Malika Booker to judge £500 Manchester Cathedral poetry competition
Malika Booker will be judging the £500 Manchester Cathedral poetry competition. Poems submitted should be broadly religious or “spiritual” in nature. The deadline is 30 June. More details
27th February 2018
Suffering chronic pain? University project seeks short pieces of creative writing for online anthology
A university project is inviting those suffering chronic pain to submit what is termed as “ ‘flash’ illness writing” - short-form creative writing, from five to 150 words, which can be poetry or prose, autobiography, fiction, or a blend. The Lancaster University project, Translating Chronic Pain, wh...
27th February 2018
Deadline nears for Rialto's £1,000 Nature and Place competition
Michael Longley will be judging The Rialto magazine’s £1,000 Nature and Place poetry competition, organised with the RSPB, BirdLife International and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. The deadlin...
26th February 2018
'You pair them, two by two, you marry the socks'
One thing I've tried to do with this column is to show off poets who do indeed write about contemporary American life, and who see deep into the ordinary parts of it. Here's a fine poem by Heid Erdric...
26th February 2018
'Dear Sad Friend' by Ruby is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Dear Sad Friend’ by Ruby. In her Q&A responses she reveals that she began writing poetry around the age of 12, and although she calls herself quiet and intr...
26th February 2018
Liz Lochhead's Bairnsangs show for young poetry fans at festival
Liz Lochhead, Scotland’s former makar – national poet – will be sharing her favourite poems, old and new, with young poetry fans at StAnza, Scotland’s international poetry festival at St Andrews, next...
25th February 2018
Deadline nears for £600 Poets & Players competition
Pascale Petit will be judging the £600 Poets & Players poetry competition. The closing date is 28 February 2018. More details
PHOTOGRAPH: GREG FREEMAN / WRITE OUT LOUD
22nd February 2018
Deadline nears for £600 York literature festival competition
The £600 York literature festival poetry competition will be judged by Andrew McMillan. The deadline is 25 February. More details
21st February 2018
Write Out Loud at Marsden Mechanics tonight
Weather is the theme for Write Out Loud Marsden on Wednesday 21 February at Marsden Mechanics Hall, Peel Street. This month the open-floor poetry night is not in the library, which is being refurbishe...
21st February 2018
Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight
Alicia Fernandez and Debz Butler are the guest poets at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside arts centre, Sale on Tuesday 20 February. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic poetry night, which starts at 7.3...
20th February 2018
Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn tonight
Write Out Loud Woking returns to the New Inn at Send, near Woking, on Monday 19 February for another night of free, open-mic poetry compered by Greg Freeman and Rodney Wood. Sign up from 7.30 onwards ...
19th February 2018
Poetry School moving to historic building in Docklands
The Poetry School is moving its offices and London classrooms from Lambeth Walk to a new base in London’s Docklands. From the beginning of its summer term, the Poetry School will be occupying a Grade ...
19th February 2018
'Who has the courage to look out to the east again at someone else's sun?'
"How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" has been attributed to a half dozen different writers. It can be helpful in encouraging people to write, but also in describing poetry that arises ...
19th February 2018
'Sea-faring' by Zach Dafoe is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘sea-faring’ by Zach Dafoe. In a detailed interview with Write Out Loud he talks of writing about “urban scapes, waxen-wood karaoke bars, boxing rings, hospi...
19th February 2018
Harry O'Neill, staunch member and supporter of Write Out Loud, dies aged 89
The online community at Write Out Loud was saddened on Sunday to hear of the death of one of its staunchest and enthusiastic supporters, Harry O’Neill.
Harry’s family posted on Write Out Loud: “It ...
18th February 2018
Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club tonight
There’s open mic poetry at Write Out Loud Bolton at Bolton Socialist club on Sunday 18 February. It’s hosted by Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola, and entry is £1 plus raffle. Get there from 7.30 for 8pm sta...
18th February 2018
'I'm a big fan of sci-fi poems': WoLF competition winner Rachel Plummer
The winner of this year’s Wolverhampton literature festival (WoLF) poetry competition, Rachel Plummer - pictured at the awards ceremony - has a background in nuclear astrophysics, and has written a se...
17th February 2018
'Three Short Poems About Mark E Smith' by Andy N is Poem of the Week
‘Three Short Poems about Mark E Smith’ by Andy N is Write Out Loud’s Poem – or poems - of the Week. These poems represent the three occasions – at a gig, in a pub, and at a bus station - that Andy en...
14th February 2018
Basic Nest Architecture: Polly Atkin, Seren
Polly Atkin teaches English studies at the University of Strathclyde and lives in the Lake District, an inspiration for much of her writing. Basic Nest Architecture is her debut collection. At least ...
14th February 2018
Poetry of borders: George Szirtes to read new poems at Before and After Schengen event
This poem below, ‘Somport’ by Hungarian-born poet George Szirtes, is one of a number of new, unpublished poems that he will be reading in London at Before and After Schengen, an event inspired by Igna...
13th February 2018
'The linen is there as you left it, well-ordered'
So many contemporary poems fail for the lack of strong endings, but here's one with a masterful latch that snaps closed at the end. Tami Haaland served as Montana's fifth poet laureate and she teaches...
12th February 2018
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Stockport Write Out Loud meets on Monday 12 February at Stockport art gallery for a readaround of poetry. Each month contributions from those present are stitched together into a collage poem. You can...
12th February 2018
Poet who found his feet on new turf stages charity gig to say thank-you
A poet who relocated to Worcestershire from the Outer Hebrides is saying thank-you to his adopted area by staging a charity poetry night. The bill for Verse? Aye! includes Dominic Berry, Jackie Hagan,...
10th February 2018
Poetry? Pass the sick bag! Airline launches in-flight competition
The airline easyJet has launched a romantic poetry competition, challenging passengers to pen romantic lines on the back of an airline sick bag, in the run-up to Valentine’s day.
The competition wa...
8th February 2018
Next stop Wigan? Write Out Loud at the Old Courts tonight
Poems about love, lost love, or nothing to do with love at all are on the agenda at a pre-Valentine’s day Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts on Thursday 8 February. Entry is free to this open mic ...
8th February 2018
Helen Dunmore wins Costa book award
Helen Dunmore’s final poetry collection Inside the Wave has won the overall £30,000 Costa book award, it was announced on Tuesday. The poems within Inside The Wave are described by publisher Bloodaxe ...
8th February 2018
Atlantic Drift: ed by James Byrne and Robert Sheppard, Arc
Subtitled ‘An Anthology of Poetry and Poetics,’ this is an important anthology not just for the poetry in it, but for the thinking about poetry within it as well. Most people, I suspect, don’t sit dow...
6th February 2018
'Roots and branches' by David T Jones is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Roots and branches’ by David T Jones. It’s a poem about “old Cwmbran” in south Wales, and with lines such as “while age sat weary on the family’s creaking r...
5th February 2018
'Things come down to the pale blue or the white, or some other'
Some of you may think that I publish too many poems about the deaths of loved ones, but poetry is a means of establishing order and form when times feel disordered and formless. Marge Saiser is a Nebr...
5th February 2018
#MeToo movement leads to women's poetry anthology
A wave of anger and solidarity among women worldwide that began with the Hollywood revelations about film producer Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment and assaults have led to an anthology of...
5th February 2018
Rachel Plummer wins WoLF poetry competition run by Write Out Loud
The inaugural WoLF poetry competition run by Write Out Loud on behalf of Wolverhampton literature festival - which took place over the weekend of 26-28 January - has been won by Rachel Plummer, pictur...
4th February 2018
Magazine pours bucket of 'literary criticism' over award-winning Hollie McNish
Performance poetry/spoken word versus page poetry? Isn’t it a debate that has been put to bed, particularly with performers Kate Tempest and Hollie McNish winning the Ted Hughes award for innovation i...
3rd February 2018
Fifty nights a year, guest poets from across the spectrum at Ó Bhéal
In the latest of our regular series on open mic nights featured in our Gig Guide, Write Out Loud talks to Paul Casey, director of Ó Bhéal, a weekly open mic night in Cork. Ó Bhéal is Irish for “by wor...
3rd February 2018
'Poem a day' West Midlands poet Win Saha dies aged 94
The West Midlands poet Win Saha, who was featured in an interview on Write Out Loud last year, has died at the age of 94. Win, a prolific writer and stalwart of the local poetry scene, wrote a poem ev...
1st February 2018
