A meeting of minds: poet Owen Lowery puts artist Paula Rego's work into words
“It’s marvellous. We come from different countries, but he knows instinctively what the pictures are about, when most people don’t.” That was renowned artist Dame Paula Rego’s reaction at the Poetry Library on Tuesday night to hearing Owen Lowery read from his new collection, Rego Retold – poems written in response to Rego’s works. Poems such as ‘Getting Ready for the Ball’, ‘Sit’, ‘Moth’, ‘Pieta’...
29th March 2015
Why I love Larkin - by Grayson Perry, chair of Ted Hughes award judges
Grayson Perry, who is chairing this year’s Ted Hughes award judging panel, has revealed that he loves the “bitter-sweet” poetry and “emotional constipation” of Philip Larkin.
In an interview with the Poetry Society, the Turner prize-winning artist said: “Like many embittered men of my age, I’m h...
28th March 2015
Fenland's poet laureate launches Poems for Peace anthology
Fenland’s poet laureate, Poppy Kleiser, will be launching Poems for Peace, an anthology of poems that explore conflicts from Iraq to Somalia, and from the Highlands to Heligoland, at Wisbech and Fenla...
27th March 2015
Write Out Loud's Risk a Verse gets back on track in Huddersfield tonight
Beeching, Betjeman, and Burma’s death railway are lined up for Risk a Verse adherents on Thursday 26 March as Write Out Loud’s monthly poetry night in Huddersfield gets back on track with renewed poet...
27th March 2015
Poetry book deal for students as university and publisher link up
Creative writing students at Leeds Trinity University are celebrating their first book deal in a tie-up between Indigo Dreams Publishing and Wordspace, the university’s creative writing imprint. An Af...
27th March 2015
Kayo Chingonyi, and pictures of Dylan Thomas at Library Club
Zambian-born poet Kayo Chingonyi will be reading at the Library Club Members Club, in St Martin's Lane, Covent Garden, on Wednesday 25 March at 7.30pm. His debut pamphlet, Some Bright Elegance, was pu...
25th March 2015
Selkie Sings: Mel Rees and Sarah Miller launch book
Award-winning playwright and poet, Mel Rees, once suggested that her writing career started when she was encouraged out of her reticence to read at an Oldham Write Out Loud event. Thank goodness she w...
24th March 2015
Write Out Loud Middleton at the Ring O' Bells tonight
Jacqueline Phillips is the guest poet at Write Out Loud Middleton at the Ring O’ Bells, St Leonards Square, Middleton, on Sunday 22 March. Entry is a £2 donation to this open mic event, hosted by Norm...
22nd March 2015
Seven wonders of the world ... or 'a coffee for a poem' on World Poetry Day
Wenlock poetry festival’s poet in residence, Jean Atkin, pictured, will be marking World Poetry Day on Saturday 21 March by hosting a workshop sparked by the world’s marvels at Shrewsbury Museum and A...
21st March 2015
Poetry on the waterways: canal laureate Jo Bell appears in Channel 4's boating journeys programme
Canal laureate Jo Bell has made a TV appearance, popping up on a programme - about canals. Jo made her appearance during the first episode of Channel 4’s Great Canal Journeys, featuring Timothy West ...
19th March 2015
Novelist AL Kennedy to chair Forward prize judges
The novelist and dramatist AL Kennedy will chair this year’s all-female panel of judges for the 2015 Forward prizes for best collection, best first collection, and best single poem. Also on the panel ...
19th March 2015
Ploughing on! John Foggin wins poetry competition for second year in a row
John Foggin has won the Plough poetry prize for the second year in succession, it has been announced. It is his third poetry prize in a year, for, sandwiched in between the two Plough successes, he al...
19th March 2015
Veteran Beat poet Michael Horovitz marks 80th birthday with three 'jazz poetry superjams'
The legendary British Beat poet Michael Horovitz is marking his 80th birthday next month with three “jazz poetry superjams” on successive nights with jazz and poetry friends.
Horovitz will be perfo...
18th March 2015
Back in the UK: Write Out Loud at Marsden library tonight
Julian Jordon is back from his trip to the United States – see his Stateside Diary despatches – to host Write Out Loud Marsden at Marsden library on Wednesday 18 March. Entry is £3 to this open-floor...
18th March 2015
Steve Nash and Anna Percy at Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday
Steve Nash and Anna Percy are the guest poets at Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday 17 March at the Waterside arts centre, Sale. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic event, hosted by John Darwin john.darwin@y...
17th March 2015
Young voices of the Mouthy Poets in Doncaster on Saturday
Mouthy Poets, a Nottingham-based collective aged between 15 and 30 who write, edit and perform their own poetry and produce events, teach poetry and help each other to develop personally and professio...
13th March 2015
Ted Hughes award winner Maggie Sawkins to launch 'Zones of Avoidance' collection
Maggie Sawkins will be launching her new collection, Zones of Avoidance, based on the live literature production that won last year’s Ted Hughes award, in Portsmouth on Saturday 28 March.
Ted Hughe...
12th March 2015
Gordon Zola to compere Write Out Loud Wigan tonight
Gordon Zola will be the guest compere at Write Out Loud Wigan, on Thursday 9 March 9 at the Old Courts , Wigan. Entry is free to this legendary open mic event, which starts at 8.30pm. More details and...
12th March 2015
Andrew Motion on shortlist for Ted Hughes award
A series of poems by the former poet laureate, Andrew Motion, based on interviews with soldiers in Afghanistan, has been included on the shortlist for the Ted Hughes award, for new poetry presented in...
10th March 2015
Stand up and slam! London's spoken word stars join Spine festival in libraries
Spoken word is well to the fore at a celebration of arts and literature in London libraries that begins on Thursday 5 March, World Book Day. Spine festival, from 5-15 March, and organised by Apples an...
10th March 2015
Benjamin Zephaniah at Picture the Poet show in Preston
Benjamin Zephaniah, Mike Garry and Ali Gadema will be performing in a free event at Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston, hosted by Apples and Snakes, as part of the National Portrait Gallery's to...
9th March 2015
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 9 March at 7pm to read and discuss their own poetry. Entry is a £1 donation. Each month a collage poem is created...
9th March 2015
Farewell Leonard Nimoy, actor, director - and poet
As tributes continue to pour in after the death of Leonard Nimoy – Star Trek’s Mr Spock – it has come as a surprise to at least some of his admirers that the actor, director and photographer was a pro...
8th March 2015
Ash Dickinson heads cabaret night to raise cash for city's poor and homeless
Spoken word star Ash Dickinson is the headline act at the first fundraising event organised by poets, musicians and visual artists in York who have banded together to form Arts Against Homelessness, a...
6th March 2015
Abegail Morley's haiku challenge to garden visitors
Kent-based poet Abegail Morley will be issuing a haiku challenge on World Poetry Day, 21 March, to visitors to Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, near Sevenoaks, Kent. Morley is poet-in-residence at Riverh...
6th March 2015
Fair pay for poets: top performer Kate Fox issues rallying call to win better deal after Bradford beck row
Can poetry pay? And when should it? Top performance poet Kate Fox is urging fellow poets and spoken word artists to get together to win a better deal for all, after being encouraged by the support she...
5th March 2015
Utterly good fellow Richard Tyrone Jones bows out on wet night in New Cross
Richard Tyrone Jones is a leading spoken word performer and organiser, who, faced with a serious heart problem a few years ago, made light of it in a show and a Radio 4 sitcom. On a wet Tuesday night ...
2nd March 2015
Clare Pollard to perform Ovid's Heroines in Lancaster
Clare Pollard will be performing Ovid’s Heroines, based on her free verse translation of Ovid’s Heroides, a series of letter poems in the voices of women from Greek and Roman myth, at the Gregson comm...
2nd March 2015
