Arts and literary centre dedicated to Seamus Heaney opens in Northern Ireland village
The site of a former RUC police station in Northern Ireland has opened on Friday 30 September as the Seamus Heaney HomePlace, an arts and literary centre exploring the life, literature and inspirations of the Nobel prize-winning poet. He died on 30 August 2013 and is buried in the nearby graveyard.
The centre in the village of Bellaghy includes a permanent exhibition documenting Heaney’s life a...
30th September 2016
Spoken word poets Hollie McNish, Matt Abbott and Sugar J Poet film ads for Nationwide
A new advertising campaign by Nationwide Building Society has featured leading spoken word poet Hollie McNish in its first film, which was broadcast during The X Factor on Saturday night.
The Nationwide campaign is said to celebrate the voices and stories of ordinary people with messages written ...
30th September 2016
Poetry to the fore at Southbank's young adult literature weekend
Performance poet Lionheart will be hosting Young Adult Literature Weekend on 15-16 October at the Southbank Centre in London – the final weekend of the London Literature Festival. Poetry events during...
29th September 2016
Stablemates Trevien, Sutherland and Newman to launch readings series
Claire Trevien, pictured, Ross Sutherland, and Charlotte Newman, who are all published by Penned in the Margins, will be reading at Waterstones in Piccadilly on Thursday 29 September in the first of a...
29th September 2016
Affectionate, comical, angry, proud: Birmingham poets tell of their city
Those of us who enjoy poetry and spoken word know how the words of a single poet can touch our emotions, make us laugh, put a lump in our throat, or see our everyday surroundings in a different light....
28th September 2016
Four portions of everything on the menu for M'sieur Monet!: Penelope Shuttle, Indigo Dreams
Penelope Shuttle’s first collection, The Orchard Upstairs, was published in 1980 by Oxford Paperbacks. Many collections have followed, along with five novels and the non-fiction books she co-authored ...
26th September 2016
'She dances through this two-year window'
Nick Norwood's most recent book is Gravel and Hawk, published by Ohio University Press. This poem has sorrow at the top and happiness at the bottom, which means there's a lot of living in between. It'...
26th September 2016
Vahni Capildeo's 'Measures of Expatriation' wins £15,000 Forward prize
Trinidad-born Vahni Capildeo has won the £15,000 Forward prize with her collection of poetry and prose-poems Measures of Expatriation, published by Carcanet. Capildeo has lived in the UK since 1991, w...
26th September 2016
'The black and the white' by Martin Elder is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘The black and the white’ by Martin Elder, a recollection of the wintry shades of yesteryear – “Everywhere marked with a ring of soot, smoke and steam.” Not so m...
25th September 2016
We say farewell and thanks to Eileen and Shirley-Anne as Write Out Loud Middleton takes a break
There will be no Write Out Loud Middleton at the Ring O’ Bells pub in Middleton on Sunday 25 September. The open mic poetry night is taking a break while a new compere or comperes are found. Thanks to...
24th September 2016
'I Will Not Drink in Wetherspoon's' by Andy Humphrey is Poem of the Week
‘I will not Drink in Wetherspoon’s’ by Andy Humphrey, a post-referendum poem written in the style of Dr Seuss, is the new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week. Andy is compere at The Speakers Corner in Yor...
21st September 2016
Wenlock takes a breather with no poetry festival next year
There will be no Wenlock poetry festival in 2017, its organisers have announced, saying they need “time to plan the development of a revised, professional working structure and to create a more robust...
21st September 2016
Education, education, education at Write Out Loud Marsden tonight
Education and learning are the themes of this month’s Write Out loud Marsden at Marsden library on Wednesday 21 September at 7.30pm. Quoting Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’, and ...
21st September 2016
Anthology of poems backing Jeremy Corbyn to be launched
Ten poets among the 50 who have contributed to an anthology in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will read from the collection at a launch in London next month. Poems for Jeremy Corbyn, edited by...
21st September 2016
Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight
Dave Hartley is guest poet at Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside arts centre, Sale on Tuesday 20 September. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic night, which starts at 7.30pm. “Your journey to poetry” is...
20th September 2016
Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club tonight
Write Out Loud Bolton will be meeting at Bolton Socialist Club on Tuesday 20 September for another open mic poetry night, hosted by Gordon Zola and Jeffarama! Entry is £1 plus raffle, and it starts at...
20th September 2016
'The long, low waves of plains that dissolved time'
Here's a poem by Debra Nystrom about what it feels like to be a schoolgirl in rural America. No loud laughter echoing in the shopping mall for these young women. The poet lives in Virginia and this is...
20th September 2016
PJ Harvey joins the Southbank bill on National Poetry Day
Singer-songwriter and poet PJ Harvey will be appearing at the Southbank Centre on National Poetry Day, 6 October. Harvey, who performed her The Hollow of the Hand collaboration with Seamus Murphy at t...
20th September 2016
Countdown to night marking 25 years of the Forward prizes
The countdown has started for the 25th Forward prize-giving ceremony, on Tuesday 20 September at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank. Five poets are vying for the top £15,000 Forward prize f...
19th September 2016
Deadline nears for £5,000 Resurgence poetry prize
Jo Shapcott will be judging the £5,000 Resurgence prize for eco-poetry. The deadline is 1 October. More details
18th September 2016
'Instapoet' Rupi Kaur's collection sells half a million copies
A poet has sold more than 500,000 copies of a book of poetry that she first self-published in 2014. Toronto-based Rupi Kaur, who posts much of her poetry on Instagram, is top of Amazon US’s poetry boo...
17th September 2016
Talks, readings, book-buying ... then on to the pub!
There will be more than 80 publishers at this year’s Free Verse: Poetry Book Fair at London’s Conway Hall on Saturday 17 September from 10am- 4.30pm. Entry is free to the fair, which is described as “...
15th September 2016
It's a fair cop: bookshop files poetry with whodunnits
Could this be a reference to poetry’s recent plagiarism scandals? Spotted on a section in the award-winning bookshop Dulwich Books in West Dulwich, south-east London, the joint heading: “Crime / Poetr...
15th September 2016
Malika Booker to judge Leeds Peace poetry competition on theme of refugees
Malika Booker will the chief judge of this Year’s Leeds Peace poetry competition, on the theme of refugees. There are three categories – primary school, secondary school, and adult – and entries shoul...
14th September 2016
Chalking up a tribute: South Downs anthology to be launched at Winchester poetry festival
Seven poets will be reading from an anthology of poetry inspired by the chalk landscape of the South Downs on the opening night of Winchester poetry festival (October 7-9) next month. Winchester is a ...
14th September 2016
Sharon Olds wins $100,000 lifetime achievement award
The Pulitzer prize-winning poet Sharon Olds has won the Academy of American Poets $100,000 (£75,000) lifetime achievement award. Olds was given the Wallace Stevens award for "proven mastery in the art...
14th September 2016
Hannah Silva to judge £500 Verve competition for Birmingham poems
Hannah Silva, pictured, will be judging the adult section of the £500 Verve poetry competition, for poems about Birmingham. The children’s section will be judged by Emma Press publisher Emma Wright. T...
13th September 2016
Poems from the unexpected: poets to pop up during Stratford-upon-Avon festival
Stratford-upon-Avon poetry festival has invited 10 poets to be poets-in-residence across the town; at Shakespeare family homes, in a nail bar, rail station, on a canal boat, a hotel and church cottage...
13th September 2016
Poets take fresh look at Auden's 'Night Mail' on BBC2's poetry Saturday
BBC2 has unveiled plans for Saturday-night poetry, as part of wider arts and culture plans for the channel at the weekend. The plans include a poetry night on 1 October, ahead of National Poetry Day, ...
12th September 2016
'He still waves the flopping spring of his crop, still stares through dimming goggles'
I'd guess that many of us like old toys. As a boy I had a wind-up tin submarine that dove and surfaced, and a few years ago I saw one just like it in the window of an antique store, making me, of cour...
12th September 2016
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting at Stockport art gallery on Monday 12 September to share their poems at this open-floor poetry night. Each month a collage poem is produced from the...
12th September 2016
Judy Brown at More Poetry in London tonight
Judy Brown will be reading at the long-running More Poetry, hosted by Ken Champion and Juli Jana, at the Coffee Shop in Leyden Street, near London’s Liverpool Street station, on Monday 12 September. J...
12th September 2016
'The plight of the true Snow White' by Alexandra Parapadakis is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
‘The plight of the true Snow White’ by Alexandra Parapadakis, a poem that questions and upends assumptions behind the traditional and Disneyfied fairy tale, is the new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week....
11th September 2016
'Growing Up' by Eva Curless is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Growing up’ by Eva Curless. Eva, a student at Leeds University, is from Wigan and reads at Write Out Loud Wigan at The Old Courts when she is home from univ...
10th September 2016
Celebrating 10 years of Write Out Loud Wigan: organiser John Togher looks back
Write Out Loud Wigan celebrated its 10th birthday tonight, with a special night planned to mark the occasion at The Old Courts venue on Thursday 8 September. Its history stretches back to a first open...
8th September 2016
'Bellows and heckles ... did I mention the punch-ups?': Laura Taylor recalls wild north-west
So – ten whole years of Write Out Loud nights in Wigan? That’s got to be worth celebrating! Ten whole years of rhythm and rhyme, of odes and epics, smiles and tears, of bellows and heckles, of a poet...
7th September 2016
Spotlight on women in forefront of political poetry about Turkey and Syria
A feature in the Observer has turned the spotlight on two female poets that it says are at the forefront of a blossoming of poetry as a result of the strife in Turkey and Syria. Kurdish poet Bejan Mat...
6th September 2016
Page and performance poets team up for anniversary anthology
An anthology featuring page and performance poets including Andrew McMillan, Helen Mort, Lemn Sissay, Hollie McNish, Buddy Wakefield, Luke Wright, Kate Fox and Salena Godden is being launched later th...
6th September 2016
Windfall for runners-up in poetry competition after winner is disqualified
Runners-up in a poetry competition have received an unexpected windfall of £50 each after the first prize winner was disqualified. The £500 first prize in Ambit magazine’s poetry competition was withd...
6th September 2016
Deadline nears for £1,000 Live Canon competition
Lorraine Mariner will be judging the £1,000 Live Canon poetry competition. Twenty-five shortlisted poems will be published in a prize anthology, and performed by the Live Canon Ensemble at a prizegivi...
6th September 2016
Animal People: Carol Rumens, Seren
The cover of Animal People says “the key to the collection is the sequence ‘On the Spectrum’, which explores what it is to be ‘on the autistic spectrum’…”. This sequence is intended by the poet to be ...
6th September 2016
'Come winter they have a way of disappearing, disguised as dirty light'
Stuart Dybek was born in Chicago, where there are at least a couple of hundred hotels a poet might stroll past, looking up at the windows. Here's a poem from his book, Streets in Their Own Ink, from F...
5th September 2016
Jackie Hagan at Puzzle Poets in Sowerby Bridge tonight
Poet, playwright and stand-up comic Jackie Hagan, who describes herself as “a one-legged cosmic scally who downs champagne from her glittery false leg”, is appearing at Puzzle Poets at the Blind Pig i...
5th September 2016
Deadline nears on mentoring scheme to select, help and publish three poets
The deadline is 4 September in the search to select three poets who will be published together in Primers Volume 2, a book showcasing short debut collections of work. The mentoring scheme, involving J...
1st September 2016
