'They show up when I think of them, as if they always are waiting for me to remember'
At some moment every day I call up a memory of one or another of my family members who have passed on, so I was especially taken with this poem by Tim Nolan, who lives in Minnesota. His forthcoming book is The Field (New Rivers Press, October, 2016).
My Dead
They grow in number all the time
The cat, the Mother, the Father
The grandparents, aunts, and uncles
Those I knew well and ...
30th May 2016
Weekend of poetry workshops with added Dutch flavour at Grange-over-Sands
Dutch poet Tsead Bruinja will be joining three British poets at a weekend of poetry workshops at Grange-over-Sands on Morecambe bay in Cumbria in August. The Poetry Carousel, organised by Kim Moore, who was shortlisted for last year’s Forward prize for best published poem, will also include poets Cl...
30th May 2016
Ice, heat and cicadas: prize-winning poets roam continents at the Troubadour
There was a chance to hear three prizewinning poets at the Troubadour on Monday as Sarah Howe, pictured, Michael Symmons Roberts, and Caitriona O’Reilly took part in What We Should Have Said, a kind o...
29th May 2016
Deadline nears for Mslexia poetry competitions
Liz Lochhead, pictured, will be judging the £2,000 Mslexia women’s poetry competition, for poems of any length and in any style. There will also be a £500 prize for the best poem by a previously unpub...
29th May 2016
'Following the Money' by Tim Ellis is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Following the Money’, a poem about fracking in Yorkshire, by Tim Ellis. The poem compares gas and oil workers to Viking raiders and says: “The peaceful vill...
28th May 2016
Simon Armitage to discuss Stanza Stones project at Winchester poetry festival
Simon Armitage will be reunited with Stanza Stones lettercarver Pip Hall at Winchester poetry festival this autumn to discuss their collaboration on the 45-mile Stanza Stones trail from Marsden to Ilk...
26th May 2016
Alison Brackenbury to judge £200 Fire River Poets competition
Alison Brackenbury will be judging the £200 Fire River Poets open poetry competition. The deadline is 31 October. More details
25th May 2016
Something to smile about as new Write Out Loud poetry night is born
A new Write Out Loud poetry night took its first lungfulls of air on Monday - and so far the infant is doing well. Write Out Loud Woking was launched in a pub alongside a canal in the village of Send...
24th May 2016
Beehive Poets reading tonight at Bradford's literature festival
Bradford’s Beehive Poets will be giving a special reading at Bradford literature festival on Tuesday 24 May from 8-9pm at Waterstones. This year they are approaching the theme of death and dying from ...
24th May 2016
Troubled waters: Geraldine Monk launches new collection in Sheffield tonight
The innovative poet Geraldine Monk will be launching her new collection, They who Saw the Deep, at the University of Sheffield on Tuesday 24 May. At the heart of the collection are poems concerning ri...
24th May 2016
Last chance to vote for Saboteur awards
This is almost your last chance to vote in the Saboteur awards, with best spoken word show and performer, and best regular spoken word night among the categories. Shortlisted for best spoken word show...
23rd May 2016
'One brave screw holds the makeshift contraption together'
Here's a touching father-son poem by Jennifer Gray, who lives in Nebraska. If you're not big enough to push a real mower, well, you make a mower of your own.
Summer Mowing
He has transfo...
23rd May 2016
Picture this: poet comes face to face with portrait, in Droitwich
A portrait of a UK poet by a US artist has led to its display and a poetry performance in the Worcestershire town of Droitwich. In 2015, Cynthia Morrison produced a piece of artwork for a gallery in t...
22nd May 2016
He's abseiling: Write Out Loud's John Coopey taking the plunge from tower block
Write Out Loud regular John Coopey makes a habit of fitting new words to popular songs and blogging them on this site, accompanying himself on the guitar. His latest is ‘I’m Abseiling’ – and that’s ex...
21st May 2016
Ian Whiteley's poetry and music on first world war at Chorlton arts festival
Performance poet Ian Whiteley will be telling the story of the first world war in poetry set to music at Chorlton arts festival on Wednesday 25 May at 7.30pm. Still in the War, Boys at Chorlton librar...
21st May 2016
Showcase evening at festival gives Saboteurs-listed publisher a lift
It was standing-room only as Chrys Salt, pictured, wrapped up a showcase evening of poetry last week at the Cheltenham poetry festival. A packed house at the Frog and Fiddle heard Deborah Harvey (Brea...
21st May 2016
Poetry competition to celebrate life and work of Stanley Spencer is launched
A £2,500 international poetry completion has been launched to celebrate the 20th century English painter Stanley Spencer. The competition, part of events to mark the 50th anniversary in 2017 of the Co...
21st May 2016
Deadline nears for £300 South Bank Poetry competition
Mimi Khalvati will be judging the £300 South Bank Poetry magazine competition for poems about London. The deadline is 15 June. More details
19th May 2016
Why the beautiful South has a place in my heart
I’ll confess it straight away – I have a soft spot for South, which was the first poetry magazine to accept a poem of mine. They hadn’t a clue that I hadn’t been published anywhere before – it was the...
19th May 2016
Write Out Loud at Marsden library tonight
Write Out Loud Marsden is back on Wednesday 18 March at Marsden library at 7.30pm, with regular host Julian Jordon in charge again after his US travels. He thanks for Diane Green and David Lindsay for...
18th May 2016
Mum's the word with Hollie McNish at the Roundhouse Last Word festival
Hollie McNish, Kate Tempest, and Rob Auton are among the highlights at the Last Word festival of spoken word, storytelling and live performance at the Roundhouse in London from 24 May-18 June.
Holl...
18th May 2016
Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club tonight
Write Out Loud Bolton meets at its new home at Bolton Socialist Club on Tuesday 17 September. Entry is £1 plus raffle to this open mic event hosted by Jefframa! and Gordon Zola. Arrive at 7.30 for 8pm...
17th May 2016
Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight
Write Out Loud Sale is holding another open mic poetry night at the Waterside arts centre, Sale on Tuesday 17 May. First time readers are especially welcome. Open mic spaces are available on a first c...
17th May 2016
Ocean of difference? American and UK poets read together at the Troubadour
Is there a great divide between Anglo and American poetry? Or are there more similarities than differences? Dangerous territory on which to generalise, of course. But there was a chance at the Troubad...
16th May 2016
'In the shadows where the milk-chocolate river unfolded ... we'd strip'
Here's a fine poem about the fleshy pleasures of adolescence by Ginger Murchison, from her book a scrap of linen, a bone from Press 53. Murchison lives in Florida.
River
Late afternoons, w...
16th May 2016
Write Out Loud invades the south at the New Inn tonight
The first Write Out Loud open mic poetry night south of the Wash is being launched in Surrey next week. Write Out Loud Woking is the initiative of Write Out Loud’s Greg Freeman and Woking Stanza group...
16th May 2016
In the aftermath of the Calder valley floods, a new poetry press is born
A couple of weeks ago an event took place in Hebden Bridge that was rich in symbolism – for poetry lovers, at least. A pamphlet by Peter Riley, who was shortlisted for the Forward prize last year, was...
13th May 2016
Write Out Loud's spoken word night at Oldham library with Anjum Malik - it's tonight!
Write Out Loud is staging an open-floor spoken word night at Oldham library on Friday13 May for poets, storytellers and songwriters from any background - and any language - as part of Oldham's Bookmar...
13th May 2016
Cleckheaton's Talking Zebras poets launch anthology in aid of hospice
A spoken word group in Cleckheaton is launching an anthology of poetry by members in booklet and CD form on Friday 13 May at Millbridge WMC, Liversedge. The Selected Poems by Talking Zebras is the wor...
13th May 2016
Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight
Write Out Loud Wigan meets at the Old Courts in Wigan on Thursday 12 May for another open mic poetry night with “moments of community, surrealism, sexuality and reflectiveness”. It’s free, there’s no...
12th May 2016
Saboteur awards contender showcases four poets at festival
A publisher that has been shortlisted for three Saboteur awards is showcasing four of its poets at a special reading during Cheltenham poetry festival on Thursday 12 May. The Indigo Dreams showcase at...
12th May 2016
Deadline nears for £5,000 Bridport prize
The deadline is the end of May for the £5,000 Bridport poetry prize. This year's Bridport poetry judge, Ptgience Agbabi, said: “A poem is a spell, a potent, living language. Free verse or fixed form, ...
10th May 2016
Gaelic poet wins accolade in Saboteur awards shortlists
A poet who writes in Gaelic has been voted on to the shortlists for this year’s Saboteur indie lit awards in the new “wild card” category. Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, originally from York, but resident i...
10th May 2016
'They twirl twice before the imported cheeses, fresh mozzarella in its milky liquid'
Pat Emile is assistant editor and Jill-of-all-trades for this column. Were it not for her help I couldn't keep these weekly selections coming. Here she is in another role, as a poet, stopping in a lit...
10th May 2016
Richard III, Jamie Vardy, and all that: call for poems about Leicester
Congratulations to Leicester City for winning the Premiership! But there's even more to Leicester than Richard III and the fairytale rise to the top by its football team this season, spearheaded by go...
10th May 2016
Dreaming of Our Better Selves: Marion Tracy, Vanguard Editions
Death and illnesses are central to human life, and the determinedly contemporary approach Marion Tracy brings to this collection is balanced by depth of experience. Tracy began writing poetry as an ad...
10th May 2016
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be convening at Stockport art gallery on Monday 9 May to share their poems and to produce a monthly collage poem. You can read April’s collage poem here. Entry...
9th May 2016
'Tourdion' by Chris Stevenson is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Tourdion’ by Chris Stevenson. On his profile page Chris, who was born in Lytham, says: ” I was born on the coast, across the road from the windmill and the ...
8th May 2016
Our man in Havana checks out the poetry scene in Cuba
I was sitting at breakfast in Vedado, Havana last week when Jeffrey Shero, pictured, of Austin, Texas, says to me: “Allen Ginsberg told me that, as a young man, he’d slept with a much older man who, a...
8th May 2016
New Beat-inspired magazine Beatification seeks £500 crowdfunder aid
John G Hall, the founding editor of Citizen32 arts and literature magazine, is seeking £500 crowdfunder aid to help launch a new poetry and short story magazine based in Manchester, which will be aimi...
5th May 2016
Exhibition and project to aid disadvantaged are two wild card contenders
The new wild card category in the Saboteur awards has thrown up some intriguing entrants. Write Out Loud looks at two of those shortlisted.
Deerheart is an art and poetry collaborative exhibition d...
5th May 2016
Daljit Nagra and Simon Armitage open festival with event to mark Somme centenary
Fierce Light, a poetry commission featuring Simon Armitage and Daljit Nagra exploring the first world war and its legacy, will be premiered on the opening night of the Norwich and Norfolk festival on ...
4th May 2016
'Cursed Be He That Moves My Bones' by Ian Whiteley is Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is the timely ‘Cursed Be He That Moves My Bones’, by Ian Whiteley. It’s a sonnet whose title comes from the inscription on William Shakespeare’s tomb, in the we...
4th May 2016
'Airways, Breathing, Circulation' by Peter Knaggs is Poem of the Week
The latest Poem of the Week chosen for Write Out Loud is ‘Airways, Breathing, Circulation’ , by Peter Knaggs. The title of the poem, posted in the week of the inquest verdicts on the Hillsborough disa...
3rd May 2016
Poet Warsan Shire's words spoken on Beyoncé’s new album
The work of a Somali-British poet is reaching a huge new audience after being featured in US pop singer Beyoncé's new video album. Beyoncé reads parts of Warsan Shire’s poems, including ‘For Women Who...
3rd May 2016
Could yours be some of the lines that make up Dylan's Great Poem?
Young poets aged from seven to 25 are being invited to submit up to four lines of poetry in English or Welsh to help celebrate Dylan Thomas Day, with 100 lines chosen from the submitted entries to cre...
3rd May 2016
On your bikes: pedalling poets to tour South Downs during new festival
A new poetry festival featuring a poetry bike tour and events at venues over the length and breadth of a national park in Sussex and Hampshire will be launched this summer. The first South Downs poet...
3rd May 2016
Loop of Jade: Sarah Howe, Chatto
On the cover of this beautifully produced book of poetry we learn of Sarah Howe that she was born in Hong Kong in 1983 to an English father and Chinese mother and moved to England as a child. Thus the...
2nd May 2016
'The winter flies away when the cranes cross'
Early each spring, Nebraska hosts, along a section of the Platte river, several hundred thousand sandhill cranes. It's something I wish everyone could see. Don Welch, one of the state's finest poets, ...
1st May 2016
