African poet Kofi Awoonor among Kenya massacre victims
The renowned African poet, Kofi Awoonor, was one of the victims of the terrorist killings in Nairobi that have claimed at least 62 lives, it has emerged. Awoonor, aged 78, a Ghanaian poet, diplomat and academic, had been in Nairobi for the Storymoja Hay festival. Kwame Dawes, Ghanaian-born Jamaican poet and writer, said in an article in the Wall Street Journal: “I had asked him to attend the ...
30th September 2013
Countdown to Forward prizes glitz and National Poetry Day
The countdown has started in earnest for the Forward Prize giving and National Poetry Day, which take place on 1 and 3 October. This year for the first time the Forward prizes will be awarded to poets at a public event in the Purcell Room at London’s Southbank, with added razzamatazz as some of ...
29th September 2013
Alice Oswald wins £25,000 Warwick prize for Memorial
Alice Oswald has become the first poet to win the £25,000 Warwick prize for writing. Her winning work, Memorial, is a reworking of Homer's Iliad.
The Warwick prize, awarded every two years, is ...
28th September 2013
Poet accused of plagiarism pulls out of Forward shortlist
A Forward prize contender who has been accused of plagiarism has withdrawn his poem from the Forward shortlist, the organisers have said. CJ Allen has pulled his poem 'Explaining the plot of Blade...
27th September 2013
Grand performances as TS Eliot tour drops in at Oldham library
This was a feast of poetry at Oldham library, and part of a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of the TS Eliot prize that is taking 36 nominated and/or winning poets on a 10-date sashay across t...
27th September 2013
Red Devon: Hilary Menos, Seren
Red Devon, Hilary Menos’ second collection, is a book about farming: about mud, manure and long dead hours spent ploughing; about thistles, slurry and dead sheep rotting in the yard. Inspired by Me...
25th September 2013
Words and music: Carol Ann Duffy at Wakefield literary festival
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy will be performing with musician John Sampson at Wakefield’s Merchant Gate from 6-7.30pm on Thursday 26 September in one of the poetic highlights of Wakefield literary...
24th September 2013
the light user scheme: Richard Skinner, Smokestack
This interesting book of poems deals with excerpts and extracts that form the basis of ‘the secret springs of action’, as one of the pieces is entitled. People caught in mid-thought, mid-step, mid-...
23rd September 2013
Poets limber up for 47-mile Stanza Stones trek
Four poets have been getting in training for a trek next month, when they will walk from Marsden to Ilkley along the route of the six Stanza Stones, carved into stone, and written by Simon Armitage...
22nd September 2013
Write Out Loud at Middleton tonight
Dave Morgan is the guest poet at Write Out Loud Middleton on Sunday 22 September, at the Ring O’Bells, St Leonard’s Square, Middleton. Entry is a £2 donation to this open mic event. Contact: gemmat...
22nd September 2013
Roll up for Wirral Ode Show poetry contest
The Wirral Ode Show poetry competition, first prize £120, will take place on 3 October - National Poetry Day – at Gallaghers Pub & Barbers, Chester Street, Birkenhead, Wirral at 8pm. Entry is £3 an...
20th September 2013
2013 vision of MLK speech at Manchester literature festival
Lemn Sissay will deliver his updated poetic vision of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech at the Manchester literature festival, which takes place in the city from 7-20 October. Sissay’s pie...
20th September 2013
Deryn Rees-Jones and George Szirtes to judge £2,500 Troubadour prize
Deryn Rees-Jones and George Szirtes are the judges of Coffee-House Poetry’s £2,500 Troubadour international poetry prize. Both judges will read all the poems. The deadline is 21 October. More deta...
19th September 2013
Chance to have collection published in Geoff Stevens memorial competition
The deadline is 31 October for submissions for the Geoff Stevens memorial prize, with two winners having their poetry collections published by Indigo Dreams. Ten poems should be submitted, each wit...
19th September 2013
From Chickentown to McCain chips: but does Cooper Clarke's new ad put you off your tea?
So there I was, smiling and giggling though a collection of humorous verse while waiting for a TV programme when I heard the incomparable drawling drone of the Bard of Salford. I was not mistaken. ...
19th September 2013
October deadline for poetry competition on migration
The deadline is 11 October for a £700 poetry competition run by the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (Compas) at Oxford University. The competition theme is people on the move, with Ruth Pad...
19th September 2013
Ruth Padel to judge £1,000 Rialto/RSPB nature poetry prize
Ruth Padel will be judging The Rialto/RSPB £1,000 nature poetry competition, which has a 30 September deadline. The prizes include a personal tour with wildlife writer Mark Cocker around his most c...
19th September 2013
Simon Armitage's walk: 'He had vaguely imagined a stroll along the beach'
Simon Armitage is walking the South-West Coast Path, from Minehead to Land’s End, stopping off every evening to read a few of his poems and talk with his audience. He says he wants to test out his ...
18th September 2013
Remembering Seamus Heaney at Write Out Loud Marsden tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Marsden will be celebrating the life of Seamus Heaney as part of their readaround when they meet up on Wednesday 18 September at Marsden library at the Mechanics Hall, Pee...
18th September 2013
Forward prize contender in new plagiarism row
A Forward prize contender has been accused of plagiarism by a fellow poet. In the third case of its kind to erupt this year, Matthew Welton says that CJ Allen plagiarised a number of Welton’s poem...
18th September 2013
Black Country museum launches industrial landscape competition
Radio Wildfire presenter Dave Reeves, current poet-in-residence at the Black Country Living Museum, has joined with the museum to launch its second annual prize poetry competition with the theme of...
18th September 2013
Mark this: Winston Plowes judging US magazine's found poetry contest
If you look through most people’s bookshelves you might find the occasional book with the corner of a page folded over in a little triangle or dog-ear of text to mark the place. Winston Plowes will...
18th September 2013
Write Out Loud at Sale tonight
Host Rod Tame is celebrating his third anniversary as host of Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday 17 September at the Waterside arts centre. Guest poets are Jan Dean and Joy France at the open mic night...
17th September 2013
Char March first guest at Shindig launch in Hebden Bridge
Char March will be the first guest poet at the launch of Shindig, a new monthly spoken word night in Hebden Bridge compered by Winston Plowes, on Tuesday 17 September. It’s at Nelsons wine bar, in ...
17th September 2013
Turning shortlisted poem into performance: £1,000 Live Canon prize
The deadline is 21 September for the £1,000 Live Canon international poetry competition. Twenty shortlisted poems will be published in an anthology, and performed by the Live Canon ensemble, a grou...
15th September 2013
Coming your way? Top poets on TS Eliot Prize anniversary tour
The renowned TS Eliot Prize, organised by the Poetry Book Society, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a 10-venue national tour of readings this autumn. The tour, involving leading poets who h...
15th September 2013
Tony Walsh at Write Out Loud Bolton tonight
Tony Walsh (Longfella) will be the star guest at Write Out Loud Bolton on Sunday 15 September at the Brooklyn, Green Lane, Bolton. Tony, a veteran of Glastonbury and one of the country’s leading pe...
15th September 2013
Spoken word writer? Your chance to report on poetry for Write Out Loud
Fancy yourself as an online journalist? Could you be part of the grassroots poetry revolution?
There’s a poetic revolution going on, with events, groups, projects and websites springing up acro...
13th September 2013
Chain of events at Canterbury's Wise Words festival
Spoke n Word, billed as a pedal-powered poetry slam featuring some of the UK’s hottest performance poets, is one of the features of Canterbury’s Wise Words festival from 13-15 September. Other poet...
12th September 2013
Dylan Thomas park has £1.4m makeover in time for centenary
A Swansea park that inspired Dylan Thomas to write such poems as ‘The Hunchback in the Park’ has been refurbished at a cost of £1.4m in time for the 2014 centenary of the poet’s birth.
The Dyl...
12th September 2013
Night at the Oscars at Write Out Loud Wigan tonight
12th September 2013
The ups and downs of publishing at the poetry book fair
London’s Poetry Book Fair, now in its third year, goes from strength to strength. More publishers displaying their wares each year, a new venue, Conway Hall, a spill-over evening session of poetry...
9th September 2013
Pascale Petit to judge £1,000 Kent and Sussex poetry competition
Pascale Petit will be judging and reading all the entries in the £1,000 Kent and Sussex Poetry Society open competition. The deadline is 31 January 2014. The poetry society is based in Tunbridge We...
9th September 2013
Don't shoot the performance poet: Bang Said The Gun launches anthology
Bang Said The Gun, the weekly performance poetry phenomenon billed as being “for people who don’t like poetry”, and where the audience is encouraged to make as much noise as is physically possible,...
9th September 2013
Write Out Loud at Stockport tonight
Members of Stockport Write Out Loud meet on Monday 7 September at Stockport art gallery, with this month’s theme the Sun. The group creates a collage poem at each meeting. You can read August’s col...
9th September 2013
Deadline nears for £1,000 Basil Bunting award
The deadline for the £1,000 Basil Bunting award competition, in memory of the celebrated poet from the north-east, is 30 September. The judge will be Sir Andrew Motion, who give a reading at the aw...
8th September 2013
Let slip the performance poets: new festival aims to inspire youngsters
Luke Wright, Byron Vincent, Tim Clare, Molly Naylor and Henry Raby will be among those performing at venues and on the streets at Release The Hounds, a new poetry and performance festival in the No...
8th September 2013
'The felling of a great oak': Seamus Heaney 1939-2013
The funeral of the Nobel-prize winning Irish poet, Seamus Heaney, who died in Dublin aged 74 last Friday, was held at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook in the Irish Republic on Monday. A...
8th September 2013
Moments of joy, and links with art and song at Poetry School
How to celebrate real-life moments of joy without sentimentality or cliché; poetry and contemporary art; and the connections between poetry and song are just three of the many courses on offer at t...
7th September 2013
Publishers and poets set out their stalls at day-long bazaar
A feast of poetry is promised at Free Verse: The Poetry Book Fair, a free, all-day bazaar that includes readings, workshops, and more than 50 poetry publishers setting out their wares. It takes pla...
6th September 2013
Are female poets subtly 'excluded' by men? Discuss at black and Asian writers conference
The treatment and “subtle exclusions” that female spoken word artists and poets face in “public space that remains dominated by men” is one of the topics up for discussion at the National Black Wri...
5th September 2013
Plus ça change… Can you write a trolley poem?
This piece of prose had such a good impact the other night at a Write Out Loud poetry event, we thought we would invite you to read it and use it as stimulus for writing a poem. You could blog the ...
4th September 2013
Tongues and Grooves marks 10th anniversary with festival and competition
Tongues and Grooves, a livewire poetry and music organisation based in the Portsmouth area, celebrates its 10th anniversary on Saturday 9 November with a festival that will include Queen’s Gold Med...
4th September 2013
How I Learned To Sing: Mark Robinson, Smokestack Books
Mark Robinson sees angels all over the north-east, far beyond the Antony Gormley landmark that greets the A1 traveller heading towards Newcastle. And ghosts, too. In How I Learned To Sing, a genero...
3rd September 2013
Let freedom ring: dreaming of Martin Luther King on the Southbank
A day that began with voices including Maya Angelou, Doreen Lawrence, and the Dalai Lama reading extracts from Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech on the BBC ended for those in London with...
2nd September 2013
Simon Armitage to judge Nantwich Words and Music competition
Simon Armitage will be judging the winner from a shortlist drawn up by a committee from Nantwich Words and Music festival poetry competition. The first prize is £100, and the deadline is 16 Septemb...
2nd September 2013
Seamus Heaney special at Puzzle Poets, Sowerby Bridge, Monday
To mark the passing of one of the world’s great poets of the past 50+ years, Puzzle Poets of Sowerby Bridge are holding a special evening to allow everyone to read their favourite Seamus Heaney poe...
2nd September 2013
Laura Taylor, Joy France and Jeffarama! at Diggers' festival
Laura Taylor, Joy France and Jeffarama! will be among the poets featured at the 3rd Wigan Diggers' festival at the Wiend area of Wigan on Saturday 7 September, celebrating the life and ideas of Wig...
1st September 2013
