Write Out Loud wants to say a huge thank-you to all those supporters who have given donations or set up subscriptions to help us cover the costs of running this website, since we launched our appeal a few weeks ago. From the warm messages that we have received we can see how much you value this site...

Read and leave comments (11)

The first poem in the first poetry book I bought, way back in the early 1970s, consisted of two lines: “He breathed in air, he breathed out light./Charlie Parker was my delight.” The poet was Adrian M...

Read and leave comments (0)

Library assistant Karl Riordan, who grew up in the former mining communities of the South Yorkshire coalfield, is the author of the chapbook The Tattooist’s Chair (Smokestack 2017). For the last five ...

Read and leave comments (0)

Courtney Conrad was won the £5,000 Michael Marks poetry award for her pamphlet I Am Evidence, set in Jamaica and described by one of the judges, Fiona Benson, as having “the reach and impact of a long...

Read and leave comments (0)

A well-known Palestinian poet and literary scholar, Refaat Alareer, is one of more than 17,000 people said to have been killed in Israel's retalitory attacks on Gaza since the October 7 atrocities by ...

Read and leave comments (4)

Performance poet Nick Toczek has received an Outstanding Contribution award from Bradford University in recognition of his long-standing and diverse career with Bradford's arts and culture sector as a...

Read and leave comments (1)

Poet Michael Rosen, who spent 48 days in intensive care in 2020 after contracting Coronavirus early on during the pandemic, has been spurred to write a short, angry poem after hearing evidence from th...

Read and leave comments (1)

Poet, actor, musician, writer, campaigner, TV presenter Benjamin Zephaniah has died after a short illness. A post on his Instagram account reads: "Professor Benjamin Zephaniah, 15th April 1958 – 7th D...

Read and leave comments (0)

In July 2020, the poet, rapper, playwright and recording artist Kae Tempest came out as non-binary, announcing that they would publish and perform under the name Kae. In this BBC Arena documentary Bei...

Read and leave comments (0)

My memories of Benjamin Zephaniah are of him sharing a stage with Tony Benn at the Ledbury poetry festival in 2013, and later at the same festival, at his own sell-out show. Here are my words from bac...

Read and leave comments (0)

Tom Sleigh and Mona Arshi will be judging this year's £2,000 Troubadour poetry prize. The deadline is 10 December. More details 

Read and leave comments (0)

This year’s Trafalgar Square Christmas tree poem, ‘T is for Tree’ by Isabel Galleymore, was unveiled on Thursday evening. It draws a parallel between the tree’s role in the forest, where it provides a...

Read and leave comments (0)

There will be a reading of a seasonal poem commissioned by the Poetry Society when the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is illuminated on 7 December. Since 2009 the Poetry Society has each year commiss...

Read and leave comments (0)

This full collection - and with no pun relating to the title intended – feels like a breath of fresh air. ‘Remembering Snow’ is lyrical and profound in its recollections of childhood: “Steam is scrawl...

Read and leave comments (0)