Breath into words: poetry and yoga
Yoga teacher Marie-Flore and poets Frances Presley and Sophie Mayer present Breath into Words: an evening of poetry and yoga, at Yoga Junction in Crouch End, north London on Sunday 31 July at 7pm. Breath, balance and bodies in space, which appear in the work of both poets, are intended to resonate with a selection of poses chosen to enhance openness and attention. No previous experience of yoga...
28th July 2011
This side of the border: spoken word in Wales
"Spoken word" and "Wales", at the moment, are not synonymous. While a healthy performance poetry scene exists amongst Welsh speaking poets, with regular poetry "stomps" (slams, essentially) and the annual Eisteddfod gives its highest honours to poets, the English speaking of us are left with onl...
28th July 2011
Poetry Review's Fiona Sampson to judge women's contest
Fiona Sampson, editor of the Poetry Society’s Poetry Review, will be judging the Second Light Network women’s competition for long and short poems, closing date 1 November. Second Light Network is ...
28th July 2011
Engels and today's homeless on Twitter
Arts organisation arthur+martha have launched an epic Twitter poem in collaboration with homeless people in Manchester and Bury, including lines from the 19th century social campaigner Friedrich En...
27th July 2011
Lapwing poets Ian Parks and Andrew Oldham at Word Soup
Lancashire Writing Hub's Word Soup at the Continental in Preston hosts the Lapwing poetry tour on Thursday night, with Ian Parks and Andrew Oldham. Also on the bill on 28 July are David Cooke, Ron ...
26th July 2011
The Dead Snail Diaries, live at Scarborough
For one night only, Valley Press presents a complete reading of Jamie McGarry's third collection of poetry, The Dead Snail Diaries, at Scarborough library, Vernon Road, 6pm, on Thursday 28 July. Al...
25th July 2011
Jailed Bahrain poet is freed
Ayat al-Gormezi, the 20-year-old Bahrain poet who was jailed for a year for reading out a poem that criticised the country's king at a demonstration, has been freed after an international outcry ov...
22nd July 2011
Leaving Eden: Ron Zheng's Poetography exhibition
A Chinese artist who superimposes poems in the traditional tanka form over black and white images is staging an exhibition in Lewisham, south-east London. Ron Zheng’s Poetography exhibition, Leavin...
22nd July 2011
Glyn Maxwell to judge Live Canon competition
Glyn Maxwell is judging this year’s Live Canon international poetry competition. It’s not too late to enter the contest, with a first prize of £1,000. The deadline is 29 July. There's no word limit...
22nd July 2011
Dave Costello wins Welsh Poetry Competition
Wirral's Dave Costello has won the prestigious 2011 Welsh Poetry Competition with his poem Horseshoe Bat, a philosophical, symbol-rich reflection on a bat’s flight. Costello, aged 53, of Wallasey, ...
22nd July 2011
Farrago's School's Out slam
Farrago’s School’s Out slam on Thursday 21 July at RADA Foyer Bar, in Malet Street, London from 7.30pm to 10.30pm is open to all poets. Those already confirmed include Tottenham’s finest Abraham Gi...
18th July 2011
Manchester's Angela Smith launches debut collection
Popular Manchester performance poet Angela Smith is launching her debut collection, This is the Me I Would Be if I Dared, at Manchester City Library at 6.30pm on Wednesday 20 July. It is published...
18th July 2011
Last night at the Belvedere for Liverpool's Liver Bards
Liverpool open-mic night Liver Bards are hoping for fine weather on Monday 18 July so that poetry performers can strut their stuff in the open air outside the Belvedere pub in Sugnall Street off Fa...
18th July 2011
Wanted: poetry and fiction editors for online magazine
Blankpages, Blank Media Collective’s monthly online magazine for emerging artists, is looking for a poetry editor and fiction editor to join a team of Manchester-based volunteers.
The job speci...
17th July 2011
Muslim Writers awards: closing date 31 July
Closing date is 31 July for the 2011 Muslim Writers awards, which welcomes submissions of work from Muslim writers aged over 16 across the world. As well as a poetry award, other categories include...
17th July 2011
Top national poets at Caernarfon festival
Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke are appearing in Caernarfon this Sunday at Gwyl Arall (Another Festival), from 15-17 July. The festival offers diverting ses...
16th July 2011
Heights of lyricism 300ft underground
There’s an amazing chance to hear poetry 300ft underground in a Peak District cavern known as The Devil’s Arse when Mark Gwynne Jones and the Psychicbread perform a Buxton festival fringe show at C...
16th July 2011
Heart of the matter: Richard Tyrone Jones at Buxton fringe
How do you fight back when your heart tries to kill you? In February 2010, healthy, cycling, non-alcoholic poet Richard Tyrone Jones held his own joke funeral to mark his 30th birthday. Shortly aft...
14th July 2011
Bedford open poetry competition
Poet, tutor, freelance editor and critic Paul Groves will be judging this year’s Bedford Open poetry competition. Deadline for the competition, first prize £300, is 18 November. Entrants can submit...
14th July 2011
Lunchtime poetry at Manchester City library
There's a lunchtime poetry event this Thursday, 14 July, 1-2pm, at Manchester City Library as part of Not Part Of - Manchester International Festival’s fringe, with readings from Stephen Parr and ...
13th July 2011
The poem that put Bahrain poet Ayat al-Gormezi in jail
As jailed Bahrain poet Ayat al-Gormezi still waits for her appeal hearing, acclaimed young poet Fatima Al Matar has translated the words that landed her in jail especially for Write Out Loud to hig...
12th July 2011
Uh-Oh! - Apologies
Sorry for the outage and this continuing problem. We are thinking of referring it to the Poetry Complaints Commission, that watchless toothdog being battered by BBC journos at the moment. It is tru...
11th July 2011
Poetry Society crisis: now the red wheelbarrow
The latest twist in the Poetry Society saga came when a red wheelbarrow arrived at the society's Betterton Street offices in Covent Garden containing a petition with more than 400 signatures asking...
11th July 2011
Lippfest poetry contest
Organisers of Lippfest 2011 have launched a poetry competition to tie in with the festival in Leeds in September. Entries close quite soon, on 14 July 2011. Winners will be announced at a special e...
9th July 2011
Sylvia Plath's Three Women performed in London
Sylvia Plath wrote Three Women for radio, a year before her death. It intimately traces the experience of pregnancy and childbirth and speaks with rare honesty about miscarriage and about giving a ...
9th July 2011
Anthony Walker Foundation festival in Liverpool
Poets including Clare Shaw, pictured, are lined up on Saturday when Writing On The Wall in association with the Anthony Walker Foundation and Love Music Not Racism presents an afternoon of spoken w...
7th July 2011
The poetry of gardens: Jabberwocky at Hampton Court
This garden, inspired by Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky, is one of a number of gardens on poetic themes at this year's Hampton Court Flower Show. It won a Silver Gilt Medal for Kids Company and the De...
7th July 2011
WOL poets at Cloudspotting festival
Write Out Loud’s Rachel McGladdery and Trevor Meaney will be appearing at Lancashire’s Cloudspotting festival on Saturday night, 9 July, as part of the Lancashire Writing Hub’s lineup of live lit p...
7th July 2011
Mab and Mao Jones return to childhood library
Sister and brother poets Mab and Mao Jones were at their local library in Ely, Cardiff, this week giving a reading and presenting an anthology of emerging Welsh writers in which they both appear.
...
6th July 2011
TS Eliot festival at Little Gidding
Simon Armitage and Robert Crawford will be discussing TS Eliot’s Little Gidding at … where else? … Little Gidding in Cambridgeshire, during the sixth annual TS Eliot festival on Saturday and Sunday...
5th July 2011
Glastonbury's poet in residence at Ledbury
Glastonbury festival’s official poet in residence Longfella - aka Tony Walsh - will also be appearing at Ledbury poetry festival, which this year runs from July 1 to 10, features almost 100 events...
4th July 2011
