Write Out Loud Stockport's open mic away day - in Marple
I love chaos theory: a writer flaps her pen in Stockport and a pub hosts an open mic night in nearby Marple. You might suspect that I’m being a tad specific here, so let me explain: in the summer of 2016, six artists held an exhibition at Stockport art gallery celebrating 50 years of friendship and paint. They asked Stockport Write Out Loud members to work with them. We hosted a couple of successf...
29th September 2017
London's Poetry Book Fair on Saturday
Free Verse, organisers of the Poetry Book Fair in London, have unveiled their programme for this year’s fair - described as “an all-day bazaar, market, library, meeting place, performance venue, information resource and more” – on Saturday 30 September.
Big and small-scale publishers, experimenta...
29th September 2017
Sinéad Morrissey wins £10,000 Forward prize
Sinéad Morrissey has won the 2017 Forward prize worth £10,000 with her collection On Balance. The chair of the Forward judges, TV presenter and journalist Andrew Marr, described her poems as “beautifu...
29th September 2017
Hold on to your hat, Sir John! It's National Poetry Day
Poets reading around the statue of Sir John Betjeman at St Pancras station in London, others accosting bus passengers in Wakefield, a big BBC poetry festival getting under way in Hull, poster poems un...
28th September 2017
Sign up for a poetry slam on the Isle of Man
Roll up, roll up for a literary festival’s open mic poetry slam this week – the only snag is that it is on the Isle of Man. But if you happen to be in the vicinity, the venue is Noa Bakehouse, in Fort...
26th September 2017
Gerry Sweeney's Mammy: Dónall Dempsey, D&W
This poetry collection deals, among other things, with the author’s childhood in Ireland, the deaths of siblings and older relations and his fascination with words and reading. It contains numerous re...
26th September 2017
'For years we struggled to break free of the closeness of rooms'
Last week we published a poem from Jill Bialosky's new book from Knopf, The Players, and if you didn't see it you can find it on our website. The poet is a New Yorker, an editor at WW Norton, and a da...
25th September 2017
Poetry and spoken word take centre stage at this year's Wakefield Lit Fest
Linton Kwesi Johnson, John Hegley, and Kate Fox are three big poetry names that will be at Wakefield Lit Fest - otherwise known this year as Talking Loud and Saying Summat!
There is a much greater...
24th September 2017
'At the sink' by Colin Hill is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud poem of the Week is ‘at the sink’ by Colin Hill. The poem is based on an image from the 2009 British film ‘Fish Tank’ – and in the Q&As below Colin explains that he uses picture...
24th September 2017
We're sorry about the access problems on Friday
We’re sorry that many regular users of Write Out Loud experienced frustrating difficulties in accessing this website on Friday 22 September. It was frustrating for us, too! We hope all the technical p...
24th September 2017
Milestones poetry competition anthology: order early to get a discount!
Following on from the success of this summer’s Milestones poetry competition, judged by legendary Liverpool poet Brian Patten, Write Out Loud are busy compiling an anthology which will showcase the be...
23rd September 2017
No sweat, it's cool: verdict on new-look Poetry Cafe as pamphlets are launched
This is a picture of a happy audience in the new-look basement of the Poetry Café on Saturday night. There’s no doubt that the old downstairs at the Poetry Cafe in London had a ragamuffin identity – a...
23rd September 2017
TLS relaunches £3,000 competition as Mick Imlah poetry prize
The Times Literary Supplement is bringing back its poetry competition, which ran annually from 1996 to 2003, and again in 2007 and 2008. It will be named after Mick Imlah, pictured, poetry editor of t...
21st September 2017
Chair of Forward prize judges lists leading London poetry venues
The chair of the Forward prize judges, TV and radio presenter Andrew Marr, has mentioned some of London’s leading poetry venues in an article for the London Evening Standard – even if his geography i...
21st September 2017
Is it still fun at the fair? Write Out Loud at Marsden library tonight
The theme at Marsden Write Out Loud on Wednesday 20 September is “childhood”. Do you feel like you're still on the carousel? Does the candyfloss still taste the same? At Marsden library you’re free to...
20th September 2017
Write Out Loud Sale at the Waterside tonight
Char March and Jane Kite are the guest poets at Write Out Loud Sale on Tuesday 19 September at the Waterside arts centre, Sale. Entry is £3/£2 to this open mic poetry event, which begins at 7.30pm. Mo...
19th September 2017
A happy return: Rhythm & Muse flies flag again to mark 10th anniversary
A popular poetry and music night unfurled its banner again on Tuesday to mark the 10th anniversary of its launch. Rhythm & Muse began at The Lion pub in Teddington, south-west London, before moving to...
19th September 2017
'All day we packed boxes. We read birth and death certificates'
Jill Bialosky is a New Yorker, an editor at WW Norton, and a daughter grieving the loss of loved ones. It's unusual for us to print two poems by one poet, in sequence, but this one and the one I selec...
19th September 2017
Write Out Loud Woking at the New Inn tonight
It’s free, open mic poetry at the New Inn at Send near Woking on Monday 18 September when Write Out Loud Woking returns with comperes Greg Freeman and Rodney Wood. Beginners and debutants always very ...
18th September 2017
Return of poetry sleuth: Ira Lightman reveals plagiarism by Canadian poet
Ira Lightman, famed for tracking down poetry plagiarism, has lifted the lid on another high-profile case. In a long article in the Guardian’s weekend magazine about Lightman, pictured, and the contro...
17th September 2017
Write Out Loud at Bolton Socialist Club tonight
Bolton Write Out Loud will be meeting at Bolton Socialist Club on Sunday 17 September for open mic poetry with hosts Jeffarama! and Gordon Zola. Entry is £1 plus raffle, 7.30pm for 8pm start. More det...
17th September 2017
'Unpopular Music' by Robert C Gaulke is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The New Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Unpopular Music’ by Robert C Gaulke, who describes himself on his Write Out Loud profile as a high school teacher and songwriter living in the Bronx, New Yo...
17th September 2017
Kitty Coles and Rodney Wood to launch collections tonight
Kitty Coles will be launching her pamphlet collection Seal Wife at the Poetry Cafe in London on Saturday 16 September. She was one of two winners of the 2016 Indigo Dreams pamphlet prize. Kitty is a r...
16th September 2017
John Baylis Post's 'Track' wins Write Out Loud's Milestones competition
The £500 Milestones competition run by Write Out Loud on behalf of the Milestone Society has been won by John Baylis Post with his poem ‘Track’. The winning poem was described thus by the competition ...
16th September 2017
Find out more about the Milestones winners - and their poems
Milestones poetry competition winner John Baylis Post’s poems have been published in Ireland, England, France, and Italy, and he was judged Canterbury Poet of the Year 2014. He now helps to run Hungr...
14th September 2017
Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts tonight
Roll up, roll up for another night of mind-expanding, free-ranging open mic poetry at Write Out Loud Wigan at the Old Courts in Wigan on Thursday 14 September. There’s no entry fee, and it starts at 8...
14th September 2017
Littoral Press competition to publish nature, spiritual or environmental poems
The Littoral Press is holding a twice-yearly competition for a full collection of nature/spiritual/environmental poetry. The winning poet will receive 50 copies of his collection free of charge. The e...
12th September 2017
Leading American poet John Ashbery dies aged 90
The American poet John Ashbery has died at the age of 90. His husband, David Kermani, said the poet died early on Sunday at home in Hudson, New York, of natural causes.
His 1975 collection Self-Por...
12th September 2017
'Her beaming face, sunflower-broad, was filled with this thrill'
I've lived in the country for thirty years and during that time my wife and I have hit four deer. All of them leapt away over the nearest fence, unharmed, leaving our cars with hundreds of dollars' wo...
12th September 2017
Write Out Loud at Stockport art gallery tonight
Members of Write Out Loud Stockport will be meeting to share poems on Monday 11 September at Stockport art gallery. Every month a collage poem is produced from members' contributions and you can read ...
11th September 2017
'Behind the shadows' by Stuart Buck is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud poem of the Week is ‘behind the shadows’ by Stuart Buck. Stuart is a former chef. His debut collection, Casually Discussing the Infinite, was reviewed by Laura Taylor on Write O...
10th September 2017
Tony Walsh to perform 'This is The Place' at reopening of Manchester Arena
Tony Walsh, whose poem 'This is The Place' rallied the city of Manchester and won worldwide admiration in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bomb attack in May, will be taking part in a special ben...
7th September 2017
Poet to launch collection inspired by testimonies of atomic bomb survivors
A poetry collection which has at its heart poems inspired by the testimonies of Japan’s dwindling band of atomic bomb survivors is being launched in Coventry. Antony Owen was born in blitz-hit Coventr...
5th September 2017
'The flowers ... will blaze one last time and go out'
We've published several poems from The University of Minnesota Press's collection of bee poems, If Bees Are Few. Here's one about the recent decline in the world's bee population by the distinguished ...
3rd September 2017
'Transient Beauty' by Adrian Metcalf is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week
The new Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is 'Transient Beauty' by Adrian Metcalf. Adrian says he suffers from severe anxiety and composes poetry "to release my emotions"; writing it "helps me sleep m...
3rd September 2017
Call for poems to display in shop windows at Marsden jazz festival
Could you write a short poem to delight the thousands of visitors to the Marsden jazz festival? Marsden the Poetry Village is inviting submissions of original poems to be displayed on A3 posters in sh...
1st September 2017
