer Joy France will be compering Write Out Loud at the Tudor House hotel, Wigan, on Thursday 9 October, at 8.30pm. Joy has one or two tricks up her sleeve, and her plans include “b...
9th October 2014
Kei Miller wins £10,000 Forward prize for best collection
Jamaican poet Kei Miller has won the top Forward prize for the best poetry collection of 2014 with The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way To Zion. Liz Berry won the Felix Dennis prize for best first col...
7th October 2014
The poetry news, from Sleepy Hollow and Greenwich Village
Margo Taft Stever, pictured left, great-great niece of US president William Howard Taft (1857-1930), runs Slapering Hol Press, the imprint of Hudson Valley Writers Centre, in Sleepy Hollow, Westcheste...
7th October 2014
Dannie Abse, poet and physician, dies aged 91
The poet Dannie Abse, who read from his latest, shortlisted collection to great audience acclaim at the TS Eliot Prize earlier this year, has died at the age of 91. A statement from the Poetry Society...
7th October 2014
Countdown to Write Out Loud's open mic poetry jam at Marsden jazz festival
The countdown has started to the Write Out Loud poetry jam – the utterly and purely open mic jam - at Marsden jazz festival, on Sunday 12 October. In a new move this year the jam has been extended for...
5th October 2014
Quiet, please, for Sarah L Dixon, in the spotlight at Sowerby Bridge on Monday
Sarah L Dixon, whose Quiet Compere tour, backed by the Arts Council, has been touring the north and venturing as far south as Birmingham, will be performing on her own on Monday 6 October, as guest po...
5th October 2014
Celebrating Maya Angelou at the London literature festival
A celebration of the life of Maya Angelou will be staged at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 5 October, as part of the London literature festival at the Southbank. Angelou, who rose from poverty, vio...
5th October 2014
Meet some new Foyle Young Poets of the Year, named on National Poetry Day
A new crop of poets were named as Foyle Young Poets of the Year at London’s Southbank Centre on Thursday 2 October, National Poetry Day, and congratulated by children’s author Julia Donaldson. The Lon...
5th October 2014
'It's much bigger than the personal.' Jamaican-born poet talks of his mixed emotions on winning the Forward prize
The new Forward prize winner, Kei Miller, has spoken of the “strangely emotional” moment when he heard the news. In the afterglow of his Forward triumph on Tuesday night, the Jamaican-born poet told B...
4th October 2014
Poetry Library launches e-loans in bid to boost digital take-up
The Poetry Library at London’s Southbank Centre is marking National Poetry Day by launching an e-loan service, with the aim of raising levels of digital reading of poetry.
The Poetry Librarian, Chr...
4th October 2014
Carol Ann Duffy's new collection 'Ritual Lighting' marks five years as laureate
The poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, is publishing a new collection of poems to mark five years of her laureateship. Ritual Lighting (Picador) contains 16 poems written over the last few years on subje...
2nd October 2014
Think of a poem, and don't forget - it's National Poetry Day today
It’s National Poetry Day today, Thursday 2 October, with poetic events planned all round the country. This year the theme is ‘Remember’, with a special research project launched by Cambridge Universit...
2nd October 2014
Tom Pickard at Hastings film and poetry festival
Tom PIckard, who ran the legendary Morden Tower poetry readings with Basil Bunting in Newcastle in the 1960s, will be reading at the Black Huts film and poetry festival in Hastings on Sunday 2 Novembe...
2nd October 2014
It's all happening at the zoo: poetry weekend in Regent's Park
A poetry weekend, including the launch of the latest issue of Poetry London magazine, is being staged at London zoo from 3-5 October. The autumn 2014 issue of Poetry London, which is celebrating its 2...
2nd October 2014
