Poets Julia Copus, David Morley, and Pascale Petit are included in the Royal Society of Literature’s new intake of 31 Fellows, with Neil Astley, Ruth Borthwick, Kwame Dawes and Nathalie Teitler receiving Honorary Fellowships for ‘significant contribution to the advancement of literature’. Election as a Fellow of the RSL is a uniquely prestigious literary honour, […]
Our Canal Laureate Nancy Campbell finds herself paddling through the crisp packets and cigarette ends littering the River Lea. Read her latest blog on the power poetry has to tackle plastic pollution. The Canal Laureate project is part of a wider partnership between the Canal & River Trust and Arts Council England, which aims to attract […]
Congratulations to the winners of the Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Competition, judged by Liz Berry & David Constantine, including Poetry Society Members Ann Gray and Christopher North. The four winners are: Rebecca Cullen (Nottingham) for her collection Majid Sits in a Tree and Sings Ann Gray (Cornwall) for her collection I Wish I […]
From John Keats’ poem inspired by the Parthenon sculptures to Daljit Nagra’s 2017 collection British Museum, the sculpture collection has long been a subject of inspiration to poets. We’re delighted to be collaborating with our British Museum neighbours on a series of new commissions inspired by its exhibition Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece (running 26 April […]
Poetry Society Member Kate Clanchy has been awarded an MBE for services to literature in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Kate has been a teacher in state schools for nearly 30 years and is Writer in Residence at Oxford Spires Academy. Over the last nine years, she has nurtured creative talent at the school, whose pupils come […]
The public vote is now open for A Poem To Remember, a new competition marking the centenary of the First World War. The judging panel, who whittled the entries down to a shortlist of 5 poems, was chaired by historian Dan Snow and included Andy McNab, Stephen Fry, Caroline Wyatt, JJ Chalmers, Katherine Rundell, Meena […]
The shortlist for the Seamus Heaney Centre’s First Collection Poetry Prize has been announced and includes Poetry Society Member Ellen Cranitch. Ellen is a poet, journalist and teacher. Her prize-winning poetry is published by Templar and Carcanet Press and in many periodicals and magazines. She has taught at the University of St Andrews, City University […]
On Saturday 2nd June, The Poetry Café welcomed Foyle Young Poets, Young Poets Network challenge winners and SLAMbassadors for an afternoon of readings. On the line-up were six stellar Foyle Young Poets: Sarah Fletcher, Lucy Thynne, Cia Mangat, Mukahang Limbu, Meredith LeMaître and Em Power. Three of these writers are also Young Poets Networkers and one is a SLAMbassadors champion, and the […]
The winning poem in the €1,000 Caterpillar Poetry Prize is ‘Mustafa’s Jumper’ by Poetry Society Member Coral Rumble. The prize is run by the junior art and literature magazine The Caterpillar and awarded annually to a single unpublished poem written by an adult for children. The judge this year was Chrissie Gittins. Coral said: “The Caterpillar […]
Selected Poems 2000-2014 by Colette Bryce has won the €8,000 Pigott Poetry Prize 2018 at the opening night of Listowel Writers’ Week in Kerry. Adjudicators Billy Collins and Deryn Rees Jones selected the work from a shortlist that included Michael Longley’s Angel Hill and Sinéad Morrissey’s On Balance, winner of the 2017 Forward Prize for […]
Many congratulations to all the winning, commended and shortlisted poets in this year’s Red Shed Poetry Competition. The winner this year is Poetry Society Member Graham Burchell (who won The Poetry Society’s Stanza Competition in 2015) for his poem ‘A Loss of Eden’, with fellow Member Jane Burn in second place for ‘On Dissecting the […]
Huge congratulations to Will Harris, whose poem ‘SAY’ first published in The Poetry Review, Winter 2017 has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem, announced today. You can read the poem on the Review webpage and listen to him reading it in an exclusive recording. The Forward Prize shortlist also features Poetry […]
The winner of the fourth annual Roehampton Poetry Prize for best poetry collection of the year is Robin Robertson’s The Long Take, published by Picador. The award was founded to support poets of every nationality and age who live and work in Britain during the year their books were published. Each year, the eligible poetry […]
The Poetry Society is delighted to announce that acclaimed poet Ocean Vuong, the winner of both the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection with his debut Night Sky With Exit Wounds (Cape), will judge the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize 2017. It will be the first poetry prize he has judged […]
Many Poetry Society Members excelled in the Teignmouth Poetry Competition this year, with the winners announced at the Teignmouth Poetry Festival. In the Open Competition, judged by Pascale Petit, Society Members Sue Proffitt and Joanna Lowry were placed second and third behind the winner Graeme Ryan. Included on the shortlist were Frances Corkey Thompson and […]
This year’s judge for the Fish Publishing prize, Ellen Bass, has selected ten poems to be published in the 2018 Fish Anthology. The winner of the €1,000 first prize is ‘Vernacular Green’ by Janet Murray and there are ten Honorary Mentions including Poetry Society Members Gabriella Attems and Caroline Bracken who will both feature in […]
Poetry Society Member Joanne Key, who was second in the National Poetry Competition in 2014, has won the Hippocrates Open Prize for Poetry and Medicine, announced by judge Mark Doty at an awards ceremony at the Poetry Foundation, Chicago. Her winning poem was ‘Colony’ which concerned the distress of her father during his final illness. […]
It’s one-two-three for Poetry Society Members in this year’s Poets & Players competition, judged by Pascale Petit. Sarah Westcott is the winner, with James Friedman and Andrew Rudd in second and third place. Among the Commended poets are Society Members Mark Fiddes and Joanna Lowry. Pascale: “When Poets & Players asked me to judge their […]
The annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place has been won by Poetry Society Member Pascale Petit for Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe Books). This is the first time poetry has won the Prize. Pascale: “I’m absolutely thrilled to win this particular prize for a […]
SciPo, the annual science poetry event run by The Poet’s House Oxford with St Hilda’s College Oxford, has just held its first science poetry competition, judged by Jane Draycott. The winner is Poetry Society Member Frances-Anne King for her poem ‘Home Thoughts from the Red Planet’. Frances-Anne King’s poetry has won a number of prizes […]
The 2018 Stanza Poetry Competition is open and our theme this year is TRADITION. It’s free to enter but you must be a Poetry Society member (if you’re not a member join here) who is also a member of a Poetry Society Stanza – but you can join anytime before the competition closes. Send up to […]
Helen Ivory has named the winners and Highly Commended poets for this year’s Bristol Poetry Prize, and there’s a lot of success for Poetry Society Members. The winner is Poetry Society Member Dominic Fisher for ‘Hardware Visitations’, Helen: “This poem, I put on my ‘read again’ pile four times, knowing I couldn’t consume it all […]
Former Foyle Young Poets Laura Potts and Jade Cuttle have joined Write Out Loud as Gig Guide Editor and Contributing Editor respectively. Laura was recently the winner of the Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize, Commended in Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize and Highly Commended in the Prole Laureate Poetry Competition. She was commended in the […]
Poetry Society Member Majella Kelly is second in this year’s Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize. Majella Kelly is a poet and photographer based in County Galway, Ireland. She is currently enrolled on the MSt in Creative Writing at The University of Oxford. www.majellakelly.com The competition was won by Robert Lipton, picked by the judge Patrick […]
“I think shame is very unhelpful, that taboos can be very unhelpful – maybe we should try and be as brave as our poems,” says Fiona Benson, the latest interviewee in the ever-expanding Poetry Review podcast series. Fiona talks to Review Editor Emily Berry, about her new collection Vertigo & Ghost, forthcoming from Cape in […]
Former Foyle Young Poets of the Year winner Allegra Mullan and Young Poets Network (YPN) poet Nadia Lines have won the top two prizes in the ‘Young Romantics’ poetry section of the Keats-Shelley Prize 2018 in a competitive category which attracted 50% more entries than in 2017. Allegra won the ‘Young Romantics’ category (for poets […]
A shortlist of six poets for the £5,000 Roehampton Prize for best poetry collection has been announced. Kayo Chingonyi: Kumukanda (Chatto & Windus) Sinéad Morrissey: On Balance (Carcanet) Pascale Petit: Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe) Robin Robertson: The Long Take (Picador) Hannah Sullivan: Three Poems (Faber) Ahren Warner: Hello, Your Promise Has Been Extracted (Bloodaxe) The 2018 […]
Michael Longley has chosen Poetry Society Member Rae Howells as the winner of this year’s Rialto Nature Poetry Competition, with fellow Members also enjoying success with Jane Wheeler third and Sarah Wimbush and Linda France Highly Commended. The longlist includes a murmuration of Poetry Society Members: Alesha Racine, Anna Selby (for three poems) Anthony Watts, […]
Poetry Society Member Theresa Lola has been named as a joint winner of the 6th Brunel International African Poetry Prize, representing Nigeria. Her fellow winners are Hiwot Adilow (Ethiopia), and Momtaza Mehri (Somalia) who was 3rd in this year’s National Poetry Competition. The prize of £3000 is aimed at the development, celebration and promotion of poetry […]
A fantastic result for Poetry Society Member Natalya Anderson last night, awarded the €10,000 Moth Poetry Prize for her poem ‘A Gun in the House’ by the judge Daljit Nagra. ‘A succession of sensually unsettling images drive this nervous, ironic poem forward,’ Nagra said. ‘The girl “cocks her head like a confused coyote”, “Her throat/ […]
Former Foyle Young Poet Laura Potts has been chosen by judge Alison Lock as the winner of this year’s Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize for her poem ‘First Light’. Rachel Bowers was runner-up for two of her poems and there were Commendations for Poetry Society Members Suzanne Iuppa and Louise Larchbourne among others. Laura is […]
Christine Michael, Poetry Society Stanza rep for Stratford-upon-Avon, pays tribute to Pat Watson, who died in March aged 88. You can also read Pat’s poem ‘Meeting Moon‘, a winner of the Poetry News Members’ Poems competition on the theme of ‘Heroes & Heroines’, judged by Kathryn Simmonds. Pat will be remembered as a talented poet […]
Daljit Nagra has picked Poetry Society Member Josh Ekroy for the £1000 first prize in this year’s Poems on the Move, Guernsey International Poetry Competition, for his poem ‘PSTD’. Fellow Society Member Peter Wallis was third (for ‘Rain’), with Jonathan Edwards taking second place for ‘On Hearing You Have Lost Your New Love’. Foyle Young […]
The T. S. Eliot Foundation has announced announced the judges for the 2018 Prize. The panel will be chaired by Sinéad Morrissey, alongside poets Daljit Nagra and Clare Pollard. The 2018 judging panel will be looking for the best new poetry collection written in English and published in the calendar year. Sinéad Morrissey said: “It’s […]
L-R Lesley Saunders and Gabriel Griffin It’s a double whammy for Poetry Society Members Lesley Saunders and Gabriel Griffin in this year’s Plough Poetry Prize. Lesley has won the Open Category, with her poem ‘Glaciarium’, and Gabriel has won the Short Category with ‘Hermes’. The poems were judged by Michael Symmons Roberts. Michael on Lesley’s […]
The 2018 RSL Ondaatje Prize Shortlist includes Poetry Society Member Pascale Petit for her collection Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe Books). Pascale is also on the 2018 Keats-Shelley poetry prize shortlist and was a judge for this year’s National Poetry Competition. Her sixth collection Fauverie was shortlisted for the 2014 T S Eliot Prize. Five poems from […]
The Poetry Society is taking on Free Verse, home to the Poetry Book Fair and the Poetry Magazine Fair, and will run the 2018 Free Verse Fair on Saturday 22 September at Senate House, University of London. Free Verse is a market that celebrates the vitality of contemporary poetry publishing in the UK, showcasing a wide […]
📸 @CalebFemi5 🤙🏾 pic.twitter.com/qEQAeCClYo — momtaza mehri 🤳🏾 (@RuffneckRefugee) March 29, 2018 Momtaza Mehri (above), photographed at the National Poetry Competition Award Ceremony by outgoing Young People’s Laureate Caleb Femi, March 2018. Momtaza Mehri, fresh from her prestigious 3rd prize win in the National Poetry Competition with ‘Oiled Legs Have Their Own Subtext’, was announced […]
Publisher Coast to Coast to Coast have run their first competition with an unusual prize for the joint winners – a small portfolio of their poems stitched between hand made covers. The inaugural winners are Poetry Society Members Jane Lovell for Forbidden and Rebecca Gethin for Messages. Both will receive 30 hand made copies of […]
Cheryl Pearson has won the Bedford International Poetry Competition for her poem ‘Trial’, judged by Lesley Saunders, and is also shortlisted for two more poems! If that isn’t achievement enough, Cheryl was also recently third in The Interpreter’s House Prize, shortlisted for the Keats-Shelley poetry prize, and Commended in the Hippocrates Open Prize. Busy, busy! […]
I wish maps would be without borders & that we belonged to no one & to everyone at once —Yesenia Montilla poets.org/poetsorg/poem/… Retweeted by The Poetry Society