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 […]
News
Timothy Corsellis Prize winners announced
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 […]
Vote for John Keats’s Mulberry, as Woodland Trust Tree of the Year
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 […]
Latest Poetry Review is launched
“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 […]
Richard Westcott is the 2018 Stanza Competition winner!
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 […]
National Poetry Day 2018 – calling for change
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 […]
Stanzas celebrate ‘Change’ on National Poetry Day
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 […]
Waltham Forest Poetry Competition results
CONGRATULATIONS to all the Poetry Society Members who were successful in the inaugural Waltham Forest Poetry Competition, judged by Meryl Pugh, on the theme of ‘A Bright Future’. In the Adult competition 437 poems were received from 223 poets, and in the Young Poet section, 84 poems from 54 poets. Poetry Society Member Jane Wilkinson […]
Winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018 announced
We are delighted to announce the winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018. From nearly 6,000 poets and 11,000 poems, the top 15 and 85 commended poets have now been selected and we can’t wait to celebrate them in the weeks, months and years to come. Judges Daljit Nagra and Caroline […]
Robin Robertson on Man Booker and Goldsmiths shortlists
Robin Robertson’s The Long Take (Picador), already a winner of the Roehampton Poetry Prize this year, is also on the shortlist of the Man Booker Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize. Described by John Banville as ‘A beautiful, vigorous and achingly melancholy hymn to the common man that is as unexpected as it is daring’, The […]
Poetry Society Members on Wells longlist
Terry Gifford has announced the longlist for the Wells Festival of Literature Poetry Competition, which includes Poetry Society Members galore! Included on the list are Robin Kidson (for two poems), Rosie Jackson (for two poems), Christopher North, Kerry Darbishire, Linda Saunders, Deborah Harvey, and Sharon Black – good luck to them all! Miriam Nash will […]
Rosie Jackson & Carole Coates runners-up in Frogmore Prize
The Frogmore Poetry Prize for 2018 has been awarded to Emily Wills of Dursley, Gloucestershire for the poem ON THE SUBJECT OF FRACKING. She receives the sum of two hundred and fifty guineas and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers. The first runner-up is Poetry Society Member Rosie Jackson of Frome, Somerset for the […]
Jean Atkin appointed as Troubadour of the Hills
National Poetry Day will see Poetry Society Member Jean Atkin become the first ever Troubadour of the Hills, thanks to the Ledbury Poetry Festival. The Festival, in conjunction with the Malvern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), have appointed Jean to the new position, and she will recite poems in that capacity for the […]
A Poem and a Pint for Poetry Society Members
Congratulations to all the Poetry Society Members who did well in A Poem and a Pint Poetry Competition, judged by Clare Shaw. Carole Bromley was third for her poem ‘The Unpacking’. Carole was also Highly Commended for two poems ‘Medical Students’ and ‘Nobody Tells Me’. Joining Carole on the Highly Commended list were Society Members […]
Victoria Gatehouse wins Otley Written Poetry Prize
CONGRATULATIONS! to Poetry Society Member Victoria Gatehouse, winner of the Otley Written Poetry Prize, and to all the other Poetry Society Members who did well in the competition, including Andy Humphrey (Highly Commended), Alicia Fernández and Jo Peters (both Commended), with Keith Bolton, Sam Burns (for two poems), Yvonne Green, Jenny Hamlet, Alison McNulty, and […]
Poetry Society Members on Primers shortlist & longlist
The Poetry School and Nine Arches Press have announced the shortlist and longlist for Primers Volume Four, their mentoring and publication scheme. Judges Kim Moore and Jane Commane have selected ten manuscripts for the shortlist and 17 for the longlist – including many, many Poetry Society Members, highlighted below. Charlotte Baldwin for With my lips […]
Foyle Young Poets take to Hull for BBC Contains Strong Language Festival
The Poetry Society are getting ready to announce the winners of the 2018 Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award and release their poems into the world very soon – but you can also catch some of the winners in a very special edition of BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, to be broadcast on National […]
Society Members on Live Canon shortlist, won by Jon Stone
Jon Stone has won the £1000 2018 Live Canon International Poetry Competition for his poem ‘The Lookout’ – congratulations to Jon! This year’s judge was Liz Berry and all 50 poems on the short- and long- lists will appear in the 2018 anthology. Poetry Society Members on the shortlist include Emma Simon (for two poems), […]
Doreen Hinchliffe wins Sydenham Arts’ Poetry Competition
Sydenham Arts’ second annual competition, ‘We Could Be Heroes’ in partnership with Alarms & Excursions and Kirkdale Bookshop has been won by Poetry Society member Doreen Hinchliffe for her poem ‘Mr. Williams’. Fellow Members Philip Burton and Mantz Yorke were second and third for ‘The Longest Wait’ and ‘Tommy at Seventy’. Doreen also bagged a […]
Poetry Society Members Highly Commended in Buzzwords Poetry Competition
Poetry Society Members David Keyworth, Maria Isakova-Bennett and Scott Elder have been Highly Commended by judge Graham Burchell in this year’s Buzzwords Poetry Competition, won by Katie Hale. Graham’s report: What a strange and dizzy world one is thrown into when reading very many poems one after the other until there are three piles of […]
Jane Lovell wins Wigtown Poetry Competition
Poetry Society Member Jane Lovell has won the 2018 Wigtown Poetry Competition for her poem ‘Starlings’, judged by Christine De Luca. Fellow Member Owen Lewis is Runner-up for ‘As if it didn’t matter which way was home’. Congratulations to both! This year’s Wigtown Poetry Competition received 735 entries. In addition to poets from Scotland and […]
Angela Topping wins Waltraud Field Open Poetry Competition
Good news from the Waltraud Field Open Poetry Competition. Poetry Society Stanza rep Angela Topping is the winner and fellow Member Anthony Watts is third. John Baylis Post was second. The competition is run by Crewe and District Writers’ Circle, formed when a group of students, who had completed a writing course, decided to keep […]
Andrew McMillan picks Poetry Society Members for Welshpool Prize
Poetry Society Member Lisa Matthews has won this year’s Welshpool Poetry Festival competition judged by Andrew McMillan, with fellow Members Catherine Whittaker and Pippa Little in second and third places. The theme was ‘jewel’. Andrew McMillan: “The standard of work was very high, and in many ways the process of sifting through them was like […]
Winchester Poetry Prize longlist
The 2018 Winchester Poetry Prize longlist, chosen by Liz Berry, includes Poetry Society Members Isabel Bermudez, Alan Buckley, Sue Chamberlain, Harriet David, Hugh Dunkerley, Alan Dunnett, Inua Ellams (for TWO poems), Niall Firth, Clifford Forde, Rosie Jackson, Stephen Keeler, Joanne Key, Ruth McIlroy, Paul McMahon, Margot Myers, Katrina Porteous, Mara Adamitz Scrupe and Ellora Sutton. […]
Paperblanks Poet Manuscript Notebook Competition
The Poetry Society has teamed up with Paperblanks, who have four poet-themed notebooks to give away from their manuscript collection series, perfect tomes to inspire your creativity. The featured poets are William Wordsworth, Edgar Allen Poe, William Butler Yeats, and Rabindranath Tagore. To win one of these excellent notebooks, please email [email protected] with the heading […]
Chelsey Minnis Imagery Quiz
Enter the Chelsey Minnis imagery quiz and win a free ticket to see Chelsey Minnis at the Free Verse Fair on the 22nd September 2018 at Senate House, London plus receive a limited edition Chelsey Minnis print and a copy of her brand new book Baby I Don’t Care (Wave Books, 2018). What do you have […]
How to get ahead in poetry
In advance of this Saturday’s Free Verse Fair at the Senate House, University of London, we had a quick chat with Rishi Dastidar – Nine Arches published poet, chair of Spread the Word, consulting editor for The Rialto – who is running a workshop at the fair for poets on how to get noticed in […]
Melting Ice Poetry Anthology
In 2017 The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network partnered with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to challenge young poets to respond to the changing face of our polar regions. The winning poem and eight runners-up are presented in a new anthology, now available to read online below. Readers in London will also be able […]
Free Verse Book Fair Lucky Dip
Click on your calendar and pencil your diaries: we’re filling the Free Verse day with readings. The Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair features a full day of dip-in-and-out poetry readings, where publishers introduce their poets and philosophies to you. All readings are free. 11.20am Foyle Young Poets 11.40am ignitionpress (Lily Blacksell, Mary Jean […]
Julian Flanagan
We are sad to report that Poetry Society Member Julian Flanagan passed away in August. Julian was such a lovely man and a regular at the [email protected] open mic sessions at The Poetry Society’s Poetry Cafe. He was also a member of the Barnes & Chiswick Stanza. “The last email I received from Julian was […]
BBC Proms Poetry Competition 2018 winners announced
The winners of the BBC Proms Poetry Competition 2018, for poems written in response to a piece of music in the 2018 Proms season, have been announced. This year’s competition was judged by poet and presenter of The Verb on BBC Radio 3 Ian McMillan, poet and Foyle Young Poet Helen Mort and the Director […]
UK’s first pet poet laureate announced
The Poetry Society, partnering with national pet charity Blue Cross, are pleased to announce Russell Jones as the first ever Pet Poet Laureate, a role that will see him pen a series of poems throughout the year of his tenure, all about pets and the wonderful influence and impact they have on people’s lives. The position of Pet […]
Young poets take over The Poetry Café again
Following June’s first young writers’ reading, on 21 August 2018 The Poetry Café hosted its second Young Poets Takeover. Seven poets aged 14 to 20 performed: Lucy Tiller, Nadia Lines, Meredith LeMaître, Foyre Jalloh, Cia Mangat, Damayanti Chatterjee and Judith Howe. All seven were Foyle Young Poets, SLAMbassadors or Young Poets Network challenge winners and their writing and performing […]
Raymond Antrobus is the latest Review podcast interviewee
“I have so many anecdotes and stories [about] how d/Deaf people are excluded from cultural events and how much harder they/we/I have had to work to access culture. I am trying to write into those disconnections and create new bridges,” says Raymond Antrobus, the latest interviewee in of The Poetry Review podcast series with editor […]
National Poetry Competition: #AskTheJudge
The 2018 National Poetry Competition is currently open, and judges Kei Miller, Kim Moore and Mark Waldron will read all submitted entries – so as you put the finishing touches on your entry, it’s your chance to hear their thoughts on all things poetic. Previous #AskTheJudge interviews have seen the judges answer questions on the […]
New End Hunger UK anthology and poetry films
Earlier this year The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network partnered with Oxfam and End Hunger UK to challenge poets aged 11-25 across the UK to respond to the issue of food poverty. We are delighted to publish an anthology of the nine winning poems. Read them below, and see our Issuu page for more anthologies […]
Marble Marvels: new commissioned poems
Give a sculptor a block of marble and a chisel, and they’ll carve you a masterpiece. Put The Poetry Society and The British Museum together, and you end up with three brilliant new poems, jointly commissioned to celebrate the recent exhibition Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece. Inspired by both Rodin’s sculptures and those […]
The Poetry Society celebrates Women in Translation Month
August is Women in Translation Month and The Poetry Society is joining in the celebration by highlighting poems from The Poetry Review archive – poems in translation by women poets and poems translated by women. Examples include Clara Janés translated by Louis Bourne, Lee Young-Ju and Jang Su-Jin, translated by Jae Kim (online already), and […]
Poets pay tribute to Jazzman John Clarke 1948-2018
Tributes have been paid to Jazzman John Clarke, a lovely man and regular performer at the Poetry Cafe and on the London poetry scene. “JC will leave a large hole in my life, a man who I admire, enjoy, love and will miss massively. London has also lost a pivot and a key connector, a […]
Matthew Sweeney 1952-2018
Tributes have been paid to Matthew Sweeney, who has died from motor neurone disease. Matthew Sweeney was born in Donegal and lived in Cork. He was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and received a Cholmondeley Award and an Arts Council Writers’ Award. He was joint second in the National Poetry Competition […]
"The pesky moon, always bouncing away / on urgent business, its huffed thumbprint hangs / in the afternoon’s viewfinder." Sarah Howe Come and hear Sarah (@luckyflowerhowe) this Tuesday at the @southbankcentre! Book your tickets here: bit.ly/airsangfoyle20
Happy #FoyleFriday! The office is abuzz with #FoyleYoungPoets ahead of Tuesday's reading. We're spotlighting 2015, the first year we created a top 15 AND an 85 commended poets anthology, selected by Liz Berry & Michael Symmons Roberts: Wolves of Normality. bit.ly/wolvesnormality Retweeted by The Poetry Society
"At night / They listened to her navel for whispers, / To see if she could hear the lunar proverbs." from Jay Bernard's Kid Moth. Jay (@Brrnrrd) is going to be amongst the 10 Foyle Award-winning poets who will read at our event on October 23rd. More info: bit.ly/airsangfoyle20
Join #poets Dominic Bury @MissLizBerry @philipgrossuk @YvonneReddick @PoetrySociety to celebrate 40 years of the #NationalPoetryCompetition: Saturday 3rd Nov | 1pm Tickets: snapemaltings.co.uk/whats-on/natio… psst! you can enter for this year's competition: npc.poetrysociety.org Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Best job imaginable: managing the Forward Prizes and overseeing the compilation of the Forward Book of Poetry. 12 months maternity cover - deadline 31 October. twitter.com/ForwardPrizes/… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
It's tonight 10pm – 'Into the Forest' with Radio 3's @R3TheVerb, gorgeous foresty music from @DulcimerKate with @CTrevien's luscious Breton poem, Terry Deary, @jackbern23's forest-horror, the one and only @IMcMillan and poems from Mama Amazonica bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
“Gold survives the fire that’s hot enough/ to make you ashes in a standard urn.” From ‘Timer’ by Tony Harrison, National Poetry Competition winner in 1980. Read it here poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/timer/ Enter the comp here bit.ly/winthepoetryna…
My lovely London friends. I'm reading at the Poetry Café tomorrow @PoetrySociety - a perfect opportunity to come and learn more about #anthology84 too. Pop down and say hi! @theCALMzone @poetryschool @Poetry_London eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-it-o… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
I'm so happy to have been commended in the YPN prose poetry challenge! Thank you so much to the wonderful judge @Enshia_Li, and to @youngpoetsnet @PoetrySociety. Many congrats to the winners and other commended poets ☀️🌺 twitter.com/youngpoetsnet/… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
“The radicals sprung the locks that night, hurrah!/ and their lovely collarbones were almost moonly.” From ‘The Curfew’ by Stephen Sexton, National Poetry Competition winner in 2016 Read it here: poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/the-curf… Could you win? Enter the comp here: bit.ly/winthepoetryna…
“So I walked into the exam without her:/ without the easel, the skull or the shawl,” From Allison McVety’s ‘To The Lighthouse’, winner of the National Poetry Competition in 2011. Read it here: poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/to-the-l… £5000 to be won! Enter the comp here: bit.ly/winthepoetryna…
Have a listen to CHELSEY MINNIS in conversation with @no1_emily at @PoetrySociety! ow.ly/ksoG30mgZmT Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Celebrate 20 years of the #FoyleAwards with readings from ten Foyle Award-winning poets from across the decades! Our #AndtheAirSang event features the talented Magnus Dixon! October 23rd at the @southbankcentre. More info here: bit.ly/airsangfoyle20
The latest Poetry Review poetry mixtape is now up, Kit Fan's Emergency Stir-fry mixtape, feat. Emily Dickinson, Robert Hass, Alice Oswald, @jennymxie ++ 🥘💫🌙 poetrysociety.org.uk/publications-s… @PoetrySociety Retweeted by The Poetry Society
“I screamed at the woman I love, and in front/ of our one-year-old, who covered his ears.” From ‘Night Errand’ by Eric Berlin, winner of the National Poetry Competition in 2015. Read it here: poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/night-er… Could your poem win? Enter here: bit.ly/winthepoetryna…
It is the✊🏾 #BlackHistoryMonth✊🏾 edition of Pen-Ting tonight! A clean fiver to see two internationally renowned poets, a world-beating open mic and a poetry/rap cypher! Get your tickets now. facebook.com/thepoetrycafe/…
It is the✊🏾 #BlackHistoryMonth✊🏾 edition of Pen-Ting tonight! A clean fiver to see two internationally renowned poets, a world-beating open mic and a poetry/rap cypher! Get your tickets now.
Posted by Poetry Cafe on Thursday, October 18, 2018
“truly, though there are many dictionaries for the tongue I speak,/ it’s the close-by things I’m lost to say” from ‘Hill Speak’ (read the full poem here: poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/hill-spe… ) 3rd prize, National Poetry Competition in 2011 by Zaffar Kunial, today @tseliotprize shortlisted!
Just released, this year's fabulous T S Eliot Prize shortlist. Congratulations to all the poets and publishers! tseliot.com/prize/the-t-s-… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
I'm really excited to be reading with my fellow Hedgehog Poets for a Proper Xmas Poetry Party on the 17th Dec @ The Poetry Cafe #London @PoetrySociety @hedgehogpoetry @marcasdom @HopkinsPoetry @Rosehill_girl @gaynorkane hedgehogpress.co.uk/2018/10/17/a-p… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Hear Linda France, winner of the National Poetry Competition in 2013 in a podcast talk about why entering competitions is worthwhile, which poems she enters and why - listen to it here bit.ly/lindafrancepod… Could your poem win? 2 weeks left... Enter here bit.ly/winthepoetryna…
