Loud and proud: Julian Jordon on why performing is so important
Write Out Loud’s co-founder, Julian Jordon, has spelled out the principles of poetry performance, and the philosophy behind encouraging people to read out their work in public, in a wide-ranging interview with the creative writing website ABCtales. Julian - pictured at the Write Out Loud poetry jam at Marsden jazz festival last year - told interviewer Luke Neima: “Many a time Write Out Loud has be...
30th May 2014
Actors to read Shakespeare's 154 sonnets at Royal Festival Hall
A team of actors including Simon Russell Beale, Juliet Stevenson and Harriet Walter will between them read every one of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, from 5pm to 9pm on Sunday 1 June at the Royal Festival Hall. The event is part of the Southban...
30th May 2014
David Morley to judge £500 Battered Moons competition
David Morley will be the main judge in the £500 Battered Moons poetry competition. The deadline is 30 June. The three winners and four commended poets will be invited to read their poems at the Swindo...
29th May 2014
Kate Tempest is guest star in poetry slam final at Royal Albert Hall
A poetry slam final is being held on Midsummer’s Day at the Royal Albert Hall next month. The poetry slam organisation Hammer & Tongue has been running slams around the country all year, and Saturday ...
29th May 2014
Luke Wright headlines Suffolk poetry festival at John Peel Centre
BBC Radio 4 Star Luke Wright will be topping the bill at Suffolk Poetry Society's first poetry festival on Saturday 31 May. Wright, who lives in Bungay, will be rounding off a day of poetry at the Joh...
28th May 2014
Deadline approaches for £2,000 Wigtown festival competition
WN Herbert will be the main judge in the £2,000 Wigtown book festival poetry competition. The deadline is 30 May. More details
25th May 2014
'Pollution-cutting' Simon Armitage poem gets airing overlooking A57
A new Simon Armitage poem on display at the University of Sheffield has been printed on material specially developed to help reduce nitrogen dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
According to the Unive...
25th May 2014
Ian Whiteley at Write Out Loud Middleton tonight
Ian Whiteley is the guest poet this weekend at Write Out Loud Middleton, which will be held on Sunday 25 May at the Ring O’Bells, Middleton, starting at 7pm. Your host is Norman Warwick, and entry is ...
25th May 2014
Deadline approaches for £5,000 Bridport poetry prize
Scotland’s makar – poet laureate - Liz Lochhead will be the judge of this year’s £5,000 Bridport poetry prize. The cost is £8 per entry, and the top four poems are submitted to the Forward Prize for b...
24th May 2014
Last few days to vote for Saboteur awards
There are just a few days left to get your votes in for the indie lit Saboteur awards. The deadline is 25 May, with the winners announced on 31 May in Oxford.
Hollie McNish, Kate Tempest, Sophia W...
23rd May 2014
Deadline approaches for 250-guinea Frogmore poetry prize
The Frogmore poetry prize has been launched, with the winner receiving the sum of 250 guineas. The deadline is 31 May, and the judge will be Abegail Morley. More details
23rd May 2014
New festival at Winchester aims to join the ranks of Stanza, Ledbury and Aldeburgh
Ever wondered how you go about setting up a poetry festival? When should you start planning, how much work is involved, and how many volunteers do you need? Greg Freeman talks to Stephen Boyce, pictur...
22nd May 2014
Write Out Loud's Risk A Verse at the Red and Green Club tonight
Write Out Loud’s newest open mic night, Risk A Verse, at the Red and Green Club, Milnsbridge, Huddersfield is back on Thursday 22 May. Your host is Julian Jordon, entry is free, and it starts at 7.30p...
22nd May 2014
Gillian Clarke, Philip Gross and Mimi Khalvati at Bodmin Moor festival
Some big names in the poetry world, including Gillian Clarke, pictured, Philip Gross, Mimi Khalvati, Maurice Riordan, and Louis de Bernieres, are lined up for the Bodmin Moor poetry festival, over the...
21st May 2014
Angels from Brazil: Modern Poetry in Translation's spring issue launch
Modern Poetry in Translation magazine will be launching its spring issue, Twisted Angels, devoted to the best in Brazilian poetry, at the Brighton festival on Thursday 22 May. Tickets are £10, and the...
21st May 2014
Talking about Neruda at Write Out Loud Marsden tonight
“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming” - Pablo Neruda. Write out Loud’s co-founder, Julian Jordon, will give a short chat about the Chilean poet, with some of his verse, ...
21st May 2014
Jackie Hagan and Jonathan Eyre at Write Out Loud Sale tonight
Jackie Hagan and Jonathan Eyre are the guest poets at Write Out Loud Sale, on Tuesday 20 May at the Waterside arts centre, Sale, and the guest host is Joy France. Entry to the open mic night is £3/£2,...
20th May 2014
Cameo Metro: Ken Champion, The Penniless Press
I picked up Ken Champion’s second collection, Cameo Metro, with anticipation. His first, but black & white is better, has a 1960s-style cover, and a sharp, laconic style that I’d guess owes nothing to...
19th May 2014
Write Out Loud Wigan: warm, irreverent, rude, and the odd hiccup, too
They kept telling me, with some puzzlement, that it was much quieter than usual. Compere Isobel Malinowski said at the end of the evening: “The Tudor thrives on noise. People who come here like that b...
19th May 2014
Bolton festival anthology wants submissions from north-west poets
Organisers of Bolton’s first poetry festival, Live From Worktown, next month are looking for submissions from poets living in the north-west of England to appear in the festival anthology. They want p...
18th May 2014
Write Out Loud Bolton at the Brooklyn on Sunday
Poets new and old will be welcomed by MCs Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola at Write Out Loud Bolton on Sunday 18 May, at the Brooklyn pub in Bolton. Entry is £1 to the open mic night, and doors open at 7.3...
18th May 2014
The Spoken Word, York: Here's to 100 more open mic nights
“We started eight and a half years ago, and forgot to stop.” That’s how co-organiser Rose Drew, pictured, refers to The Spoken Word poetry and prose open mic night in York, which she runs with husband...
16th May 2014
Magazine wants Benn tributes and miners' strike poems
The radical poetry and arts magazine Citizen 32 is calling for submissions that to pay tribute to the former Labour MP Tony Benn or mark the 30th anniversary of the miners' strike for its special edit...
16th May 2014
Jane Draycott wins £5,000 Hippocrates prize
Jane Draycott – pictured with judge Philip Gross – has won the £5,000 Hippocrates prize for poetry and medicine. The second prize was won by UK poet Ailsa Holland and the third prize was shared by New...
15th May 2014
Poetry shortlists revealed for Wales Book of the Year
The poetry shortlists for authors writing in English and Welsh have been unveiled in the 2014 Wales Book of the Year award. Three authors are in contention for the top spot in each category and will e...
14th May 2014
Check out Roger McGough's poems at Waitrose, and have a go yourself
The deadline is Thursday 15 May for the first round of a poetry competition in which winning poems will be displayed in the aisles of Waitrose stores. A selection of short and light-hearted poems by t...
14th May 2014
Fusion poet Anjum Malik at Bolton's first poetry festival
Anjum Malik, a poet who fuses eastern and western forms, will be headlining a performance by a collaboration of local writers whose first language is not English on Wednesday 25 June as part of the fi...
14th May 2014
Poetry of protest: what are the rights and wrongs?
How do you create good political poetry, what is poetry activism. and what can it actually achieve? Do poets have a responsibility to write about rights, and if so - what should they be wary of? Four...
13th May 2014
Southbank's poetry film competition on the theme of love
Southbank Centre in London has launched Shot Through The Heart, a poetry film competition on the theme of love - the joy of first love, the pain of lost love, the confusion of displaced love, the pur...
12th May 2014
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery on Monday
Members of Stockport Write Out Loud will be reading and discussing poems on the theme of ‘Indecision’ at their monthly meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 12 April. The meeting starts at 7pm, w...
12th May 2014
Poetry and song from folk opera trio at St Ives literature festival
Cornish Women on the Verge – Nickie Reed, Sue Famer, and Ann Foxglove - will be performing two folk operas using poetry and song about artist and mariner Alfred Wallis and John Harris, miner, preacher...
11th May 2014
A Whitsun celebration to mark 50th anniversary of Larkin's famous poem
“All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense / Of being in a hurry gone.” One of the finest poems about a train journey, Philip Larkin’s ‘The Whitsun Weddings’, is to be brought to life to mark the ...
9th May 2014
New anthology of imitations offers fresh perspective on poetry's 'P' word
Is plagiarism really such a dirty word? How permissible is it to reshape an existing source? Where does influence end, and infringement begin? These are some of the questions raised by a new anthology...
9th May 2014
Write Out Loud newsman ventures up north to investigate Wigan phenomenon
Write Out Loud’s southern-based newsman, Greg Freeman, is planning to attend Write Out Loud Wigan on Thursday at the Tudor House hotel, on 8 May, to check out this famed open mic, spoken word night. F...
6th May 2014
Rembrandt's Bible: Atar Hadari, Indigo Dreams
This collection is based on an idea of modernised stories from the Old Testament, and is divided into four sections: ‘Honey’, ‘Songs of David’, ‘Father Tongue’, and ‘Rembrandt’s Bible’. To interpret ...
5th May 2014
Motion, Feinstein, and Williams at festival beside the seaside
Fresh from her appearance at Wenlock poetry festival last weekend, Elaine Feinstein, pictured, is booked for the Poetry-next-the-sea festival, at Wells in Norfolk, from 9-11 May. Andrew Motion, Rowan ...
5th May 2014
Older and young poets sum up the spirit of Wenlock
Two readings by young and older poets left a deep impression of the vigorous health of poetry on the final day of Wenlock poetry festival on Sunday. The older poets were represented by five women - R...
3rd May 2014
Luke Wright and John Hegley provide laughter lift-off
Luke Wright’s Essex Lion, and John Hegley’s nostalgic vision of life in a Luton bungalow kicked off the Wenlock poetry festival in crowd-rousing style on Friday night. Wright told his audience: “This ...
2nd May 2014
Night in the spotlight: R&M founder launches collection
Alison Hill is used to standing in front of the mic as founder and co-compere of Kingston’s Rhythm & Muse poetry and music night; much less used to reading her poems from it. Her fellow compere, Nick ...
2nd May 2014
