The year when poets were moved by tragedies at sea
Write Out Loud news editor Greg Freeman looks back at the poetry stories of 2015:
Poets are often looking for a prompt – and many found them, in a good way, this year. Not only from the publication this month of Jo Bell’s excellent book arising out of her 52 Project, but also from world events, such as the Syrian refugee crisis.
Moved by the photographs that shocked the world of a three-yea...
31st December 2015
Luisa Igloria wins £5,000 Resurgence eco-poetry prize
The Filipina American poet Luisa Igloria has won the £5,000 Resurgence prize for eco-poetry, judged by Sir Andrew Motion (chair), Jo Shapcott and Alice Oswald. Motion, the former poet laureate, praised the winning poem for its “authenticity, intensity and cohesion”.
Second prize of £2,000 was awa...
31st December 2015
Poetry translator returns prize and withdraws entries
The winner of a £1,000 prize for poetry in translation has returned the prize and withdrawn his entries, after allegations of plagiarism surfaced in a poetry news blog. Allen Prowle, a respected trans...
27th December 2015
Love is a Battlefield: Louise Fazackerley, Nymphs & Thugs
Eight years ago, Louise Fazackerley went to a event in Wigan organised by Write Out Loud host and poet and lyricist in his own right, John Togher. Like the birth of many a performance poet, this prov...
27th December 2015
Keats, celery, Luton, wallpaper: John Hegley brightens wet night in Hebden Bridge
On a rainy evening in Hebden Bridge I ventured down a side street, pushed open a forbidding door and ascended the stairs of the Trades Club. Given the history of the Calder valley I half-expected to s...
23rd December 2015
Poetry student Shirley-Anne Kennedy gets off to flying start
A member of the Write Out Loud team who co-hosts the Write Out Middleton open mic night has been named joint winner of a poetry competition. Shirley-Anne Kennedy, who also co-hosts the monthly Kultura...
22nd December 2015
'Write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going': Jo Bell's 52 poetry prompts book to give 2016 a kickstart
First there was the 52 Project itself, that former canal laureate Jo Bell set up after a new year resolution, with prompts – “Write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going.” It grew into a group with mor...
20th December 2015
Sarah Howe wins £5,000 Sunday Times award
Poet Sarah Howe has won the £5,000 Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year award for her first collection, Loop of Jade (Chatto & Windus).
The award, which is in its 25th year,...
19th December 2015
Campaigners in new plea to free poet serving 15 years in Qatar jail
The writers’ pressure group, English PEN, has launched a new call for the release of poet Mohammed al-‘Ajami, known as Ibn al-Dheeb, who is serving 15 years in prison in Qatar for a poem. English PEN ...
18th December 2015
'Curious pedestrian' Luke Kennard to tour the towpaths as new canal laureate
The poet Luke Kennard is to take over from Jo Bell as canal laureate, the Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust announced on Monday. The new canal laureate has admitted, that, unlike Jo Bell, he ...
18th December 2015
Remembering the refugees: Write Out Loud Marsden looks for Christmas contributions
Poets attending Write Out Loud Marsden at Marsden library on Wednesday 16 December will be asked to contribute to an appeal to raise money to help a group that has already set off from Bolton to build...
16th December 2015
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 14 December at 7pm to share poems at their-open floor poetry night. Every month a collage poem is produced from m...
14th December 2015
Lines in a station waiting room: poets brighten up the day for passengers
Poems created during a poetry workshop at Stalybridge library are now adorning the walls of platform four’s waiting room at nearby Stalybridge station.
One of the poems is by 98-year-old Thora Bedd...
13th December 2015
For those in peril on the sea: poets deliver their words to aid refugees at all-day reading in London
“When I was growing up the Mediterranean was a beautiful place where you went on holiday. I think the tabloids have subverted it into something else.” The words of Peter Raynard, author of the Proleta...
12th December 2015
Quiet Compere speaks up: plea for Crowdfunder aid to help fund 2016 tour giving poets 10-minute spots
A poet whose Quiet Compere tours have mixed page and stage, established poets and emerging voices, and allowed many local poets their 10 minutes in the spotlight is appealing for Crowdfunder pledges t...
11th December 2015
Catch the choo choo to Write Out Loud Wigan's Christmas party at the Old Courts tonight
It's over a year now since Wigan’s Tudor House hotel closed its doors to patrons, poets and other people who like to drink a lot ... At the time it felt like a cruel blow. Many of us had found our pe...
10th December 2015
Questions over future of Aldeburgh poetry festival after organisers' huge cuts
There is a question mark hanging over the Aldeburgh poetry festival - in the eyes of many, the best poetry festival in the country - after its organisers, the Poetry Trust, announced swingeing cutback...
9th December 2015
Barbara Marsh wins £5,000 Troubadour poetry prize
An American living in London, Barbara Marsh, has won this year’s £5,000 Troubadour International poetry prize. Her poem about memory, ‘The Farthest Way East’, set on the US-Canada border, with its ref...
8th December 2015
Talking about poetry: Kulturá seeks sponsors for 2016 lectures at Kava cafe
Maria Isakova Bennett is the guest poet and John Duffy will deliver the poetry lecture at Kulturá’s last event of 2015 at Kava cafe in Todmorden on Thursday 17 December at 7.30pm.
Kulturá, hosted b...
7th December 2015
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
Wanted: a new host and co-ordinator at Write Out Loud Sale
Write Out Loud is looking for a host and co-ordinator - or shared post - to take over at Write Out Loud Sale and follow in the footsteps of illustrious predecessors John Darwin, Rod Tame, and Steve O’...
6th December 2015
Lottery Fund awards grant for spoken word and performance poetry archive
The Heritage Lottery Fund has handed out a grant of £86,000 to create a “living archive” for the “often marginalised art form” of spoken word and performance poetry, including rare sound and video rec...
6th December 2015
Poem-a-thon over 10 hours to raise cash for refugees
A poem-a-thon in London involving up to 60 poets reading for eight minutes each to raise money for refuges has already beaten its £12,000 target – before any of the poets have uttered a word.
The p...
5th December 2015
Aylan poem in refugees anthology
A poem that first appeared on Write Out Loud, and was prompted by the worldwide anguish at pictures of the lifeless body of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a beach in Turkey, is ...
3rd December 2015
Don't Mention the Children: Michael Rosen, Smokestack
Until I read the blurb, I thought the title of this collection of adult poems by the former children’s laureate, Michael Rosen, might refer to hiding the content of this book from the children - or p...
2nd December 2015
Andrew McMillan is first poet to win £10,000 Guardian book award
Andrew McMillan has become the first poet to win the £10,000 Guardian first book award with his debut collection, physical, it was announced on Wednesday. The Guardian’s books editor, Claire Armitstea...
2nd December 2015
Ryan Van Winkle wins £2,000 Saltire Scottish poetry book of the year award
Ryan Van Winkle has won the £2,000 Saltire Scottish Poetry Book of the Year award, supported by the Scottish Poetry Library, for his collection The Good Dark, published by Penned in the Margins.
Va...
2nd December 2015
Lucy Ingrams wins £10,000 Manchester poetry prize
Lucy Ingrams has won the £10,000 Manchester poetry prize for a best portfolio of three to five poems, with a maximum combined length of 120 lines. She has also won the Birkbeck Michael Donaghy poetry ...
1st December 2015
