Magnolia: Nina Mingya Powles, Nine Arches Press
Nina Mingya Powles is a prize-winning poet and zinemaker from Aotearoa in New Zealand, who is currently living in London. She is the author of several poetry pamphlet collections and the founding editor of Bitter Melon, a risograph press that publishes limited-edition poetry pamphlets by Asian writers. Magnolia is her first full-length collection, and has recently been shortlisted for the £10,000 ...
30th April 2021
Wendy Cope, Teddington, 2017
People should do some work in the “real world” before embarking on a career in poetry. That is the advice of Wendy Cope, who was a primary school teacher and also worked for the Inner London Eduction Authority magazine Contact, before the success of her debut collection Making Cocoa for Kinglsey Ami...
27th April 2021
Read your winning Heroes poem alongside Michael Rosen in Liverpool next month
Covid survivor Michael Rosen will be talking about his new book Many Different Kinds of Love at Liverpool’s Wowfest 21 next month. Meanwhile it’s the last few days of a competition associated with thi...
27th April 2021
'I keep that scrap of paper in my pocket'
June Jordan died in 2002, an American child of Jamaican immigrants whose remarkable poetry is collected in The Essential June Jordan, a new collection published by Copper Canyon Press. This eloquent f...
26th April 2021
Story of poet's traumatic, near-fatal fall featured on BBC Radio 3
A poet’s near-fatal fall into a millpond in which she broke her back in seven places and meant a long, painful recovery has been turned into a radio programme on BBC Radio 3. Alison Lock later distill...
25th April 2021
Map of a Plantation: Jenny Mitchell, Indigo Dreams
The cover illustration of Jenny Mitchell’s second collection, Map of a Plantation, is of a beautiful woman of dignified bearing, and is a detail from ‘Golden earring’ by Gregg Kreutz. It seems outrage...
25th April 2021
Deadline nears for £600 Ware Poets competition
Kim Moore will be judging the £600 Ware Poets competition. The deadline is 30 April. More details
24th April 2021
Sarah Doyle on transforming Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal into poetry
Christmas Day this year will mark the 250th anniversary of Dorothy Wordsworth’s birth. The sister of William Wordsworth is perhaps best known for her journal observations about the daffodils they saw ...
24th April 2021
When listening isn't enough: Rodney Wood, Independent Publishing Network
Rodney Wood’s second pamphlet is an original and powerful sequence of 21 poems about a challenging time the author experienced, his own difficulties interweaving with stories told by ‘Steve’, whom he ...
23rd April 2021
Poetic talents blossom: crowd-sourced poem celebrates spring 2021
A crowdsourced poem celebrating the coming of spring 2021 composed from 400 contributions has been weaved together by the nature writer Elizabeth-Jane Burnett in a project by the National Trust and th...
21st April 2021
'Mama, with an axe, trudged tirelessly each day through deep snow'
Missouri poet Kitty Carpenter could have chosen any number of titles for her poem, a moving and difficult accounting of how the roles of parent and child change as a result of the passing of time; but...
20th April 2021
Byron's deathbed cheque that helped Greek fight for independence
As Greece celebrates the bicentenary of its war of independence, a banknote has been unearthed by the Observer newspaper in the country’s state archives that offers lasting proof of the poet Lord Byr...
18th April 2021
Poet laureate's elegy to Duke of Edinburgh on day of funeral
Simon Armitage has carried out one of his more traditional functions as poet laureate – by publishing a poem about the Duke of Edinburgh on the day of the royal consort’s funeral.
Prince Philip die...
18th April 2021
Cov Kids: Antony Owen, Knives Forks and Spoons Press
Antony Owen is best known in the poetry world and beyond for his passionate work about war and peace. It’s interesting to see him take a diversion from his usual subject matter in this collection abou...
18th April 2021
When Peter Sellars Came to Tea: Trisha Broomfield, Dempsey & Windle
Trisha Broomfield’s short collection is drenched in memories in which characters from her childhood and adulthood vividly portray her life experiences in a humorous yet compelling way. She engages the...
17th April 2021
Online play to paint picture of Irish poet Eavan Boland
A theatre production about the life of the late Irish poet, Eavan Boland, will be livestreamed and available on demand later this month. Boland: Journey of a Poet is the story of her life through her ...
17th April 2021
Free readings at Seren Cardiff online poetry festival
The 2021 Seren Cardiff poetry festival began on Thursday 15 April with four days of online readings, workshops and events. All the events – apart from the workshops – are free.
Benjamin Zephaniah w...
17th April 2021
Hollie McNish, Salena Godden, Manchester, 2016
I reckon that if you’re a spoken word virgin you might as well start at the top and my friend certainly did that when I took him to see Hollie McNish and Salena Godden at Gorilla, an event that was pa...
15th April 2021
Find your poetic voice! Sign up for our first poetry workshop with Saili Katebe
Our new series of poetry masterclasses has so far produced two sold-out events. The second one, with guest tutor Caroline Bird, takes place at the end of this month and sold out within 13 hours.
Th...
14th April 2021
A first for poetry as Amanda Gorman tops US books bestseller list
Amanda Gorman, who became the youngest poet at 23 to read at a presidential inauguration in January this year, recently hit no 1 on USA Today’s bestselling books list with her Washington poem ‘The Hil...
14th April 2021
Sold out again! Our second poetry masterclass - with Forward prizewinner Caroline Bird
The first in our new series of poetry masterclasses, with Rachel Long as guest tutor, was useful and inspiring - and quickly sold out! The same has happened with our second poetry masterclass on Wedne...
13th April 2021
'Little one, it starts with a heart'
It must be one of the great mercies of life that time provides us with the magical capacity to turn memories of the complete alarm of caring for an infant child into a delightful bit of nostalgia. Adr...
12th April 2021
Southbank Centre wants applications for New Poets Collective
London’s Southbank Centre is looking for up to 15 poets to be part of its New Poets Collective. It says it wants to “seek out the world’s most exciting artists, from household names to fresh new talen...
10th April 2021
Poet laureate begins tour of nation's libraries in Ashby-de-la-Zouch
The poet laureate Simon Armitage is to begin a 10-year tour of the UK's libraries, launching it via a livestreamed reading in Ashby-de-la-Zouch on 26 April. Each spring he will perform live readings a...
8th April 2021
Malika Booker to judge £5,000 Poetry London prize
Malika Booker will be judging the £5,000 Poetry London magazine prize for a single poem. The deadline is 26 June. More details
7th April 2021
Final day for voting in the first round of the 2021 Saboteur awards
There have been very few live spoken word events in the last year – but here are this year’s Saboteur award nominations coming round again anyway! The 2021 voting form still includes best spoken word ...
7th April 2021
'Here every flower grows ragged and sideways and always beautiful'
I have heard so many poets say that they feel like outcasts, until they meet other outcasts and dreamers, people who seem to feel like them, and suddenly they feel affirmed in their difference, and, a...
5th April 2021
Poets and musicians celebrate 'tastefully tantric' Totnes and Barrel House venue
A poetry and music film celebrating a live venue in Totnes, and “the many poets and musicians who have made their home in Devon” has been released on YouTube. The film is a collaboration between Julie...
4th April 2021
Louise Fazackerley, Huddersfield, 2014
To see a world in a grain of sand, wrote Blake, and heaven in a wild flower. On Thursday, the Risk a Verse audience at Milnsbridge, Huddersfield, was shown a world with which most of us were unfamilia...
3rd April 2021
Russian poet's family memoir longlisted for International Booker Prize
A family memoir by the Russian poet Maria Stepanova and translated by UK poet Sasha Dugdale - both pictured - has been included on the longlist for the International Booker Prize. In addition to In Me...
1st April 2021
