Seamus Heaney biopic on BBC2 will feature family's memories
A feature-length biopic detailing the life and works of the Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney will be shown on BBC2 on Saturday 30 November. The film, 'Seamus Heaney: The Music of What Happens', directed by Adam Low, will feature Heaney's wife and children as they reflect on his life and read some of the many poems he wrote for them. Heaney died, aged 74, in 2013. Six years after his death hi...
30th November 2019
Clive James, who turned to poetry to 'start saying goodbye', dies aged 80
The acclaimed writer, broadcaster and poet Clive James has died after a long illness at the age of 80. He won many plaudits for his TV programmes and criticism over the years. But after his terminal diagnosis with leukaemia and emphysema in 2010, he increasingly turned to poetry to “start saying goo...
28th November 2019
Popping up at Euston: a flashback to Write Out Loud poetry-art collaboration at Stockport
A poetry-art collaboration involving Stockport Write Out Loud member poet Martin Elder and artist Mark Sheeky that was part of an exhibition at Stockport art gallery earlier this year is popping up at...
27th November 2019
Novel by Twitter poet Brian Bilston makes Costa shortlist
A comic novel by Brian Bilston, who is variously known as the “poet laureate” or “Banksy” of Twitter, is on the first novel shortlist in the Costa book awards. Diary of a Somebody tells of a 45-year-...
27th November 2019
George the Poet: 'Why I turned down an MBE'
The spoken word artist George the Poet has said he turned the offer an MBE earlier this year because of the “pure evil” perpetrated by the British empire.
He made the revelation in the final episod...
26th November 2019
Sue Riley wins £5,000 Ginkgo prize for eco-poetry
Sue Riley has won the £5,000 Ginkgo prize for eco-poetry with her poem ‘A Polar Bear in Norilsk’. Second was Anne McDonnell (‘Once There Were Fish’), and third was Rosamund Taylor (‘Lammergeier’). The...
25th November 2019
Imtiaz Dharker to become chancellor of Newcastle University
The poet Imtiaz Dharker is to become chancellor of Newcastle University. Dharker is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014.
The poet,...
22nd November 2019
Poet laureate launches £5,000 prize for best collection of environment poems
The poet laurate, Simon Armitage, has launched a new prize for environmentally themed poetry. The Laurel prize will go to the best collection of poems “with nature and the environment at their heart”,...
21st November 2019
'Get on a website called Write Out Loud': Tony Walsh's advice to would-be poets
Top performance poet Tony Walsh has given Write Out Loud’s Gig Guide a ringing endorsement in a wide-ranging and inspirational radio discussion with fellow northern performer, actor Julie Hesmondhalgh...
14th November 2019
Poet laureate plans 10-year tour of nation's libraries and new Marsden collection
The poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has announced a 10-year tour of the UK’s libraries, starting in 2020 with libraries beginning with the letter A or B. Next year he will also be launching a new colle...
8th November 2019
Last chance to make your mark on the Places of Poetry map
A poetry project that has allowed poets to pin more than 7,500 poems to a digital map of England and Wales is closing to new poems very soon. After that you will still be able to look at the Places of...
1st November 2019
