Mad experiment on Write Out Loud – translating poems online!
Look, here's an idea: let’s translate our poems so we can share them with the world, and the world can share theirs with us. Simple. I mean, look at our gig guide. Thousands of people reading their work out loud regularly, and get listened to. Still simple. But what if your first language is not English? Perhaps you are from one of the 100+ UK language groups referred to in the recent census re...
31st May 2013
It's happened again: new poet unmasked as serial plagiarist
The Guardian has reported on what has been the talk of the online poetry community: that there is a new serial plagiarist in our midst. Following the Christian Ward scandal earlier this year, the new culprit is a poet called David R Morgan, who has admitted to the plagiarism, and told the Guardia...
31st May 2013
Rubbing Salt in it: poets mourn publisher's pullout
The poetry world is still reverberating over the news that independent publishers Salt will no longer be publishing single collections of poetry. The Norfolk-based publisher announced last week tha...
31st May 2013
Wanted: short poems about ads for Red Squirrel anthology
A forthcoming poetry anthology, ‘Double Bill: poems inspired by popular culture’, due out in 2014 from Red Squirrel Press, is looking for poems inspired by adverts. Poems can be up to 10 lines long...
31st May 2013
North-west's slam stars line up at Prestwich book festival
Poetry performance star Tony Walsh hosts an invitation/all star slam at the Prestwich book festival on 31 May, at Heaton Park sports and social club. Lined up are north-west names Mark Mace Smith, ...
31st May 2013
Walk the walk at Sheffield poetry festival
Sheffield's poetry festival, which kicks off on 31 May and goes through to 9 June, promises to be local, national and international, and includes a children's event, film-poems, and a poetry walk. ...
28th May 2013
Stanza Bonanza: poets from Reading and Greenwich in high-scoring draw
The Poetry Society had billed it as Greenwich v Reading. But you mustn’t think of this meeting of two of the society’s Stanza groups at London’s Poetry Cafe as a football match, I kept telling myse...
26th May 2013
National Poetry Competition trio reading at London's Keats festival
The three top winners of the National Poetry Competition – from left, Pascale Petit, Patricia McCarthy, and Jane Draycott – will be reading together for the first time in a Poetry Society event at ...
26th May 2013
Deadline nears for £2,000 Myslexia women's competition
It's less than a month until the 17 June deadline for this year's Myslexia women's poetry competition, to be judged by Costa award-winning poet Kathleen Jamie. The competiton has a £2,000 first pri...
26th May 2013
August deadline for £200 Ilkley festival competition
The £200 poetry competition for Ilkley literature festival is open for entries, with the deadline 1 August, and winners and commended writers invited to read at the festival in October. More detail...
26th May 2013
Write Out Loud at Middleton tonight
Pete Slater is the guest poet at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday 26 May, at the Ring O’Bells, St Leonard’s Square, Middleton. Contact gemmathepoet@hotmail.co.uk. Entry is a £2 donation to this o...
26th May 2013
McGough, Clarke, Abse, Sheers and Armitage at Hay festival
Roger McGough, Gillian Clarke, Dannie Abse, Owen Sheers, and Simon Armitage are just some of the big names at the Hay festival, from 23 May to 2 June. More details of poetry events at the festival ...
23rd May 2013
North-west poetry anthology reading at Hebden Bridge
John Siddique, Andrew Oldham, and editors Lindsey Holland and Angela Topping will be among those reading at a launch of Sculpted: Poetry of the North West, an anthology of 62 of the north-west’s be...
22nd May 2013
Deadline nears for £5,000 Bridport prize
The 31 May deadline is nearing for those still intending to submit poems for the £5,000 Bridport prize, judged this year by Wendy Cope. More details. Meanwhile the equally valuable £5,000 National ...
22nd May 2013
Poets and performers read from Sylvia Plath's Ariel at Festival Hall
Sylvia Plath died 50 years ago, leaving a black binder of poems that was to become her final, posthumously published collection, Ariel. Forty leading female poets and performers will read one poem ...
22nd May 2013
Kate Fox is Glastonbury website poet in residence
Kate Fox, a regular poet on Radio 4’s Saturday Live, will be this year’s website poet in residence at the Glastonbury festival. Fox, who was poet in residence for the Great North Run in 2011, writi...
22nd May 2013
July deadline for Poetry Wales pamphlet prize
The Poetry Wales Purple Moose prize for 20-24 original poems is open for entries. The winner will have their pamphlet published by Seren, and receive a £250 prize, 25 complimentary copies of the pa...
22nd May 2013
Chanje Kunda at Write Out Loud Sale tonight
Poet, playwright and performance artist Chanje Kunda is one of the guests at Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday 21 May at the Waterside arts centre, Sale. Mantz Yorke and David Judge are also on the bi...
21st May 2013
Versions of the North: edited by Ian Parks, Five Leaves
Kirkgate Market Cafe, Manningham Mills, Adel Crag, Flamborough, Warley Cemetery, Tinsley Towers, Humber Bridge, Holderness … a seam of poems with place name titles in this anthology of contempora...
20th May 2013
Poetry and all that jazz: Birmingham's Sunday Xpress at Adam & Eve
The spirit and diversity of Sunday Xpress open mic, hosted by Birmingham’s unofficial poet laureate, Brendan Higgins, pictured, has been captured in a video made by emerging film-maker Ilvars Veinb...
19th May 2013
Charlotte Henson at Write Out Loud Bolton tonight
Young poet and magazine editor Charlotte Henson is the guest at Write Out Loud Bolton on Sunday 19 May at the Brooklyn pub, Green Lane, Bolton. Entry is £1 to this open mic event. Email Jeff Dawson...
19th May 2013
North-east publisher stages seaside festival to mark 40 years
The small press publisher Iron Press is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a five-day festival in the seaside town of Cullercoats in North Tyneside from 15-19 May. An event hosted by Kate Fox wi...
17th May 2013
Helen Ivory to judge Ludlow fringe festival competition
Helen Ivory is to judge the Ludlow Fringe festival poetry competition. The theme is The Longest Day, and the deadline is 31 May. First prize is £100 and publication on Ivory’s Ink, Sweat and Tears ...
17th May 2013
Kate Fox is Glastonbury website poet in residence
Kate Fox, a regular on Radio 4’s Saturday Live, will be this year’s website poet in residence at the Glastonbury festival. Fox, who was poet in residence for the Great North Run in 2011, writing an...
17th May 2013
Odds-on success: Rod Tame launches debut collection
Write Out Loud Sale’s host and co-ordinator Rod Tame will be launching his debut poetry collection, Strange World Odd Person, published by Flapjack Press, on Thursday 16 May at Manchester City Libr...
16th May 2013
Ariadne's Thread launches competition to mark first year
Ariadne’s Thread magazine is launching a £300 competition to mark its first year of existence. The deadline is 31 October. Submissions will be read and judged by Armando Halpern, editor of Ariadne'...
16th May 2013
Write Out Loud at Marsden tonight
Write Out Loud Marsden meets on Wednesday, May 15 at Marsden library, for another evening of open-floor poetry, plus the odd story and musical interlude, hosted by Write Out Loud’s Julian Jordon. C...
15th May 2013
Write Out Loud's reviews editor wins poetry award
Hearty congratulations from all at Write Out Loud to our reviews editor, Frances Spurrier, who has won the Cinnamon Press poetry collection award. Her collection, Pilgrim’s Trail, will be published...
13th May 2013
Faber on the lookout for more new poets
Faber and Faber in partnership with Arts Council England is accepting submissions for its 2013–14 Faber New Poets scheme. It is open to those who have yet to publish a first collection or pamphlet,...
13th May 2013
Write Out Loud at Stockport tonight
The creative minds of Write Out Loud Stockport get together again on Monday 13 May at Stockport art gallery. The group produces a collage poem at each monthly meeting, and recently published its ow...
13th May 2013
Outfoxing Hyenas: Alan Price, Indigo Dreams
This is a debut collection, divided into three sections and telling of voyages, time, music, of boyhood and pubescence in which mythological, literary and art references abound. It is a rather mixe...
13th May 2013
It's a square world: Bob's bright idea at St Ives lit fest
There can’t be many poetry gigs where you might be interrupted by a passing seagull but at the open air event held daily (11-18 May) as part of the St Ives May Litfest in Norway Square in the beaut...
12th May 2013
Elmi Ali at relaunched Bury open mic night, Once More with Meaning
Elmi Ali is the guest at Bury’s relaunched Once More with Meaning open mic night on Sunday 12 May. The event, at the Studio theatre, The Met, Bury, begins at 7.30pm, with entry £3. It’s organised ...
12th May 2013
Whole lot of shaking going on: poets join fight against fracking
Write Out Loud names Laura Taylor, Joy France, Neil Fawcett, Jeffarama, and Solomon Scribble will be performing poetry on Friday and Saturday, 10 and 11 May, at Camp Frack, at Mere Brow, near Tarle...
10th May 2013
Book launch and anthology in 'literary backwater' Leeds
A young poet is launching his debut collection in Leeds, amid some controversy over whether or not the city is a literary backwater, and an anthology competition aimed specifically at young poets w...
9th May 2013
Write Out Loud at Wigan tonight
Madcap poets from the environs of Wigan and beyond convene at the Tudor House hotel in Wigan on Thursday, 9 May for another robust night of open mic entertainment. Write Out Loud Wigan begins at 8....
9th May 2013
Write Out Loud regulars in collection supporting fire-hit bookshop
On 1 February this year, Freedom Bookshop, London’s anarchist press and bookshop, was seriously damaged in a suspected firebomb attack. Freedom Press was founded in 1886 by a group including Charlo...
6th May 2013
Martyn Crucefix to judge £1,000 Torbay competition
Martyn Crucefix will be judging the £1,000 Torbay open poetry competition, with the winners announced at the Torbay festival of poetry on Saturday 26 October. The competition deadline is 31 August....
6th May 2013
New Brighton's Bards perform at Liverpool Lit Fest tonight
Poetry club members from New Brighton in Wirral are to perform as part of Liverpool Literary Festival ‘In Other Words’. Member of the Bards, who usually meet monthly in the Magazine pub, New Bright...
6th May 2013
Puzzle solved: Sowerby Bridge poetry session goes ahead after all
Organisers of Sowerby Bridge Puzzle Poets are keen to emphasise that tonight's session on 6 May at the Puzzle Hall Inn, Sowerby Bridge, will be taking place after all. The bank holiday event had be...
6th May 2013
The Word on the Street: Paul Muldoon, Faber
Paul Muldoon is one of Ireland’s leading contemporary poets. He published his first collection in 1971, taking his place as the youngest member of a group of Northern Ireland poets which includes S...
6th May 2013
Floating in a tin can: contest to send a haiku to Mars
Want to send a haiku into space? Nasa is inviting members of the public to submit their names and a personal message online for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the Martian ...
3rd May 2013
Deadline nears for erbacce publication prize
The deadline of 31 May is approaching for the erbacce prize, with the winner receiving a publishing contract, and 10 free copies of their published collection. At the discretion of the judges up to...
3rd May 2013
Rosalind Jana wins Hippocrates young poets prize
A 17-year-old student from Hereford sixth form college has won the inaugural Hippocrates Young Poets prize of £500. Rosalind Jana’s winning poem was titled Posterior Instrumented Fusion for Adolesc...
3rd May 2013
Harrison, Tempest, Farley and Polley in Sheffield Lyric line-up
Renowned Yorkshire poet Tony Harrison, Ted Hughes award winner Kate Tempest, and TS Eliot shortlisted Paul Farley and Jacob Polley are among the highlights of the University of Sheffield’s Lyric fe...
3rd May 2013
Vive la difference: Tennyson's heirs and Thatcher's children
A poetry society that claims Tennyson as an early member and that lists Sir John Betjeman and Cecil Day-Lewis as past presidents launched its latest anthology on Wednesday night, while "an unholy t...
2nd May 2013
Travel to Timbuktu, via Huddersfield, tonight
The fabled city, once dazzling commercial and intellectual capital of the Songhay empire, now just another impoverished desert town on the adventure holiday trail for affluent Western tourists, a g...
2nd May 2013
Deadline nears in voting for Saboteur spoken word awards
The clock is ticking if you want to vote for the Saboteur awards for best spoken word performer, best spoken word show, or best spoken word night, with a total of 12 categories (voting deadline mid...
1st May 2013
