Eileen Earnshaw at Write Out Loud Middleton at the Ring O' Bells tonight
Eileen Earnshaw is the guest poet at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday 28 June at the Ring O’ Bells, St Leonards Square, Middleton. Entry is £2 to this open mic event, hosted by Norman Warwick. It begins at 7.30pm. More details and Map
28th June 2015
Larkin to get Poets' Corner memorial
Philip Larkin is to be honoured with a memorial in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. A floor stone dedicated to Larkin will join those of other poets including WH Auden, TS Eliot, William Wordsworth, and Ted Hughes, and will be unveiled on 2 December 2016, the 31st anniversary of Larkin's death.
...27th June 2015
Expecting rain? Pete the Temp is this year's Glastonbury website poet in residence
Pete the Temp, pictured, is this year’s website poet in residence at Glastonbury festival - and one of his first Glastonbury poems, 'Pray for Rain', concludes: "You’ll be digested / by the mud / in y...
26th June 2015
Write Out Loud's Risk a Verse at Huddersfield tonight
Write Out Loud’s Risk a Verse returns to the Red and Green Club, at Milnsbridge, Huddersfield, on Thursday 25 June. All are welcome to join in this laid-back, friendly poetry open-floor, which begins ...
25th June 2015
Counting down to Edinburgh: nine spoken word shows bound for the Fringe to be showcased in one day in Newcastle
With the countdown to Edinburgh Fringe festival in August now well under way, nine spoken word shows en route to Edinburgh will be showcased in one day at the beginning of August in Newcastle. No Slee...
24th June 2015
Calling Terry and Julie: poetry bookshop is opening soon near Waterloo
It is, as the words on the wall tell you, not far from the scene of the famous song. A London poetry bookshop will be opening within weeks at Old Paradise Yard, which is about 10 minutes’ walk from W...
23rd June 2015
Write Out Loud Bolton at the Brooklyn tonight
Hosts Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola will be welcoming you once more to Bolton Write Out Loud on Sunday 21 June at the Brooklyn pub, Green Lane, Bolton. Entry is £1 plus raffle to this open mic event, whi...
21st June 2015
An American at Oxford: AE Stallings on how she became a professor of poetry contender
The only female contender and the only American in the contest to become the next professor of poetry at Oxford has spoken of how it had originally “never crossed my mind” to throw her hat into the ri...
19th June 2015
Rant on: leading poets raise profile of 1980s movement
Attila the Stockbroker, John Cooper Clarke, John Hegley, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Janine Booth (The Big J) are among those on the bill at Stand Up and Spit at Camden Centre in London Thursday 18 June,...
18th June 2015
In the footsteps of WB Yeats to mark his 150th anniversary
A sequence of events celebrating WB Yeats’ 150th birthday on 13 June and his links with the Bedford Park area of Chiswick, west London will be staged this month. On Wednesday 17 June, journalist, broa...
18th June 2015
Taking your poetry pulse at Write Out Loud Marsden tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Marsden have a chance to check their poetry pulses at their meeting at Marsden library, on Wednesday 17 June at 7.30pm. The non-obligatory theme for the open-floor evening is...
17th June 2015
Craig Raine hits back at 'Gatwick' critics
Craig Raine has replied to critics of his poem, published in the London Review of Books, about admiring a young woman at Gatwick airport. Raine’s poem includes these lines: “I want to say I like your...
17th June 2015
John Foggin and Heather Jane Fleming at Write Out Sale tonight
John Foggin and Heather Jane Fleming are the guests at Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday 16 June at the Waterside arts centre, Sale. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic event, which begins at 7.30pm and is h...
16th June 2015
Michael Longley wins £34,000 Griffin international prize
Michael Longley has won Canada’s Griffin international prize, said to be the world’s largest prize for a first edition single collection of poetry written in or translated into English. Belfast-born L...
14th June 2015
Darren Thomas is compere at Write Out Loud Wigan tonight
Darren Thomas will be compering Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts, Crawford Street, Wigan, on Thursday 11 June. Entry is free to this long-running open mic event, and it starts at 8.30pm. More de...
11th June 2015
Forward director praises 'transformative' best first collection shortlist
The diversity of this year’s Forward prize shortlist for best first collection has been hailed as “a transformative moment in poetry publishing”. The shortlist for the £5,000 Felix Dennis prize includ...
10th June 2015
Heartwarming night as Jackie Hagan, Jo Bell, Hollie McNish win Saboteur awards
There were some dramatic and heartwarming stories as the 2015 Saboteur awards were handed out on Sunday night. Jackie Hagan, whose Some People Have Too Many Legs won best spoken word show, sent a mess...
9th June 2015
Stitching together text and textiles at Write Out Loud Stockport tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be taking part in a workshop with author Sarah Butler to find The Heart of Stockport at their meeting on Monday 8 June, at Stockport art gallery. Work produced...
8th June 2015
New 'page and stage' anthology to be launched in Guildford
Two new, previously unpublished poems from veteran playwright and poet Bernard Kops, plus contributions from Ash Dickinson, Steve Pottinger, Chrys Salt, Wendy Klein, David Cooke, Paul Sutherland and B...
5th June 2015
'Self-schooled poet' Simon Armitage bids to become Oxford professor of poetry
Simon Armitage has thrown his hat into the ring to be the next professor of poetry at Oxford University, a prestigious position seen as second only to the poet laureateship. In a statement, the bestse...
4th June 2015
US poet Maya Popa and Cornwall's Kate Compston win Hippocrates prizes
Teacher and writer Maya Popa, pictured, from New York, has won the £5,000 Hippocrates open prize for poetry and medicine. Second was Pascale Petit, and third was Catherine Ayres.
Another £5,000 Hip...
3rd June 2015
