Poets around the country to celebrate and defend women's rights
A new group of poets around the country will be celebrating feminism and women’s rights with poetry and live arts in London, Manchester, Brighton, Oxford, Cumbria, and Bristol.
The Persisters are organising events of “artistic activism and excellence, fund-raising and spirit-raising” called Holding the Line, inspired by the recent women’s marches. The group says it is concerned about the “turni...
31st March 2017
Roy Fisher, modernist poet with a love of jazz, dies aged 86
The “late modernist” poet Roy Fisher has died aged 86, after a short illness. He was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, and after studying English at Birmingham University, taught in schools and colleges, and went on to lecture in American Studies at Keele University from 1971 until his retirement in 1...
31st March 2017
Best spoken word performer, top poetry night? It's deadline day on Saboteur award nominations
Nominations are open for the 2017 Saboteur indie lit awards, organised by Sabotage Reviews. They include such categories as best poetry pamphlet, best spoken word performer, best spoken word regular n...
31st March 2017
'I like to make people smile': Win Saha, still performing her poetry aged 93
Wolverhampton-based poet Win Saha is still writing and performing at the age of 93. In an interview with Emma Purshouse she tells of meeting Mae West and Paul Robeson, some poetry advice she received ...
29th March 2017
Dodo Modern Poets find a new location on Dylan heritage trail
A number of long-established poetry nights and groups found themselves temporarily homeless when the Poetry Society’s Poetry Café in London closed its doors for refurbishment last summer. Most of them...
29th March 2017
Lift-off for anthology inspired by trail-blazing women
Most if not all of us have had that dream of flying occasionally – of looking down on the world from above. On Wednesday night a poetry anthology that tries imaginatively to capture the many aspects o...
28th March 2017
'Five daughters in the slant light on the porch'
A front porch is very much like a stage, and this poem by Marilyn Nelson is like watching a little play. The poet, who has published books of poetry and prose for young and old alike, lives in Connect...
27th March 2017
'Driving through Grimstone Low' by Kevin is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Driving through Grimstone Low’ by Kevin. It’s a narrative poem of epic proportions involving a tough Yorkshire village, a family called the Slugshaws, a car...
26th March 2017
Play by Sabrina Mahfouz and Hollie McNish celebrates women's football pioneers
A play about two pioneers of women’s football that has been written by performance poets Sabrina Mahfouz and Hollie McNish is beginning a national tour. Offisde focuses on the stories of two female fo...
24th March 2017
Nobel prize poet Sir Derek Walcott dies aged 87
The Nobel prizewinning Caribbean poet and playwright, Sir Derek Walcott, has died at his home in St Lucia aged 87. He was professor of poetry at the University of Essex from 2010 to 2013. His works in...
24th March 2017
The singing detectives: Project Adorno trace back-story of controversial TV playwright
Who are Project Adorno? They are a quirky duo employing spoken word and song, electronic music backing, and occasional acoustic guitar, m’lud. The latest show compiled by spoken word maestro Russell T...
23rd March 2017
Day of events at Steep to mark Edward Thomas centenary
The centenary of the death of Edward Thomas, who was killed on 9 April 1917 at the battle of Arras, will be marked on Sunday 9 April 2017 by organisers of South Downs poetry festival with a series of ...
23rd March 2017
Deadline nears for £600 Bristol poetry prize
Liz Berry will be judging the £600 Bristol poetry prize, organised by the Poetry Can. The deadline is 31 March. More details
22nd March 2017
Outer Hebrides to Offa's Dyke: 'Best of British' anthology to be launched
An anthology of poems about different aspects of Britain, from its rolling hills to its people to its motorways, will be launched on 1 April in Tunbridge Wells by publishers Paper Swans Press.
Topi...
21st March 2017
Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight
Kate Garrett and Amy Kinsman are the guest poets at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside arts centre, Sale, on Tuesday 21 March – World Poetry Day! Entry is £3 to this open mic-poetry night, which sta...
21st March 2017
'He was a calm man, a useful attribute for sending young men to their deaths'
Nearly all of us have a story about once brushing up against somebody famous. On their honeymoon my father and mother went to New York City where they rode up in a hotel elevator with the famous strip...
21st March 2017
Changes: Patrick B Osada, Dempsey & Windle
Patrick Osada’s fifth collection is divided into three sections, titled Seasonal, At a Time of Unrest, and Keepsake. The first section celebrates nature with traditional rhyme and rhythm, which feels ...
21st March 2017
Rescheduled Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Stockport Write Out Loud's March meeting, originally fixed for Monday 13 March at Stockport art gallery, was switched to Monday 20 March because of the 24-hour Northern rail strike. Each month group m...
20th March 2017
Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn tonight
Write Out Loud Woking is at the New Inn at Send, near Woking, on Monday 20 March for another night of open-mic poetry hosted by Greg Freeman and Rodney Wood. Entry is free. Sign up from 7.30pm for 8pm...
20th March 2017
Brian Patten to judge Write Out Loud's Milestones poetry competition
Legendary Liverpool poet Brian Patten will be judging the forthcoming Milestones poetry competition, run by Write Out Loud on behalf of the Milestone Society. Details of how to enter the competition –...
20th March 2017
Pause and applause at Speaking Out Midlands in Cannock
It’s always a challenge to build an audience for a new night. Hats off to Charlotte Postings, pictured, for finding a diverse range of poets and an audience who were more than happy to watch them at ...
19th March 2017
'Man' by Dyphrent is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
19th March 2017
Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club tonight
Bolton’s Write Out Loud open mic night is now back in its traditional slot of third Sunday in the month, and will be meeting on Sunday 19 March at Bolton Socialist Club. It’s hosted by Jeffarama! and ...
19th March 2017
Salena Godden and Hollie McNish on Ted Hughes award shortlist
Spoken word stars Hollie McNish and Salena Godden are on the shortlist for this year’s Ted Hughes award for new work in poetry, along with Jay Bernard, Will Eaves, Melissa Lee-Houghton, Harry Man, and...
16th March 2017
Deadline nears for £250 Otley poetry prize
Matthew Hedley Stoppard, the town poet of Otley in West Yorkshire, will be judging the £250 Otley poetry prize. The deadline is 20 March. More details
15th March 2017
'The challenge is to throw everything we've got at it' - Jimmy Andrex
Wakefield’s Jimmy Andrex, who performs his poetry to the sound of a driving electonica beat, has a new album out. In an interview, he talks to Greg Freeman about Northern Beat Poetry, avoiding “obviou...
14th March 2017
'The cranes, the grass, they tell us: this can go on for millions of years'
Charles Peek is a Nebraska poet who lives near that section of the Platte river where early each year hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes pause in their migration to nourish themselves for the lo...
13th March 2017
'Drinking where the river bed is dry' by John Marks is Poem of the Week
The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Drinking where the river bed is dry’ by John Marks. It’s a poem about the companionship of man and dog, and ageing. John Marks has published two collections of ...
12th March 2017
Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight
Never mind fake news, here’s real poetry! It’s Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts in Wigan on Thursday 9 March. Entry is free to this long-running, rollicking and raucous open mic night, and it s...
9th March 2017
Saying it with poetry on a day of celebration
Happy international women’s day! From Newcastle to Southend to Falmouth, there are poetry events taking place to celebrate it. In Newcastle there’s an evening of reading and discussion of poetry by wo...
8th March 2017
The dark side of Luke Wright's Dartford tunnel vision
I first heard Luke Wright deliver ‘Essex Lion’ at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013, a year after he’d written it. Its tale of credulous Clacton campers, desperate to believe in something, and angry at bei...
8th March 2017
Chuang Tse's Caterpillar: Dave Morgan, Flapjack
Dave Morgan was, with Julian Jordon, co-founder of Write Out Loud in its Bolton beginnings. In more recent years as a north-west community arts organiser he has been one of the driving forces behind t...
7th March 2017
Australian Stolen Generations poet wins $165,000 US prize
An Indigenous Australian poet has won a US literary prize worth $165,000 (£134,000). Ali Cobby Eckermann had been nominated for the Windham-Campbell prize, which is administered by Yale University. Ec...
7th March 2017
'Brenda wasn't listening to a word, wrapped up in lonely teardrops shed for Greg'
Here's a poem by John Stanizzi, who lives in Connecticut, in which we get a good look inside middle-school culture in the 'sixties. But is it really any different today? This poet's most recent book i...
7th March 2017
Max Wallis is gay social network's first poet in residence
The gay social networking app Grindr has appointed its first poet in residence. Max Wallis, who used to blog his poems regularly on Write Out Loud, will be making a video poem each month.
6th March 2017
'In Budapest' by Hazel Ettridge is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
‘In Budapest’ by Hazel Ettridge is Write Out Loud’s Poem of the Week. Hazel says that it was written in “a seedy hotel room” in the Hungarian capital, “having returned from an evening exploring this e...
5th March 2017
Having the last laugh: comics beat poets in festival bout of Stand Up and Slam!
“It’s like, it’s like, I don’t know what it’s like, I’m not allowed to use similes any more,” lamented team captain Dan Simpson, pictured, on a night when his band of poets lost 2-3 to a team of comic...
4th March 2017
'It's depressing': Luke Wright's 'old-fashioned rant' about spoken word on TV ads
Leading performance poet Luke Wright has sounded a sceptical note about poetry on TV adverts such as the recent Nationwide building society campaign, saying it is “depressing” to see it being used in ...
3rd March 2017
Hitting the heights: 60 poets lined up for five-day Stanza festival at St Andrews
Stanza, one of the UK’s biggest poetry festivals, begins on Wednesday 1 March. The two themes at Stanza 2017 at St Andrews will be the Heights of Poetry, celebrating hills and mountains, and On the Ro...
1st March 2017
Crowdfunder campaign to publish anthology by deaf and disabled poets
A Crowdfunder campaign to fund an anthology of poetry and essays by D/deaf and disabled poets and writers is three-quarters towards its £2,500 target, with just over two weeks left. Nine Arches Press ...
1st March 2017
Penguin to publish Adrian Mole's collected poetry
Penguin is publishing The Collected Poems by Adrian Mole - in the character's own imprint Mole Press - to celebrate the 50th birthday of Sue Townsend's creation, the Bookseller has reported.
The bo...
1st March 2017
