Radical poetry publisher Andy Croft to close Smokestack Books
The radical poetry publisher Smokestack Books is closing at the end of the year, its editor, Andy Croft, has revealed, in a letter to the poetry magazine PN Review, in which he criticises the “uncomradely, uncongenial and frankly embarrassing world of contemporary British poetry”. In his letter Croft says: “The backlist will still be available to order, but Smokestack will no longer be publishing ...
28th September 2024
Question: 'What do you think of it so far?' Answer: 'Absolutely amazing!'
It’s 1.45 in the morning and the first day of the 2024 Morecambe poetry festival is drawing to a close. The last poet standing has just been awarded £100 prize money and a bottle of wine.
The opening day kicked off around 4pm at the Kings Arms, a pub which looks out across the spectacular Morecam...
28th September 2024
Strange Husbandry: Lorcán Black, Seren
Lorcán Black, an Irish poet now living in London, is a Pushcart prize and Best of the Net nominee, and has been longlisted and shortlisted for the Two Sylvias prize and the Paris literary prize respec...
19th September 2024
Restoring wildlife habitats to honour John Clare
A group of volunteers aims to honour the 19th century nature poet John Clare with a project to reclaim habitats and open up corridors of land to encourage wildlife. Clare grew up in Helpston, Cambridg...
19th September 2024
Coastline poet and artists portray a county’s heartland
Amble, for those that don’t know it, is a small town on Northumberland’s North Sea coast. There are parts of it that have seen better days. But there are other parts, including some colourful flats by...
17th September 2024
Festival that welcomes grassroots poets: Morecambe is back!
A poetry festival that includes headline names but also welcomes grassroots poets with open arms returns to the north-west this week. Pam Ayres is topping the bill at Morecambe poetry festival, from 1...
17th September 2024
Quick on the floor for Durham’s open-mic poets
You could be forgiven for mistaking the Waddington Street Centre in Durham for just another terrace house at first glance, were it not for the Poetry Jam notice on the front door. Inside, the daytime ...
8th September 2024
Italian Air / Radiant Days: Neil Leadbeater, Cyberwit.Net
This collection of snapshots from Neil Leadbeater is as clean-cut as the jewels that inspire ‘Diversion’, the fourth of its five sections. His perceptions alive to the details that assemble the world ...
8th September 2024
Deadline nears for £2,000 Troubadour poetry prize
The 23 September deadline is nearing for entries to the £2,000 Troubadour international poetry prize, run by Coffee-House Poetry. The judges are Jane Yeh and Glyn Maxwell. More details
7th September 2024
Prize-winner Trystan Lewis is guest at Write Out Loud Bolton
Winner of this year’s Plough poetry competition, Trystan Lewis, will be the guest poet at Write Out Loud Bolton on Sunday 8 September at a rearranged venue - see Dave Morgan's comment below. Doors ope...
4th September 2024
