Write Out Loud is a website run and maintained by volunteers - and keeping on top of everything that needs doing can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. We’ve always been very proud of our Gig Guide and the service it offers, but we’ve also been increasingly aware that while we’ve been busy with other projects (like the Milestones poetry competition) it had slipped away from the high standards we – and you – expect from it.

Poetry nights move venues, or shift to a different date in the calendar. Sometimes the contact details change, and – sometimes – they die away. All of this means that some of the entries on our guide were no longer up to date.

Over the past month, a small but dedicated team has emailed each and every event in the listings, deleting those we were unable to contact, or who got back to us to say their night no longer ran. The resulting list may be a little shorter, but it will also be a lot more accurate. That’s good news for everyone, be they poets looking for somewhere to read, or poetry gig organisers publicising their events.

Now this first step in revamping the Gig Guide is complete, it seems an appropriate time to remind you that adding your gig to the guide is both easy to do and completely free. Yes, Facebook events enable you to invite your circle of friends, but the Gig Guide puts your event in front of the people you don’t already know, people who are looking for somewhere to listen to your poetry, or read their own. So it makes sense to do both.

Adding your event takes just a couple of minutes of your time, and if you’ve a regular night, you only need to add the details once for it to appear on our calendar throughout the year. It will also show up on our Gig Guide map, which offers people another way to find events local to them (or anywhere in the country that takes their fancy).

If your local poetry night isn’t on our listings, by the way, please mention it to the organisers. It may be that they don’t know about the Gig Guide, or don’t realise how easy it is to use it. Poetry is currently enjoying its 15 minutes – or maybe longer - in the spotlight, and the more events that promote themselves on the Gig Guide, the better a resource it is for us all. That has to be a good way of bringing more people to poetry.

And that, after all, is what Write Out Loud is all about.