Dominic Bury wins National Poetry Competition
Dominic Bury has won this year’s National Poetry Competition with his poem ‘The Opened Field’. The chair of the judges, Pascale Petit, said: " ‘The Opened Field’ is a neutron star of a poem compressed inside the restraining machinery of a sestina. It’s a dark allegory of six boys in a field, but I did not realise it was a sestina until a second reading, when I started to work out what the boys wer...
31st March 2018
New anthology includes poems by those close to tragedy
An anthology of poems in aid of victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster will be launched next month. Poems for Grenfell Tower, which includes poems by Anne Stevenson, Michael Rosen, George Szirtes and many others, will be published by Onslaught Press on 30 March.
Seventy-one people, according to o...
31st March 2018
Dylan Thomas Day's international Appeal
Dylan Thomas Day, celebrating the poet’s life and work, has been announced, with an open, international invitation to join in.
For the past three years, Dylan Thomas Day has been held on 14th May, ...
31st March 2018
Foyle Young Poets of the Year award is open for entries
The Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year award, open to anyone aged 11-17, will be judged this year by Caroline Bird and Daljit Nagra. Caroline has said that she will be looking for “a poem ...
31st March 2018
'They remind us of our own hearts ... quivering in the lightest wind'
I've never seen a frigate bird (or a frigate) but wanted to offer you a poem to prove that the hawks and crows of the Great Plains aren't the only ones that get attention in this column. Sally Bliumis...
31st March 2018
Deadline day to nominate your favourite spoken word performer or regular spoken word night
It’s time to nominate your favourite spoken word performer or regular spoken word night in the 2018 indie-lit Saboteur awards. The awards, organised by the Sabotage Reviews website, cover a host of ca...
31st March 2018
Project inspired by Northumberland coast at Newcastle poetry festival
Waves and Bones, a project sponsored by the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding National Beauty Partnership, will be launched at Newcastle poetry festival at the beginning of May.
A group of p...
28th March 2018
‘A Memory of Rhinoceroses’ by Ian Whiteley is our Poem of the Week
Ian Whiteley is a Write Out Loud regular – his profile has had over half a million views – and very active on the live poetry scene, performing as part of political/music/comedy four-piece combo Bard ...
28th March 2018
Sinéad Morrissey to judge £1,500 McLellan prize
Sinéad Morrissey will be the judge of the £1,500 McLellan poetry prize. The deadline is 21 June. More details
28th March 2018
Nia Davies to judge £1,000 Ledbury poetry festival competition
Nia Davies will be judging the £1,000 Ledbury poetry festival competition. The deadline is 12 July. More details
28th March 2018
Seven contenders on shortlist for Ted Hughes award
Jay Bernard, Caroline Bird, Kayo Chingonyi, Inua Ellams, Matthew Francis, Antony Owen and Greta Stoddart have been shortlisted for the £5,000 Ted Hughes award for new work in poetry, the Poetry Societ...
28th March 2018
'What do I have that she could want enough to risk such failure?'
With Dorianne Laux I've shared the experience of having a bird enraged at her reflection in a window. Laux lives in North Carolina and this is her third poem to be published in this column. Are you f...
21st March 2018
Poets from more than 20 countries at World Poetry Day reading in Preston
Poets from more than 20 countries will be reading at a special World Poetry Day event in Preston on Wednesday 21 March. The free event is taking place at the Ham & Jam Coffee Shop, in Lancaster Road, ...
21st March 2018
Something to get your teeth into at Write Out Loud Marsden tonight
The theme is food at Write Out Loud Marsden at Marsden Mechanics, Peel Street, Marsden on Wednesday 21 March. Bring tasty poems, stories or songs, and even food, for a feast of words. Entry is £2 to t...
21st March 2018
Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight
Carol Robson and Lenni Sanders are the guests at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside arts centre, Sale, on Tuesday 20 March. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic poetry event. It begins at 7.30 pm. More d...
20th March 2018
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting this month on Monday 19 March at Stockport art gallery for another readaround of poems. Each month poetic contributions are stitched into a collage poem, and y...
19th March 2018
Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn tonight
Kitty Coles is the featured poet at Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn, Send, near Woking, on Monday 19 March. Sign up from 7.30pm for the open-mic, at this free poetry night compered by Greg Freema...
19th March 2018
'You'll see our neighbours bathed in gold'
I'm devoted to yard and garage sales, and love to spend time with friendly strangers in scuffed front yards and oily, dim garages. Here's a poem by Matthew Brennan, who lives in Indiana, from his 201...
19th March 2018
'St Matthew and the Beatles' by Alex W is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘St Matthew and the Beatles’ by Alex W. It’s a poem about the instruction in St Matthew’s Gospel in the Bible to “love thy neighbour”. In the poem he asks wh...
19th March 2018
'Courtyard in Snow' by Tom Harding is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Courtyard in Snow’ by Tom Harding. Tom lives in Northampton and edits the Northampton Poetry Review, an online and print journal that also covers fiction an...
18th March 2018
Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club on Sunday
It’s Write Out Loud Bolton at Bolton Socialist Club on Sunday 18 March. Your hosts are Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola at this open mic poetry night. Doors open from 7.30pm for 8pm start. Entry is £1 plus ...
16th March 2018
John Cooper Clarke to publish memoirs and new poetry collection
John Cooper Clarke is to publish both his autobiography, and his first new poetry collection in 37 years, publisher Picador has announced. The memoir is said by Picador to cover “an extraordinary life...
15th March 2018
Farewell to Ken Dodd ... but tongue-twister poem lives on
A funny thing happened on Write Out Loud, on the day that veteran comedian Ken Dodd’s death was announced … a poem that was first blogged on the site back in 2011 received a remarkable 1,554 views.
...15th March 2018
We're looking for a poetry journalist - or two - for Write Out Loud
Write Out Loud is looking for a dedicated volunteer – or volunteers – with a love of poetry to take over the running of its poetry news and features operation.
Greg Freeman, Write Out Loud’s news e...
13th March 2018
Deadline nears for competition to mark end of first world war
A national poetry competition has been launched by the Duke of Cambridge to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war. The Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, which will relocate...
13th March 2018
I'm Having the Rhyme of My Life: George Melling, Talentvine Press
Flapjack Press, an independent publisher of north-west performance poetry and poetry theatre for adults and children, also produce collections and anthologies for schools, workshop groups, festivals a...
13th March 2018
'Their breasts and backs as dark as low bruised banks of cloud'
I can identify most of the birds that live in my part of Nebraska, but I can't tell one warbler from the next. But Kevin Cole, in his new book, Late Summer Plums, from Scurfpea Publishing, has identif...
12th March 2018
Belongings: Trevor Hughes, Kingston Press
This is not an easy review to write. Not because the poems in Trevor Hughes’ debut collection, Belongings, are “hard”, in the sense of releasing their meaning with difficulty. Not even because of the ...
10th March 2018
Animal magic: editors seek fantastic poems for anthology
The editors of a forthcoming anthology associated with animals are seeking poetry and short fiction submissions. Humanagerie, to be co-edited by Allen Ashley and Sarah Doyle, will be inspired by the c...
9th March 2018
International Women's Day launch for #MeToo anthology
It’s International Women’s Day on Thursday 8 March – and an important anthology of women’s poetry is being launched on the same day. #MeToo, an anthology of women’s experiences and responses inspired...
8th March 2018
Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight
Write Out Loud Wigan is back at the Old Courts in Crawford Street, Wigan on Thursday 8 March. Entry is free for this open mic poetry event, beginning at 8.30pm. More details and Map
8th March 2018
Kate Tempest to publish new poetry collection on heartbreak and redemption
Kate Tempest is to publish a new collection of “free-standing poetry” including “formal poems, spoken songs, fragments, vignettes and ballads” later this year, her publisher Picador has announced.
...
6th March 2018
Daljit Nagra to judge £5,000 Bridport prize
Daljit Nagra will be the judge of this year’s Bridport £5,000 poetry competition. The deadline is 31 May. In his guidance to poets he says: “When judging a poetry competition, I approach the poems wit...
6th March 2018
'He was at his work bench, a rich man straightening nails'
My late friend, the poet and novelist Jim Harrison, used to tease me about the buckets of bent nails in my barn, which I planned to straighten on some rainy day but which only accumulated. Here's a f...
5th March 2018
'Far Away in My Living Room When We Have Real 3d Television' by Suki Spangles is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Far Away In My Living Room When We Have Real 3d Television’ by Suki Spangles, a futuristic poem – although not too futuristic – about watching “real people ...
5th March 2018
Looking South: Stuart A Paterson, Indigo Dreams
Stuart A Paterson writes in English and his native Scots, and lives by the Solway coast in Galloway. He is a past recipient of an Eric Gregory award, in 1992, and his pamphlet collection, Border Lines...
3rd March 2018
Collection of art and poetry on stillbirth to be launched
A book of art and poetry about stillbirth - the death of a baby, over 24 weeks old, before or during delivery – is to be launched in Newcastle later this month. Still Born is by artist Adinda van ’t K...
3rd March 2018
