Hat-trick for Jamie Thrasivoulou as he wins Saboteur award for best spoken word performer
It was a great night for Derby at the Saboteur awards on Saturday night. Jamie Thrasivoulou, who is the official poet for Derby County FC, with his poem ‘We Are Derby’ played on the big screen before every home game at Pride Park stadium, was this year’s winner of the Saboteur award for best spoken word performer, it was announced at the presentation ceremony in Birmingham.
Best spoken word nig...
27th May 2019
Wandering poet Benjamin Guilfoyle treks to 12 shows in 12 days to raise charity cash
When Write Out Loud caught up with him – by phone – he had walked 50 miles in four days, and was about to perform in his fourth show. Benjamin Guilfoyle, aka the Woolly Hat Poet, or at the moment the Wandering Poet – was soaking his feet in a bowl of salty water after walking 17 miles that day, befo...
24th May 2019
Oxford contender Alice Oswald looks forward to 'extreme poetry events'
Alice Oswald, one of the candidates to succeed Simon Armitage as the next Oxford professor of poetry, has talked of wanting to stage some “extreme poetry events … all-night readings of long poems, poe...
23rd May 2019
Survivors' accounts of Hillsborough disaster is on Forward shortlist for best first collection
A collage of verbatim survivor testimonies from the Hillsborough disaster, which has been published to mark its 30th anniversary, and is described as an epic-poem that is “part oral history and part d...
23rd May 2019
Raymond Antrobus is first poet to win £30,000 Folio prize
Raymond Antrobus has become the first poet to win the £30,000 Rathbones Folio prize, with his collection The Perseverance, which also won this year’s Ted Hughes award for poetry.
The British-Jamaic...
21st May 2019
Outsider candidate in Oxford Professor of Poetry poll calls for change
Andrew McMillan, Alice Oswald, and Todd Swift have emerged as the three candidates to succeed Simon Armitage as the next Oxford Professor of Poetry.
Voting will open on Thursday 23 May and close on...
20th May 2019
'I feel it's time to give something back': Simon Armitage is the new poet laureate
There is a sense of celebration at Write Out Loud with the news that Simon Armitage, who grew up in the West Yorkshire Pennine village of Marsden, has been appointed as the new poet laureate. Write Ou...
13th May 2019
Sixty poets to read in 10-hour Poetry Cafe fundraiser
Sixty poets, each reading for eight minutes, will be taking part in the Poetry Society’s Poem-A-Thon fundraiser on Saturday 18 May at the Poetry Café in Covent Garden from noon to 10pm. Entry is by do...
4th May 2019
Imtiaz Dharker turns down poet laureateship
The poet tipped to succeed Carol Ann Duffy as the new poet laureate has turned down the job. Imtiaz Dharker, who won the Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry in 2015, and who has described herself as a “Scot...
4th May 2019
