Cheer up, Swansea! Dylan Thomas centenary festival is launched
A festival of events to mark the centenary of the birth of Dylan Thomas has been launched in Swansea, with the city still trying to get over its disappointment after missing out in its bid to become city of culture. The Dylan Thomas 100 Festival will provide a year-long programme of recitals, plays, music, workshops and other events at venues across Wales throughout 2014. The first event, an exhib...
30th November 2013
City of culture: Philip Larkin is just one of Hull's legion of poets
Philip Larkin might have been impressed at the news that Hull will be the next city of culture … or perhaps he would have sent a sarcastic letter about it to his friend Kingsley Amis.
Hull will take over from Derry, the current city of culture, in 2017, it was announced on Wednesday. It beat Dun...
30th November 2013
Carol Ann Duffy hails poetry's 'wonderful evening' at palace
England’s poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has described the royal reception for poets at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday night, as a “wonderful evening”. Duffy, who helped plan the evening with palace of...
29th November 2013
Luke Wright lends a hand to help local library in Suffolk stay open
Luke Wright will be performing at his local library in Bungay, Suffolk, on Friday 6 December, in a benefit night, with all proceeds going to help the library stay open. The performance poet regularly ...
29th November 2013
Brave old world: industrial anthology launched at new open mic night
While some poets were nibbling at canapés on Tuesday night at Buckingham Palace, there were many other poetry events going on up and down the country, just as usual. One of them was the launch of a ne...
27th November 2013
Poetry magazines and the creative writing boom: are editors being swamped with poems?
The other day I got a nicely worded rejection of some poems I'd submitted to a magazine. Nothing unusual in that.
The refusal said that “we have had hundreds of submissions and have had to leave ou...
27th November 2013
David Clarke and Flarestack win pamphlet awards
David Clarke’s pamphlet Gaud has won the £5,000 2013 Michael Marks award, with its publisher, Flarestack, also winning the publisher’s award. The awards were presented at the British Library on Tues...
27th November 2013
John Darwin is new compere at Write Out Loud Sale
John Darwin is taking over as compere at Write Out Loud Sale from Rod Tame, who said farewell at the Waterside arts centre on Tuesday night after three years in charge of the open mic night. John s...
25th November 2013
Deadline nears for £1,000 Cafe Writers competition
The 30 November deadline is close for the Norfolk-based £1,000 Café Writers competition, to be judged by Deryn Rees-Jones. Entries will be accepted by post or by email. More details
25th November 2013
Revamped Write Out Loud Middleton returns tonight
Write Out Loud open mic nights return to the Ring O’Bells, Middleton on Sunday 24 November at 7.30pm. Hosted by Norman Warwick, of Just Poets, the night will now include a “meet the writers” session a...
24th November 2013
LauraTaylor and Louise Fazackerley on bill with Attila in Wigan
Political poet Attila the Stockbroker is performing at Hartleys in Wigan on Saturday November 23, and stars of the spoken word stage and Write Out Loud, Laura Taylor and Louise Fazackerly, are supp...
21st November 2013
Full steam ahead: night of railway poetry on timetable
The signal is green for an open mic night of poetry about railways, to be held in a railways refreshment room full of trains memorabilia. Railway Lines, part of the Sowerby Bridge arts festival, is...
21st November 2013
Write Out Loud at Marsden tonight
Members of Marsden Write Out Loud meet on Wednesday 21 November for another night of poetry, your own or by someone else. The floor is also open to short story tellers and singer-songwriters. The h...
20th November 2013
Andrew Motion to judge £1,000 Plough poetry prize
The deadline is 30 November for the £1,000 Plough poetry prize, staged by the Plough arts centre, in Great Torrington, Devon. The judge is Andrew Motion. More details
20th November 2013
Carol Ann Duffy to judge book and pamphlet competition
The deadline is 29 November for the Poetry Business book and pamphlet competition, to be judged this year by the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Entrants are invited to submit a collection of 20-24...
20th November 2013
Philip Gross to judge £1,000 Magma poetry competition
Philip Gross will be judging this year’s £1,000 Magma magazine poetry competition, for a poem of 13 to 80 lines. The deadline is 12 December. Poems of up to 12 lines are eligible for the £1,000 Mag...
20th November 2013
Take a bow, Rod: compere steps down at Write Out Loud Sale
Rod Tame is bowing out after three years at the helm as compere of Write Out Loud Sale.
He said: “I have had great fun hosting Write Out Loud Sale over the last three years. I'm very proud of t...
19th November 2013
Giving it the works: poetry night launched at Midlands museum
A monthly open mic poetry night, The Works’ Canteen, will be launched on Tuesday 19 November at the Black Country Living Museum, in Dudley. Also launched on the same night will be a book of poems c...
19th November 2013
Campaign renewed after jailed Qatari poet in solitary confinement loses appeal
Campaigners have renewed their fight to end the detention of a Qatari poet, after his appeal against a 15-year sentence was turned down last month. Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami’s jail term for “c...
18th November 2013
TS Eliot nominee Helen Mort signed up by Chesterfield FC
The new poet laureate of Derbyshire, Helen Mort, has become poet-in-residence at Chesterfield football club. According to the football club’s website, Mort, who was raised in Chesterfield, rece...
18th November 2013
Beach treasures: an Aldeburgh postcard from McMillan and Crowe
Crisp packets thrown from ships; sodden, torn-up bits of newspaper; plastic refuse found on the beach. Detritus is not the sort of thing you would necessarily associate with the excellent Aldeburgh...
17th November 2013
Write Out Loud at Bolton tonight
The floor could be yours at Write Out Loud Bolton on Sunday 17 November, with the evening given over to open mic performers. Arrive at 7.30pm for 8pm start at the Brooklyn, Green Lane, Bolton. Cont...
17th November 2013
That's showbiz: new, historic venue for Liverpool's Liver Bards
Liverpool poetry group Liver Bards have a new venue in the city centre – the historic Ma Egerton’s pub. The pub, just behind the Liverpool Empire theatre, is famous for attracting showbiz stars.
...
16th November 2013
Tony Walsh at Chorlton book festival
Tony Walsh will be appearing on Saturday 16 November at Chorlton book festival performing poems from his 2013 collection, Sex & Love & Rock&Roll. The venue is Chorlton library, the time 7.30pm. On ...
15th November 2013
Dave Carr to compere at Write Out Loud Wigan tonight
The popular and witty north-west poet Dave Carr will be compering Write Out Loud Wigan at the Tudor House hotel, Wigan, on Thursday 14 November. Entry is free to this open mic night. It starts at 8...
14th November 2013
Air Histories: Christopher Meredith, Seren
Air Histories, the latest collection from poet and novelist Christopher Meredith, is a protean work, shifting from archaeological landscapes to Oedipus. In this it reflects the poet’s career as poe...
13th November 2013
Deadline nears for iShot short poetry pamphlets competition
The closing date is 18 November for submissions to Templar Poetry’s iShot short poetry pamphlets award. Poets are invited to submit 12-16 pages of poetry, with a maximum of 40 lines per page, exclu...
13th November 2013
Actors take to the stage again in new Forward reading
Actors take the stage to read poems from the Forward Book of Poetry 2014 again when Lindsay Duncan joins Zawe Ashton, Juliet Cowan, Beatie Edney, Paterson Joseph, Finbar Lynch and Simon Williams i...
12th November 2013
Local hero, a Cuban bird, and a long poem of many colours
In the first of what we hope will be regular reports from Write Out Loud correspondents from around the regions, Jeanne Gimblett writes about a memorable recent gathering of Cornwall's Indian King ...
11th November 2013
Write Out Loud at Stockport tonight
Members of Stockport Write Out Loud meet on Monday 11 October at Stockport art gallery to share and discuss their own poetry. They also create a collage poem at every meeting. It starts at 7pm, wit...
11th November 2013
Performance star Hollie McNish at Hebden Bridge
Leading performance poet Hollie McNish, whose poem Embarassed became a Youtube sensation earlier this year, will be appearing at Wainsgate Chapel, Hebden Bridge on Sunday 10 November, at 3pm. She w...
8th November 2013
Aldeburgh celebrates 25 years with 30 poets from seven countries
Aldeburgh, one of the most prestigious poetry festivals on the calendar, celebrates its 25th anniversary on 8-10 November with a programme featuring 30 poets from seven countries in 55 interconnect...
8th November 2013
A bigger splash: new Ambit editor promises more emerging poets, and more art
A literary and art magazine’s first new editor in 52 years has spoken of the direction that she wants to go - back to its roots.
Briony Bax, who replaced the long-standing editor of Ambit, Dr ...
7th November 2013
Rush to buy tickets for Seamus Heaney night at Southbank
All 2,500 tickets have already been sold for a celebration of the life and work of Seamus Heaney with poetry, music, film, anecdote and appreciation at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank...
7th November 2013
Selling spoken word: reasons to be cheerful at Burning Eye
Clive Birnie launched Burning Eye Books after spotting a gap in the market – no one was focusing on poets working the live circuit. In the second of our Publisher’s Showcase series, he tells Greg F...
7th November 2013
Rhyming Thunder: the alternative book of young poets, Burning Eye
Spoken poetry in the UK is huge at the moment. Call it what you will, spoken word, performance poetry, there is an abundance of fresh, impassioned acts out there.
Editors James Bunting and Jac...
6th November 2013
Wanted: new northern voices to feature on BBC's The Verb
BBC Radio’s The Verb, presented by Ian McMillan, is offering three writers – from the north-east, north-west, and Yorkshire - the opportunity to generate a new work which reflects something unique ...
5th November 2013
Poet Tim Wells to stand as Class War candidate at general election
A poet and magazine editor is standing as a candidate at the 2015 general election. Tim Wells, editor of Rising magazine, will be standing on behalf of the anarchist group Class War in the Labour s...
4th November 2013
