Biographer's Yeats lecture ends year of Nobel centenary events
The official biographer of WB Yeats, Roy Foster, will be delivering the inaugural Bedford Park Lecture on the Nobel prizewinner at St Michael and All Angels church, Chiswick on Thursday 14 December at 7.30pm.
The Irish poet spent many of his boyhood years in Bedford Park, Chiswick, west London. Yeats received the Nobel prize on 10 December 1923, and next month’s lecture marks the culmination of...
16th November 2023
Publisher to celebrate 50th anniversary with poetry marathon
North-east publisher IRON Press is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Sunday 29 October with a 12-hour poetry marathon starting at 8am in its seaside village base of Cullercoats in North Tyneside. Kate Fox will kick-off proceedings, and appearances are also promised from John Hegley, Tom Pickard, L...
21st October 2023
Poetry in the know: spoken words of slang!
Slang Bang, a free entry night of slang-infused spoken word curated by Write Out Loud regular Lee Campbell, will feature Steve Tasane, Jeremy Dixon, Julie Granger, Pip McDonald, Richard Allen, and Fra...
8th October 2023
National Poetry Day at Newcastle University's Culture Lab
Kostya Tsolakis and Jacqueline Saphra will be reading and in conversation with Tara Bergin at Newcastle University’s Culture Lab on 5 October – National Poetry Day – from 7-8pm in an event staged by N...
4th October 2023
Write Out Loud's poetry jam at Marsden jazz festival is back - and at a new location
Hello Marsden! Yes, it’s that time of year again and I’m delighted to advertise this year’s Write Out Loud poetry jam, which as usual, will be held as part of the jazz festival weekend in Marsden, Wes...
3rd October 2023
Northumbrian poetry and beyond at Berwick literary festival
Northumberland poet Katrina Porteous; a talk on the poet Basil Bunting titled ‘The most significant Northumbrian writer since Bede?’; former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on religious poetry...
23rd September 2023
Translation trio will scatter Oxygen Confetti in the north-east
Oxygen Confetti – Poetry in three voices is a presentation of poetry translated into English from Dutch, with one of the poems set to song, by poet Elma van Haren, translator Rosemary Mitchell-Schuite...
10th September 2023
What a bunch! Top performers at Crunch Poetry Punch
Performance poets Janine Booth, Laura Taylor, and Kieron Lee Higgins are lined up at Nick Toczek’s Crunch Poetry Punch at the Square Chapel arts centre in Halifax on Saturday 9 September. It’s the fir...
5th September 2023
Laura Taylor at Write Out Loud Bolton tonight
Popular performer Laura Taylor will be the guest poet at Write Out Loud Bolton at Bolton Socialist Club lounge on Sunday 3 September. There are 14 open mic slots. Doors open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start...
3rd September 2023
Top performers and grassroots poets come together at poetry festival with a difference
A festival with the emphasis on performance as well as grassroots poetry is returning with a stellar line-up for a second year. Morecambe Poetry Festival, organised by Edinburgh Fringe veteran Matt Pa...
1st September 2023
Born Lippy lines up 'wordsmiths and beat wizards' at Lindisfarne festival
Hannah Lavery, Hamish MacDonald, Rowan McCabe, and Tahmina Ali (pictured) will be on the bill at the Born Lippy Stage Invasion at the Lindisfarne festival on 1-2 September. Friday on the Dingle Dell s...
30th August 2023
Strong language from around the world at BBC festival in Leeds
An international gathering of poets to celebrate Leeds and the 175-plus languages spoken in the city will be one of the highlights of the BBC Contains Strong Language festival from 21-24 September. Po...
28th August 2023
Poetry performance opportunity, where Wordsworth wandered
Write Out Loud started out by offering people who previously wrote poetry in secret a chance to share their work with others in small gatherings of like-minded folks, often called open mic events, eve...
15th August 2023
Poets to read at Benedictine monastery on Isle of Wight
Poets Maggie Sawkins and Blake Everitt will be taking part in Translating the Silence, a poetry reading at Quarr Abbey, a Catholic Benedictine monastery on the Isle of Wight, on 22 August at 5.30pm.
...14th August 2023
Be prepared! Wellies and Words outdoor open-mic in park
Chanje Kunde is the guest poet at a new outdoor open-mic event titled Wellies and Words taking place in the secret garden at Haigh Woodland Park, Wigan on Sunday 13 August at 11.30 am. Turn up with a ...
12th August 2023
Tell tales of sea folk at Saltburn festival spoken word session
Helen Darby will be hosting a poetry and spoken word session on the theme of ‘sea folk’ - from ballads of pirates, seafarers and their ships, to tales of merpeople and selkies - at Saltburn Folk Festi...
2nd August 2023
Stockport Write Out Loud to host open-mic night at arts festival
Stockport Write Out Loud will be hosting an evening of open mic spoken word poetry and performance at the eight-day Poynton arts festival in north Cheshire on Tuesday 27 June at 7pm. The event will ta...
4th June 2023
'Battle rapper' Joy France is guest poet at Write Out Loud Bolton
‘Battle rapper’ Joy France will be returning to her Write Out Loud roots when she is guest poet at Write Out Loud Bolton’s regular open mic night at Bolton Socialist Club. Doors open from 7.30pm for 8...
4th June 2023
Open-mic poets welcomed at Tunbridge Wells poetry festival
There’s a decidedly open-mic flavour to this year’s three-week Tunbridge Wells poetry festival, with grassroots poets encouraged to take part in a series of Vocal & Live events, all free to attend. Po...
24th May 2023
New open-mic night to be launched in North Shields
A new addition to the lively poetry scene on North Tyneside is being launched later this month. Poet Dean Jolly will be compering an open-mic poetry night at Barista Boho in North Shields on 22 April ...
1st April 2023
Global online celebration on World Poetry Day
A global online poetry celebration will take place on World Poetry Day, Sunday 19 March, staged by Cultivating Voices LIVE poetry, and featuring Archana Sahni, Mbonisi Zikhali Zomkhonto, Raine Geogheg...
14th March 2023
Performance poet Thick Richard at Write Out Loud Sale
Performance poet Thick Richard will be the guest poet at Write Out Loud Sale on Monday 20 March at the Waterside arts centre. Thick Richard has published two collections of his work with Flapjack Pres...
12th March 2023
Warm up with words at new poetry night in the north-east
A new monthly poetry night is being launched in Northumberland this month. The Poetry Café at the Warm Hub, Cheviot Street, Wooler, will be held on Friday 10 February from 7-9pm. Organisers say: “Come...
3rd February 2023
Paul Muldoon reads from collaboration with US artist Philip Pearlstein at British Library
Paul Muldoon will be reading from The Castle of Perseverance, a book that pairs new sequences of his poems with watercolours by American painter Philip Pearlstein (1924- 2022), revered as one of the m...
31st January 2023
Eight-hour Poem-A-Thon aims to rase £10,000 for food banks
Forty-eight poets will be taking part in a Poem-A-Thon on Saturday 11 February in Walthamstow, north-east London, to raise money for local food banks. The event will take place in Ye Olde Rose and Cr...
30th January 2023
Live at Bilston town hall ... Brian Bilston
The publicity-shy ‘poet laureate of Twitter’, Brian Bilston, will be making a live appearance at - where else? - Bilston town hall, on Thursday 9 February in a Wolverhampton literature festival event....
10th January 2023
