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 it. 4,750 people […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“… 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 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 […]
The Poetry Society has released a short film of Joseph Coelho’s new poem ‘Look Into My Lights’, commissioned as part of the Look North More Often programme. The short film, created by Hamlett Films, follows three pupils from St Clement Danes Primary School on the day of the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree lighting up ceremony, […]
Turn off the TV, unpeel yourself a satsuma and settle down with the latest copies of The Poetry Review and Poetry News, which will either have safely landed on your doormat, or are speeding the last few miles to you through the post. The latest issue of The Poetry Review includes new poems by Fleur […]
Magma have been running a pamphlet competition to celebrate their 25th birthday and the winner is Alice Willitts for Dear, which will be published next spring. Lisa Kelly: (Dear) received unanimous support from the Magma judges. Every one of us liked it for its imagination, the way it takes interesting risks and the effective use […]
The winners of the 2019 Verve Poetry Festival competition, on the theme of ‘community’, have been chosen by judge Joelle Taylor. The three winning poets will appear at the festival and will read alongside the 21 other commended poets and 6 others who have been commissioned for the anthology by Verve. First place goes to […]
On 18 November 2018 we celebrated another year of SLAMbassadors at King’s Place, London. Eight young poets took part in a writing and performance masterclass led by Joelle Taylor across the weekend of 17-18 November. They then performed brilliant new work created in the masterclasses at Sunday’s Showcase. Big up this year’s SLAMbassadors Aaisha Alfathi, […]
On 10 December Tally Koren and Lord Eames hosted a reception in the River Room of the House of Lords to celebrate the winners of a poetry competition for UK schools on the theme of peace. The event, called ‘Visions of Hope’, included short talks by The Poetry Society’s Director, Judith Palmer; poet Pete Brown; […]
Poetry Society Member Sarah Barr is the winner of this year’s National Memory Day poetry competition for her poem ‘Fog’, and there was further success for fellow member Kathy Miles who was third for ‘Brock’. Poetry Society Member Tony Ward won first prize ‘What Will Survive of Us’ in the Best Poem by a Primary […]
This year marks ten years of Look North More Often, a collaborative Christmas poetry programme. Since 2009, The Poetry Society has commissioned a new poem by a children’s writer to celebrate the friendship between Oslo and London, as symbolised by the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree. Joseph Coelho wrote this year’s poem, taking inspiration from London […]
Poetry Society Members Zillah Bowes and Molly Underwood are on a five-strong shortlist in the £10,000 Manchester Poetry Prize that also includes Katie Hale, Libby Hart and Maggie Millner. Zillah is a writer and filmmaker. She has won the Wordsworth Trust Prize and Poems on the Buses Competition, and was shortlisted for the Wasafiri New […]
Poetry Society Member Jay Whittaker, from Edinburgh, is this year’s winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year for her first full-length poetry collection Wristwatch (Cinnamon Press). Jay: “It was a huge honour – and very exciting – when Wristwatch was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year […]
Congratulations to the four poets on the shortlist for the 2018 Costa Poetry Award. Us by Zaffar Kunial (Faber & Faber) Assurances by J. O. Morgan (Jonathan Cape) Soho by Richard Scott (Faber & Faber) Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan (Faber & Faber) In 2011, Zaffar Kunial won third prize in the National Poetry Competition […]
The shortlist for the 2018 The Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets has been announced and includes Poetry Society Member Gina Wilson for ‘It Was and It Wasn’t’ (Mariscat Press). Congratulations to Gina and her fellow poets on the shortlist: Liz Berry, Ian Parks, Rakshan Rizwan and Carol Rumens. Gina’s first poetry pamphlet, Scissors, Paper, […]
Congratulations to Poetry Society Member Pippa Little who has won this year’s Carers UK poetry competition, judged by Cheryl Moskowitz. Cheryl says of Pippa’s winning poem ‘Inside with English Breakfast’: (it) invites us to view the world through the window of a café and conjures a scene so real you can almost taste it with […]
Mab Jones has picked Poetry Society Member Luke Palmer as winner of this year’s Prole Pamphlet Competition for Spring in the Hospital, which is available to purchase now from Prole. Fellow Member Scott Elder was Commended for My Hotel. A second Commendation went to Paul Jeffcutt for True. Mab on Spring in the Hospital After […]
The top three places in this year’s Battered Moons Poetry Competition have been taken by Poetry Society Members with Julia Webb winning for her poem ‘We is in the bank’, with all bar one of the Commended poets being Society Members too. The competition was judged by Jacob Sam La-Rose and Cristina Navazo-Eguía Newton with […]
On Saturday 27 October four Foyle Young Poets caught the train to Cambridge for the Race & Poetry & Poetics conference Legacies of Colonialism, accompanied by Education Co-ordinator and Foyle Young Poet Helen Bowell, and poet Cheryl Moskowitz. As part of this year’s 20th anniversary celebrations of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, […]
On Saturday 10 November the brilliant poet and educator Colin Watts visited South Shore Academy in Blackpool. The school entered students’ poems into the Young Poets Network challenge with End Hunger UK and won a prize draw to receive a free poet visit. Colin delivered workshops as part of the school’s weekly ‘Shine at South […]
Poetry Society Member John Freeman is this year’s £5,000 winner of the Bridport Poetry Prize for his poem ‘Exhibition’, judged by Daljit Nagra. John was winner of Wales Book of the Year (poetry) 2017 for What Possessed Me (Worple), and National Poetry Competition 3rd prize winner in 2013. Fellow Society Members Vanessa Lampert and Sam […]
Left to Right: Anita Pati, Nina Mingya Powles, Claire Collison Congratulations to Poetry Society Members Claire Collison and Anita Pati who, along with Nina Mingya Powles, are the winners of the first-ever Women Poets’ Prize – launched this year by the Rebecca Swift Foundation in memory of Rebecca, founder of the Literary Consultancy, an editorial […]
The Poetry Society in partnership with the Keats Foundation and Keats House celebrated the birth of poet John Keats today with a service in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. In an annual event, fans of John Keats gathered at the Abbey to read a selection of his poems and lay a wreath by the […]
The Poetry Society’s partnership with the Canal & River Trust has been busying up the waterways this month. We have a newly commissioned poem from canal boat dweller and National Poetry Competition-commended poet Joseph Butler; and our Canal Laureate Nancy Campbell was resident at Oxford Canal Festival to create a crowd sourced poem with festival […]
We are delighted to announce the line-up for the SLAMbassadors Showcase 2018. On Sunday 18 November at King’s Place, London, we will be celebrating the next generation of spoken word artists, hand-picked by Joelle Taylor, as well as 17 years of SLAMbassadors. Eight new artists will work with Joelle Taylor over a weekend of Masterclasses, […]
Ten brilliant young poets are adding their voices, and their poems, to the Poetry Archive as part of a 20th anniversary celebration of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award. This will ensure preservation of their work and place in poetry history. The recording took place on Tuesday October 23rd at The Soundhouse, a […]
Congratulations to all the poets shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2018. The shortlist includes debuts by Zaffar Kunial, Fiona Moore, Phoebe Power, Richard Scott and Hannah Sullivan, alongside collections by Ailbhe Darcy, Nick Laird and Sean O’Brien, and American poets Terrance Hayes and Tracy K Smith. The Poetry Society is proud of its associations […]
We are pleased to announce the young poets and young critic who have won the fifth annual Timothy Corsellis Prize, on the anniversary Corsellis’s death. The Timothy Corsellis Prize was set up in memory of the young poet Timothy Corsellis, both as a memorial and an encouragement to others to explore the often overlooked field of […]
The Poetry Society nominated the reclining mulberry tree at Keats House in the Woodland Trust’s annual Tree of the Year contest, marking 200 years since Keats first met the tree in 1818. The poet John Keats wrote many of his most famous poems in the garden at 10 Keats Grove, where he lived from 1818-1820 […]
“We arrived in a world where so many of the magical papers (bearing poems) survived. And even now we can leach their magic through our eyes.” – from ‘A map is a picture that shows where things are’ by Emily Bludworth de Barrios, The Poetry Review, Autumn 2018 “Magical papers (bearing poems)” neatly describes […]
We’re proud to announce that Richard Westcott of the North Devon Stanza is the winner of this year’s Stanza Competition for his poem ‘A Traditional Cure’. Penelope Shuttle said of Richard’s poem ‘There’s not a wasted word. The poem is direct, unambiguous, shocking.’ We received 384 poems on the theme of TRADITION from 232 poets […]
Happy National Poetry Day 2018! National Poetry Day is a big annual celebration of poetry across the UK, this year on the theme of ‘Change’. To mark the occasion, The Poetry Society is today delivering a pair of showpiece live events at the Southbank Centre. First up is Schools National Poetry Day Live at the […]
Equinox passes. Penury confronts Mammon. Free-range turkeys fret. – Geoff Lander ‘Change’ is the theme of National Poetry Day and Greenwich Stanza is just one of many Poetry Society Stanzas reading, writing, performing and sharing poetry to make a difference on 4 October 2018. Greenwich Stanza members, including Geoff Lander (above), wrote and exchanged haikus […]
Happy days! Found a couple of my old rejections from Maurice Riordan. I wouldn't want rejecting by anybody else @PoetrySociety Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Read an interview with poet @YvonneReddick @HonestUlsterman bit.ly/ReddickHU See Yvonne and @DerynRJ at Peggy Poole Award readings, 13th March @theBluecoat Liverpool. Book now bit.ly/peggypooleread…
Love creative writing? Our new anthology includes imaginative stories and inspired poems depicting the highs and lows of #caring and being cared for. Pick up a copy at carersuk.org/anthologyfive @PoetrySociety Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Thank you to everyone who took part in the 'if it's presented as a poem, it's a poem' poll - all 1,730 of you! It was lovely to see that this topic caused such a wonderful debate and sharing of views. More!
26 days to go until the 40th anniversary event for the National Poetry Competition Watch @JoShapcottcom read her poem 'Phrase Book' @southbankcentre bit.ly/NPC40ShapcottP… 20th March, Kings Place bit.ly/npc40anniversa…
🚨🚨🚨 Breaking news!!! 28 boxes of the latest #FoyleYoungPoets anthologies have just arrived in @PoetrySociety offices - we'll be launching the 2019 competition VERY SOON! Keep checking our website, and in the meantime read this year's top 15 poets: poetrysociety.org.uk/foyle Retweeted by The Poetry Society
How do you find time to write? Find more of Caleb Parkin's top tips for budding #writers in his interview on Young Poets Network: bit.ly/chanparkin Retweeted by The Poetry Society
LOOK! FREE POETRY POsters twitter.com/poetrysociety/… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Good news - we've just updated our website with all the #PoemsontheUnderground posters we have in stock! The posters are always free (we just charge for P&P) and will perfectly fill that poetryless space on your wall - have a browse now: https://t.co/L1AOPguGHy pic.twitter.com/BmcKtc2K6b
— The Poetry Society (@PoetrySociety) February 22, 2019
… something that hunger has made plain-spoken: the claim of suffering stretched on the rack of centuries; this thing of darkness now acknowledged - how terrifying and dignified -Tim Kiely @TimKiely1 will be reading his poems @PoetrySociety 7 March 7.30pm #Poetry #Charity Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Honoured to be participating in @PoetsVersus event at @PoetrySociety to raise funds for @crisis_uk - come along and make your contribution on 7 March! #Poetry #Charity twitter.com/poetsversus/st… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Good news - we've just updated our website with all the #PoemsontheUnderground posters we have in stock! The posters are always free (we just charge for P&P) and will perfectly fill that poetryless space on your wall - have a browse now: bit.ly/poemsundergrou…
We're back with a new series of @bbcpoetryplease! Listen now to Gillian Clarke's selection from your requests and recommendations, including poems by @HelenMort, Paula Meehan, Seamus Heaney and Dylan Thomas. bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Tonight @PoetrySociety cafe Rosemary McLeish launches her stunning debut collection #Iamafield. Free. From 7.30pm. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
27 days to go until the 40th anniversary event for the National Poetry Competition Read an essay @maryjean_chan on being a Chinese poet writing in English @wildcourtpoetry bit.ly/NPC40MJCessay 20th March, Kings Place bit.ly/npc40anniversa…
New Poetry Mixtape from @rainieoet~ Poems from Natalie Diaz / Ariel Chu / Tracy K Smith / Douglas Kearney / Walt Whitman / Michael Dickman / Mary Oliver / @deyblxk / ALSO Poetry Mixtape's first ever interactive selection via @slimedaughter 🕹️🎮👾 poetrysociety.org.uk/publications-s…
The Spectator asks Why wasn’t Poetry Please in the Radio Times’s top 30 greatest radio shows of all time? @bbcpoetryplease spectator.co.uk/2019/02/why-wa…