Give it a go! Cinnamon offers chance to have your first collection published
Could your first poetry collection be selected for the shortlist of the Forward prize for best first collection? The next deadline to enter a competition for a Cinnamon Press poetry collection award is 30 June. The winning author has his/her poetry collection published with Welsh publishers Cinnamon Press and receives a prize of £100. An anthology of the best poems submitted will also be publi...
31st March 2012
Dominic Berry's wizard new show
Wizard, a new poetry-fantasy-theatre show by Manchester poet Dominic Berry – described as one man and his kettle against the world – is being staged at Contact, Oxford Road, Manchester, from Wednesday 28 March to Saturday 31 March. Suitable for ages 14-plus, tickets are £8/£5. The show starts at ...
29th March 2012
Festivals on the way: line-ups for Cheltenham and Latitude
Organisers of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival are looking for volunteers to help, and are offering free tickets to those that do, Write Out Loud understands. Email cheltpoetryfest@hotmail.co.uk for...
25th March 2012
Winston Plowes is our Bard in the Bog
Write Out Loud’s ever-popular Winston Plowes has found a captive audience for his work – in the public loos of the Shetland Isles.
The Bards in the Bog project - profits go to the charity Wate...
25th March 2012
Full Blood: John Siddique
One is reminded at times, in reading Full Blood, published by Salt, that a poet can have multiple voices – and that some styles within a single poet’s oeuvre can work very differently than others. ...
25th March 2012
And it was at that age that poetry arrived in search of me
I am glad that we at least are doing something for World Poetry Day. UNESCO UK does not seem to have done much to promote it, disappointingly.
We do, largely, have a rather anglo-centric view o...
25th March 2012
Julian Stannard at Portsmouth's Tongues and Grooves
Winchester poet Julian Stannard is guest at Portsmouth’s Tongues and Grooves, on Sunday 25 March at the Florence Arms, Southsea, at 8pm. Entry is £3 to this open mic event. Six open mic slots are ...
25th March 2012
Charlotte Henson at Write Out Loud Middleton
Charlotte Henson is guest poet at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday, 25 March. It’s a 7pm start for the open mic night at the Ring O’ Bells, St Leonard’s Square, Middleton, all masterminded by Gem...
24th March 2012
Leeds Peace Poetry's Olympics truce contest
Leeds Peace Poetry competition is inviting entries on an interpretation of the theme of Olympic truce. The concept of the Olympic truce was established as part of the ancient Greek Olympics, when a...
21st March 2012
The right mix: the rationale behind creating an event
Canal – poetry for two voices will take place at the Poetry Café on Thursday 22 March. What was the rationale behind creating a reading equally shared by two speakers?
An early short poem of m...
21st March 2012
Manchester's Monkey Poet introduces Spoke 'N' Heard
Spoke ‘N’ Heard, a new spoken word night in Manchester compered by Monkey Poet, kicks off on Wednesday 21 March with guests Ross Sutherland and Jackie Hagan at Gullivers pub, Oldham Street, Manches...
21st March 2012
RSPB and The Rialto Nature poetry competition
There's still plenty of time to enter a Nature poetry competition organised by the RSPB and The Rialto poetry magazine. The deadline is 30 April 2012 – and according to the Rialto, which recently ...
18th March 2012
Wirral's Festival of Firsts poetry contest
Wirral Festival of Firsts open poetry competition is inviting entries and has expanded its categories for its second year. There are now three: Open, a poem on any subject, no more than 40 lines. F...
18th March 2012
Discovering Japan: Mab Jones on a cultural trip to the far east
Write Out Loud’s performance poetry diarist Mab Jones has headed for Japan to appear in a cultural festival in Osaka later this month. Her performance is part an annual event celebrating Wales and...
16th March 2012
Write Out Loud Bolton moves to new venue
Write Out Loud Bolton is on the move again - to the upstairs function room at the Brooklyn pub at Green Lane, Bolton, on Sunday 18 March. The change of venue for the open mic event has been forced...
16th March 2012
Meet the challenge: charity anthology to raise disabilities awareness
A fund-raising project in the north-west called Unique Driven Determined is planning an anthology of poetry about human differences and qualities, disabilities and impairments - and how people deal...
14th March 2012
Leading poets praise Fiona Sampson
The resignation of the editor of Poetry Review, Fiona Sampson, has prompted a letter of support from an impressive array of poets, including Don Paterson, John Burnside, David Harsent, Jo Shapcott,...
14th March 2012
Magic: new open mic night in Todmorden
A new spoken word open mic night is being launched in Todmorden, with a star line-up of guests – John Clarke and Jimmy Andrews, from Wakefield’s Red Shed, Write Out Loud favourite Winston Plowes, f...
12th March 2012
Write Out Loud Marsden to celebrate World Poetry Day
By happy circumstance, Write Out Loud Marsden coincides this month with World Poetry Day on 21 March. There will be a short talk on – and a couple of poems by - Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, plus the ...
12th March 2012
Help us fill a big gap in mid Wales
As a Montgomeryshire poet, I have long bemoaned the absence of an informal open mic evening in my local area. Several times a year I travel the three-hour round trip to Chester to perform at - and ...
7th March 2012
Neil Astley to judge Poetry London competition
Neil Astley, founding editor of Bloodaxe Books, is this year’s judge of the Poetry London competition, now in its 13th year. The deadline is 1 May. First prize is £1,000, second £500, and third £20...
7th March 2012
Poet laureate's poem for Paralympics venue
Carol Ann Duffy, the poet laureate, has given a reading of her poem for London 2012, tracing the 100-year history of the venue chosen for the Paralympics – and spoken of her belief that, just as sp...
7th March 2012
Joy France tours poetry nights to raise charity awareness
Popular north-west poet Joy France is embarking on a mission this month, aiming to attend as many poetry events in the region as she can in order to raise awareness of juvenile diabetes. She will b...
7th March 2012
Top prize of £300 in Welsh poetry contest
The International Welsh poetry competition 2012 is open for submissions, with a deadline of 27 May. This year’s judge is Welsh writer and environmentalist John Evans. First prize is £300, second £...
7th March 2012
Nearly no More Poetry; or, who'd be a poetry organiser?
‘You can tell me to sod off if you like, but our guest poet’s from Northumberland and it’s a long way to come to read in this noise. I’ve no right to ask you to move, you’ve come for a drink and yo...
4th March 2012
Fiona Sampson to leave Poetry Review
The editor of Poetry Review, Fiona Sampson, is leaving the Poetry Society to develop her career in other directions, the Poetry Society announced today. The society said: “She is in great demand as...
3rd March 2012
Click on this? Poetic links
* Marvellous poem by Charlotte Higgins, one of the Poetry Society's Slambassador winners
* He's still going strong, of course. But here's a short piece about John Cooper-Clarke when he first bu...
1st March 2012
Arvon launches 2012 poetry courses
Arvon has launched its 2012 programme of residential writing courses with a wealth of poetry tuition on offer. Five-day courses at its rural writing centres in Devon, Shropshire, Yorkshire and Inve...
1st March 2012
The Men Pomes: all you need to know about men?
Gerry Potter brings his one-man show The Men Pomes – “a mixture of poetics, theatre and stand-up” about working-class men “as you’ve never seen them before” - to Studio Salford above the Kings Arms...
1st March 2012
Established and emerging poets join forces in anthology
An anthology of new poetry from established and emerging writers will be launched on 7 March, at Bar 1:22, 120 New Street, Castlegate, Huddersfield. A Complicated Way Of Being Ignored is published ...
1st March 2012
