A new poem, ‘Outlook’ by Canal Laureate Nancy Campbell, has now been realised in paint and can be found by the public waterways in West India Quay in London’s Docklands. The poem called ‘Outlook’ was commissioned by the Canal & River Trust to change perceptions about ‘bad’ weather and encourage people to visit the waterways […]
News
Poetry Society Member Theresa Lola announced as Young People’s Laureate for London
Poetry Society Member Theresa Lola is the new Young People’s Laureate for London and will champion young people’s mental health and wellbeing through poetry. At the ceremony in City Hall, Theresa said: “I hope to use this role to encourage young people to creatively engage in conversations about our wellbeing and mental health, to celebrate […]
Poetry Society Members on Saboteur Award shortlists
After over 4,000 people cast their nominations, the annual Saboteur Award shortlists are here. The four most nominated works in each category have made the shortlist. Public voting is open until 12 May at midnight and the results will be announced on 18 May. Plenty of Poetry Society Members on the lists: Luke Wright is […]
Leo Boix and Sarah Doyle on Keats-Shelley Prize shortlist
Congratulations to Poetry Society Members Leo Boix and Sarah Doyle, shortlisted for this year’s Keats-Shelley Prize for poetry, alongside Tammy Armstrong and Sarah Stewart. Former Foyle Young Poet Kristin Nelson has made the Essay shortlist alongside Joseph Begley and Cora MacGregor. The theme this year was ‘Wandering’ or ‘Fiery Dust’ – to mark the publication […]
Sharon Black wins Guernsey International Poetry Competition
The top three prizes in the Open Category in this year’s Guernsey International Poetry Competition have all gone to Poetry Society Members. First prize goes to ‘Passing It On’ by Sharon Black, second prize to Chris Hardy for ‘Jacob’, and third prize to Holly Hopkins for ‘When I Found Some Women With Bellies’. Judge Maura […]
Plough Prize Results
So much success for Poetry Society Members in this years Plough Prize, in both the Open and Short Poem sections. This year it was judged by Pascale Petit. Dena Fakhro was second in the Open Poetry Competition (won by Cynthia Miller, with Robbie Frazer third) for her poem ‘Courtship’, and Paul Stephenson was Highly Commended. […]
Jane Lovell wins Mslexia / PBS Women’s Poetry Competition
The winner of the PBS & Mslexia Women’s Poetry Pamphlet Prize is Poetry Society Member Jane Lovell‘s This Tilting Earth, hailed by judge Amy Wack of Seren Books as “…haunting and memorable… its concerns are both urgent and universal. It is also a thing of exceptional beauty.” Jane commented “‘I really wasn’t expecting to win […]
Martina Evans on shortlist for €10,000 Pigott Poetry Prize
Congratulations to Poetry Society Member Martina Evans, shortlisted for the 2019 Pigott Poetry Prize, the largest for a poetry collection by an Irish poet – €10,000. The three collections on the shortlist are Insistence by Ailbhe Darcy (Bloodaxe), Now We Can Talk Openly About Men by Martina Evans (Carcanet) and A Quarter of an Hour […]
Mark Totterdell wins Manning’s Pit Poetry Competition
Poetry Society Member Mark Totterdell, from Exeter, has won first prize in the Inaugural Manning’s Pit Poetry Competition. Second and third prizes went to fellow Poetry Society Members Frances Corkey Thompson and Mark Haworth-Booth, and Richard Westcott was one of the Commended poets. All the poems were judged by Julia Bird. The competition aimed to […]
Anthony Watts & Jenna Plewes on shortlist for Littoral Press Nature Poetry Collection Competition
Maia Dances by Poetry Society Member Anthony Watts and Holding the Light by fellow Member Jenna Plewes were shortlisted for the Littoral Press Nature Poetry Collection Competition, won by Mapping the Borders by Rose Flint. Natural Histories by Richard Whiting was the fourth collection on the shortlist. This is the second year that Littoral Press […]
Lucy Watt wins Shepton Mallet Snowdrop competition
David Morley has chosen Lucy Watt as the winner of the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival for her poem ‘City, sleet and snowdrops’. Among the winners are Poetry Society Members Estelle Price (who received a Special Mention), Angela Topping, Mark Totterdell and Jo Young – all Highly Commended, and Deborah Harvey, Rosie Jackson, Emma Simon and […]
John Foggin wins the Yaffle Prize
John Foggin is the winner of the inaugural Yaffle Prize with Poetry Society Member Paul Waring in second place for his poem ‘Melt’. Fellow Members Becky Cherriman and Natalie Scott are both Highly Commended and Barbara Hickson is among the Commended poets. Yaffle is a brand new independent publisher of poetry that aims to produce pamphlets […]
Colin Dardis on longlist for Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing 2019
Congratulations to Kathleen McCracken, the Winner of the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing 2019 for her poem ‘Chironomy’, and to Poetry Society Member Colin Dardis, who made the longlist. The Award is supported by The Arts Council of Northern Ireland and carries the endorsement of the Heaney Family. It offers immense recognition and opportunity […]
Inua Ellams wins Magma Poetry Competition
Poetry Society Member Inua Ellams is the winner of the Magma Poetry Competition 2018/19, as chosen by Andrew McMillan. Inua appears in the current issue of The Poetry Review and will be reading at the Poetry Cafe on 17 April as part of the launch celebrations (alongside Sophie Collins and Carolyn Jess-Cooke). Inua is also […]
Avril Joy wins York Literature Festival / YorkMix poetry competition
It’s a 1-2-3 in this year’s York Literature Festival / YorkMix poetry competition as all top-three places went to Poetry Society Members. Avril Joy‘s poem ‘Skomm’ has won the main prize – the title coming from an ancient Norse word for ‘shame’. Claire Shaw, the competition judge (who also judged this year’s Ted Hughes Award), […]
Foyle Young Poet and SLAMbassador Mukahang Limbu wins Out-Spoken Prize for Poetry
On 2 April 2019 the winners of the Out-Spoken Prize for Poetry 2019 were announced at the 100 Club, London, hosted by Joelle Taylor. There were three categories (Page, Performance and Film) and over 600 entries. Mukahang Limbu was the winner of the Page Poetry category, and the overall winner, going home with £800 for […]
Mark Pajak wins the Peggy Poole Award
Mark Pajak has won the Peggy Poole Award, a talent development scheme for poets based in the North West of England. Poet and editor Michael Symmons Roberts judged this year’s award and selected Mark from over 450 poets who entered the 2018 National Poetry Competition who live or work in the region. Following the recent […]
Wayne Holloway-Smith wins the National Poetry Competition for ‘The posh mums are boxing in the square’
The winner of the 2018 National Poetry Competition has been announced as Wayne Holloway-Smith, with his poem ‘The posh mums are boxing in the square’. The poem was chosen by judges Kim Moore, Kei Miller and Mark Waldron out of a bumper crop of over 14,000 poems. Holloway-Smith’s poem, which has earned him a 1st […]
Borderlines: young poets explore borders and boundaries
Borders – geographical, personal or psychological – are the subject of Borderlines, an exciting event at the University of East London (UEL) on Friday 29 March 2019. Hosted by the award-winning poet Joelle Taylor, Borderlines brings together writers aged 15-25 for a spoken word showcase exploring what divides us and what connects us. Performers include […]
Inua Ellams shortlisted for the Brunel International African Poetry Prize
Poetry Society Member Inua Ellams is among poets from five African nations who have been shortlisted for the seventh Brunel International African Poetry Prize. The £3000 prize is open to African poets worldwide who have not yet published a full poetry collection and the judges this year are Matthew Shenoda from Egypt, Leila Chatti from […]
Go Local on World Poetry Day
While poets and readers all over the globe celebrate poetry in a multiplicity of languages and voices, we’ve gone local. Hyper local. We’ve zoomed right in to the Monmouth and Brecon Canal, setting for a new filmpoem made by Chris Morris and based on a poem by Jonathan Edwards. Canal Song – newly uploaded to […]
“creativity is an ongoing battle with language”- a Q & A with Mark Ford
In advance of his reading at the ‘In Town Tonight’ event on Friday 22nd March at The Poetry Café with Phillis Levin, Ben Rogers at The Poetry Society spoke to the poet Mark Ford You lived in Kenya until the age of four and the process of writing the poem ‘After Africa’, about your move […]
“to create something when no one is looking” – a Q & A with Phillis Levin
In advance of her ‘In Town Tonight’ reading on Friday 22nd March at The Poetry Café with Mark Ford, Ben Rogers at The Poetry Society spoke to the American poet Phillis Levin Poet Kimiko Khan described The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English as “one of my desert-island […]
Jenny Mitchell and Carl Griffin win Geoff Stevens Prize
Congratulations! to Poetry Society Members Jenny Mitchell and Carl Griffin, winners of the 2018 Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize organised by Indigo Dreams Publishing. As a result of their joint win both Jenny and Carl will have new publications coming out later in the year. Jenny was recently Highly Commended in the Poems For Home […]
Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019 now open for entries
The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019 is now open for entries. This year, we’re delighted that award-winning poets Jackie Kay and Raymond Antrobus will be our judges. Raymond joined Birmingham’s Poet Laureate and former Foyle Young Poet Richard O’Brien at Harborne Academy, Birmingham, to launch this year’s competition and celebrate World Book […]
National Poetry Competition 40th anniversary: Q & A with Fran Lock
In advance of the National Poetry Competition’s 40th anniversary readings at Kings Place on 20th March, The Poetry Society speaks to one of the ten poets featuring at the event, Fran Lock who won third prize and was commended in the National Poetry Competition 2014 and 2015 respectively with poems ‘Epistle from inside the Sharknado’ […]
Teignmouth Poetry Festival shortlist
Plenty of Poetry Society Members (highlighted below) on the shortlist for the 2019 Teignmouth Poetry Festival. Winners to be announced Saturday 23 March. This year’s Festival is 21 to 24 March and includes Brian Patten, Kim Moore, Fiona Benson, Martin Figura and Gill McEvoy. Open Competition shortlist in alphabetical order – Judge John Greening Mark Cooper […]
Jane Wilkinson wins Against the Grain Poetry Press competition
Congratulations to the winners and commended entries in the Against the Grain Poetry Press competition – judged by Abegail Morley, Karen Dennison and Jessica Mookherjee (ATG editors). The winner is Poetry Society Member Jane Wilkinson and all three Commended Poets are Poetry Society Members too: Olga Dermott-Bond, Emma Lee and Jane Lovell. Winners First prize […]
Jane Lovell wins Terrain.org 9th Annual Poetry Contest
Judge Jane Hirshfield has chosen Poetry Society Member Jane Lovell as the winner of the Terrain.org 9th Annual Poetry Contest. Jane wins $500 and each finalist is awarded $100. “These poems stood out for me for their word-choices—“cockled,” “tines,” “syphon”; for their depth of knowledge; for their ability to acknowledge how much cannot be known; and […]
Jane Lovell and Jane Burn winners of Tree Poets : Shade of Fire Competition
Hedgehog Poetry Press are publishing six poets who won their Tree Poets competition, including Poetry Society Members Jane Lovell and Jane Burn. The winners, in no apparent order, are: Jane Lovell, Frank McHugh, Jane Burn, Kate Garrett, Elizabeth Gibson and Kay Channon. Their work will be published, split across two pamphlets: Tree Poets : Shades […]
Steve May wins Poems for Home competition in aid of Shelter
Poetry Society Member Steve May is the winner of an inaugural competition for original poetry on the theme of Home, judged by Michael Harrison and John Hegley. 100% of the entry fee went directly to Shelter. Across Scotland and England 6 million households are denied the right to a safe home, or threatened with losing […]
National Poetry Competition 40th anniversary: Q & A with Stephen Sexton
In advance of the National Poetry Competition’s 40th anniversary readings at Kings Place on 20th March, The Poetry Society speaks to one of the ten poets featuring at the event Stephen Sexton, who won the National Poetry Competition in 2016 with his poem ‘The Curfew’, which you can read here. What first encouraged you to […]
National Poetry Competition 40th anniversary: Q & A with Ian Duhig
In advance of the National Poetry Competition’s 40th anniversary readings at Kings Place on 20th March, The Poetry Society speaks to one of the ten poets featuring at the event Ian Duhig, who has incredibly won the National Poetry Competition twice. What first encouraged you to write poems? Poetry is highly-regarded in Ireland and I […]
Poetry Society Member Molly Underwood wins £10,000 Manchester Poetry Prize
Poetry Society Member Molly Underwood has won this year’s £10,000 Manchester Poetry Prize, awarded for a portfolio of poems. Molly said: “I’d like to express my gratitude towards everyone involved with the Manchester Poetry Prize: to Carol Ann Duffy, for establishing the award; to the Manchester Writing School, for the huge amount of work that […]
‘An Entertainment for W. S. Graham’ competition
The Poetry Society has two tickets to give away for its event ‘An Entertainment for W. S. Graham’ on 7pm, Friday 8th February marking the centenary of W. S. Graham, celebrating his life and legacy. The event will feature readings from editors of, and contributors to, a new anthology of poems inspired by Graham published […]
Samuel Prince wins Cafe Writers Competition
Daljit Nagra has chosen his winner for this year’s Café Writers Competition. “I loved judging this competition that gave me a portal into Britain and abroad. There were many well written and imaginative entries that showed a respect for the craft of verse while pushing at the boundaries of form to create fresh poetry. Well […]
Sarah Doyle wins WoLF Poetry Competition
Poetry Society Member Sarah Doyle is the winner of the WoLF poetry competition for her poem ‘On holding an ammonite’. The competition is run by Write Out Loud on behalf of Wolverhampton literature festival, which will take place over the weekend of 1-3 February. Fellow Society Members Jean Atkin and Michael Brown were second and […]
Tribute to Richard Copeland (1945-2018)
Richard ‘Dick’ Copeland, Poetry Society Member and North Herts Stanza Rep for the Letchworth-based Poetry ID, passed away on Christmas Day 2018. Friends and fellow poets pay tribute. “Dick was a mainstay of the group, attending every week if he could with his wife Ann, also an excellent poet, since they first joined over 18 […]
New Poetry Society podcast with sam sax and Joelle Taylor
“… It made me realize what you can write about and how you can use language to exert power on the world and your own life.” The Poetry Society has released a new podcast with US poet sam sax, hosted by Joelle Taylor. The podcast also features our eight SLAMbassadors from 2018, and was recorded […]
Foyle Young Poet Rebels on Radio 3
Foyle Young Poets Jade Cuttle and Aisha Mango Borja will both have their poems read by Natalie Simpson on 30 December 2018 as part of BBC Radio 3’s Words and Music programme. The programme will be available from 17.30 on 30 December here. This episode of Words and Music is titled Rebel, Rebel, marking the […]
Many poetry people on Twitter may not remember John Whitworth’s lengthy tenure as a kind of poet in residence at @PoetrySociety’s Poetry Review. But it was a great deal of fun and his passing away is to be noted. A sad day to hear of this. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Farewell to #JohnWhitworth, one of the brightest lights ever to appear in Light. (We will continue to pay tribute over the the coming weeks.) lightpoetrymagazine.com/john-whitworth… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Wordsworth's Composed Upon Westminster Bridge' from @GuardianBooks theguardian.com/books/2015/apr… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Great interview with @InuaEllams in yesterday’s @guardian review- lovely credit within to his #MPK brothers @rrobinson72 @jsamlarose @BlueBirdTail (nice to see the family doing well!) I can’t wait to see his play @KilnTheatre next month. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
My Poetry Review wrapper is now on the compost heap. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Always looking for a few good words to fit the occasion. Any other suggestions? #holidays #poetry @PoetryFound @PoetrySociety interestingliterature.com/2017/04/14/10-… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
@leahlarwood @PoetrySociety @LizSennitt @salopress @RialtoPoetry Great reading, Leah. As a fellow member of the Poetry Society, glad to see the Poetry Review tucked in there. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Just brought a small selection of light reading with me... yet instead of reading these delights or writing any new poems, I’ve decided to make daisy tea. Good for lingering coughs and also detoxifying 💪🏼 Least it’s a ‘healthy’ way to procrastinate? #waswriting #nowdistracted Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Spring Issue of Poetry Review has me gripped all the way to Edinburgh! Incandescent poems by younger poets and how wonderful that goddess Sharon Olds burns as brightly as ever. While I’ve been writing novels poetry seems to have exploded into variousness. Hurrah! Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Lord Byron's statue in Rome's Villa Borghese gardens, just behind @Keats_Shelley. As we have written before: are we alone in thinking the broken book in his left hand makes it look like Byron is brooding in the middle of his lunchtime sandwich? For @KSAAcomm. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Zaffar Kunial: ‘Muhammad Ali gave me his autograph in Moseley – I kept it in my Parka’ theguardian.com/books/2019/apr…
“Teaching has really taught me a lot about self care … I’m just not interested in any overly romanticised idea of poetry and pain and death, I’m not here to create that to be applauded.” @RaymondAntrobus chats w/ @no1_emily (on @PoetrySociety) bit.ly/2GklLpq Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Hey poetry pals! Only 10 tickets left now for a great night celebrating D/deaf and disabled poetry at the @PoetrySociety #poetrycafe on 4 May. We've got @RaymondAntrobus @abipalmer_bot & @a_tired_cliche. Oh and I'll be launching my debut collection too. eventbrite.co.uk/e/access-all-p… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Theresa Lola named young people's laureate for London theguardian.com/books/2019/apr… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
"Poetry is the most accessible that it’s ever been – with the click of a button you can share your work with almost everyone in the world." We've been speaking to #FoyleYoungPoet and @BhamCityCouncil #YoungPoetLaureate Aliyah Begum! Read on: bit.ly/brumlaureates Retweeted by The Poetry Society
#OnThisDay 19th April 1824. Lord Byron dies in Messolonghi, Greece. To this day, the name ‘Vyron’, the Greek form of ‘Byron’, is a popular boy’s name in Greece. A suburb of Athens is called Vyronas in his honour. Painting by Joseph-Denis Odevaere. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
‘Seferis’ extraordinary gift occupies … the realm of the marvellous real.’ Delighted to hear G. Seferis' 'Complete Poems' from our Classics series so favourably discussed @PoetrySociety! poetrysociety.org.uk/review-blood-a… Find the great Greek poet's work: carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexe… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Had the best time at the Poetry Review launch on Wed night reading w/ @InuaEllams and @hatefuldaughter. Thanks @PoetrySociety for being fab Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Listening to @WakelingKate weave between her equally brilliant adults’ and children’s poems while lying on a fluffalicious raspberry ripple rug under a giant balloon was a delight @PoetrySociety @NOWGallery Retweeted by The Poetry Society