'I'm a classic late developer': Penguin publishes Linton Kwesi Johnson's Selected Poems
The veteran dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson has talked about the language he uses in his poems, of being a “classic late developer”, and of joining the youth wing of the British Black panthers while still at school, in a long and wide-ranging interview to the Observer to coincide with the publication of his Selected Poems by Penguin.
“I was trying to find a bridge between standard English and spo...
31st July 2022
Corbyn and McCluskey to talk politics and poetry in Edinburgh
The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is no stranger to poetry. He has quoted Shelley on the stage at Glastonbury, and also revealed that he wrote poetry on the train during his Labour leadership campaign. Now he is appearing with his old political pal, former Unite union leader Len McCluskey, on t...
30th July 2022
The Plumb Line: Hélène Demetriades, Hedgehog
The Plumb Line by Hélène Demetriades is presented in three parts: ‘Beginnings’ in which the poet shares her troubled childhood, from the ever present “ogre” of her father, to the veritable prison of b...
30th July 2022
Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn 'writes poetry on the train'
The Labour party leadership contender, Jeremy Corbyn, has revealed that he has been writing poetry on the train during his leadership campaign. Corbyn, who said he also is an abstract painter, made th...
30th July 2022
Celebrating the Horovitz poetry family and the Slad valley
A poetry event celebrating the work of Michael, Frances, and Adam Horovitz, and focusing on poetry written during or about the 10 years they lived together in Gloucestershire’s Slad valley, is taking ...
27th July 2022
Ahoy there! BBC radio programme looks at the dialect poetry of 'island city' Portsmouth
Poet Maggie Sawkins has investigated the dialect poetry of the ‘island city’ of Portsmouth in a BBC Radio 4 programme broadcast on Sunday. Maggie Sawkins, pictured, is a winner of the Ted Hughes award...
24th July 2022
A Triptych of Birds & a Few Loose Feathers: Pratibha Castle, Hedgehog
The title of this impressive debut pamphlet collection is delightful, if a little misleading. Although the first poem features long-tailed tits, and other birds, including blackbirds, sparrows, and cr...
23rd July 2022
Lining up a mix of 'radical poetry, music, cabaret and mayhem'
Wig Out! At the Wandle, a night offering “radical poetry, music, cabaret & mayhem” will feature Phil Jeays (England’s answer to Jacques Brel), Project Adorno (Geek electro-pop on libraries, Daleks, an...
20th July 2022
Imtiaz Dharker inaugurated as chancellor of Newcastle University
The poet Imtiaz Dharker has been inaugurated as Chancellor of Newcastle University, at a ceremony that also saw the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy awarded an honorary degree. Dharker’s appointm...
17th July 2022
Life speeds up for Slowdown podcast host: Ada Limón is new US poet laureate
Ada Limón has become the 24th poet laureate of the United States. She succeeds Joy Harjo, who served as poet laureate for an unprecedented three terms. Limón, who is aged 46 and is of Mexican descent,...
16th July 2022
Poems by Ted Hughes written after the death of Assia Wevill and their daughter Shura to be auctioned
A series of unpublished and previously unseen poems by Ted Hughes written shortly after the poet’s lover, Assia Wevill, killed herself and their daughter, Shura, in 1969 - six years after the suicide ...
16th July 2022
In the simmer dim: Barbara Cumbers, Dempsey & Windle
I’ve always wanted to go to Shetland. Geologist Barbara Cumbers spent a month’s residency there in 2017, and has visited the islands on several other occasions. Reading her pamphlet In the summer dim ...
15th July 2022
Mark Connors joins Write Out Loud's reviewing team
We at Write Out Loud are delighted to welcome a new poetry reviewer to our team. Mark Connors is a poet, novelist, creative writing facilitator, open mic organiser … well, you name it!
Mark, from L...
11th July 2022
The Telling: Julia Webb, Nine Arches Press
In Julia Webb’s third poetry collection she examines the complexities of familial relationships, between children and parents and vice versa, and others we closely co-exist with as lovers. It’s a tell...
11th July 2022
Welsh-Iraqi poet Hanan Issa is new national poet of Wales
Welsh-Iraqi poet Hanan Issa has been named the new National Poet of Wales. She takes over the role from Ifor ap Glyn, who completes his tenure this summer.
Her publications include the collection M...
10th July 2022
Grace Nichols and John Agard bring messages from the Caribbean to Chichester
You might as well describe them as poetry royalty. Wife and husband Grace Nichols and John Agard – both recipients of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry – were the two headliners at the Poetry & Jazz C...
10th July 2022
Hollie McNish and John Hegley at Coventry's SkyLines festival
Hollie McNish, with Michael Pedersen, and John Hegley are the headline poets at Coventry’s SkyLines festival of poetry and spoken word, with most live events taking place at the city’s Belgrade theatr...
8th July 2022
Larkin and Owen poems dropped from GCSE syllabus
“What will survive of us is love.” This is the often-quoted final line of Philip Larkin’s poem ‘An Arundel Tomb’, which has not survived a rethink of a GCSE English literature course by an examination...
4th July 2022
Deadline nears for Foyle Young Poets of the Year
The 31 July deadline is nearing for the 2022 Foyle Young Poets of the Year award open to young people aged 11-17 worldwide. It will be judged this year by Anthony Anaxagorou and Mona Arshi. More detai...
3rd July 2022
Marsden Write Out Loud enters new era
For over ten years, Write Out Loud has run its popular and highly successful open-mic poetry group at the library in the Mechanics, a physical landmark in a village of poetic ones, being the birthplac...
1st July 2022
Ian Duhig wins £15,000 Hawthornden prize for literature
Ian Duhig has been awarded the Hawthornden Prize for Literature, worth £15,000, for his New and Selected Poems. The judges were Christopher Reid, Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Neel Mukherjee, William Waldegrav...
1st July 2022
Michael Longley wins top European poetry prize
Irish poet Michael Longley has received the 2022 Feltrinelli International Prize for Poetry, awarded every five years by the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome. The prize is one of the most prestigious Euro...
1st July 2022
