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 […]
News

Josh Ekroy wins £1000 Guernsey International Poetry Competition
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 […]

Sinéad Morrissey to chair 2018 T S Eliot Prize judging panel
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 […]
Lesley Saunders and Gabriel Griffin win the Plough Poetry Prizes
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 […]

Pascale Petit on shortlist for RSL Ondaatje Prize
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 […]
Poetry Society takes on the Free Verse Fair
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 […]
Momtaza Mehri announced as new Young People’s Laureate for London
📸 @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 […]

Jane Lovell & Rebecca Gethin win Coast to Coast to Coast Portfolio Competition
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 wins Bedford International Poetry Competition
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! […]

Jonathan Greenhause wins Aesthetica Creative Writing Award
Jonathan Greenhause is the Poetry Winner of this year’s Aesthetica Creative Writing Award for ‘A Poem Written In My Past Life as a 15th Century Georgian Monk’. Jonathan lives in New Jersey and is a recent winner of the Ledbury Poetry Competition and shortlisted for the Live Canon International Poetry Prize. As part of Jonathan’s […]

Joanne Key and Sarah Leavesley on Hippocrates shortlist
With an awards fund of £5500 the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine is one of the highest value poetry awards in the world for a single unpublished poem. Entries for the 2018 Hippocrates prize were received from 37 countries and from 5 continents. The judges – Carol Rumens, Peter Goldsworthy, and Mark Doty, have […]

Poetry Society Members feature strongly in Saboteur Awards
Poetry Society Members feature strongly in this year’s Saboteur Awards shortlists. Voting on the shortlists closes on 9 May. The Best Reviewer of Literature shortlist includes Dave Coates and former Foyle Young Poet Jade Cuttle. Martin Figura is shortlisted for his Spoken Word show ‘Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine’. In the Best Collaborative Work shortlist, Dan […]

Louise Warren wins Prole Laureate Poetry Competition
‘The Marshes’ by Louise Warren is the winner of this year’s Prole Laureate Poetry Competition, judged by poet and editor Kate Garrett. Poetry Society Member Mary Gilonne was one of the runners-up for ‘Extra-marital morning on the edge of nowhere’ and there were Commendations for fellow Members Alicia Fernández, Harriet David, and Charles Lauder, Jnr. […]

Hannah Copley wins York Literature Festival / YorkMix Poetry Competition
Hannah Copley’s account of a gruelling illness during pregnancy was the inspiration for the £600 top prize in this year’s York Literature Festival / YorkMix Poetry Competition. Competition judge Andrew McMillan described Hannah’s poem, ‘Haworth, 1855’, as gripping, praising its sharp detail that takes the reader closely into the agony of the illness. The poem […]

Jill Munro wins Ó Bhéal Five Words Challenge
Hearty congratulations go to Poetry Society Member Jill Munro, who has won this year’s 500 euro Ó Bhéal Five Words International Poetry Competition, for her beautifully crafted poem, ‘Ptarmigan’. Jill will be invited to read at the 11th anniversary event on 16 April 2018, along with other contributors to Five Words Vol XI. There were […]

Theophilus Kwek wins The Interpreter’s House Prize
It was almost a clean sweep for Poetry Society Members this year as Theophilus Kwek won with his poem ‘Operation Thunderstorm’, followed by Karen Izod in 2nd place (‘Slip-Stream’) and Commendations for Claire Dyer, Eleanor Hooker, Fiona Larkin, and Sarah Watkinson. The only non-Member was Cheryl Pearson, third for ‘Protection Spell for a Lover’. Theophilus […]

‘Writing Armistice’ Winners
Isabel Palmer is the winner of ‘Writing Armistice’, the Army’s Poetry Competition 2018, for her poem ‘Shell-shock’. There’s success for Poetry Society Members too. David Keyworth was 3rd in the Open Category for ‘Rearmament’, Olga Dermott-Bond was Commended for ‘A stopping of Arms’, and Sue Norton received a Museum of Miltary Medicine Commendation for ‘Looking […]

Elizabeth Uter wins Poem for Slough competition
‘Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough…’ With the opening lines of John Betjeman’s 1937 poem still casting a shadow over the literary representation of Slough, HOME Slough called out to the public to take control of their town’s future and write their own poem for Slough. The winner is Poetry Society Member Elizabeth Uter’s […]
Yvonne Reddick wins the inaugural Peggy Poole Award
Yvonne Reddick has won the Peggy Poole Award, a new talent development scheme for poets based in the North West of England. Following the announcement of her win at the Savile Club on 28th March, Yvonne will now be mentored for a year by poet and editor Deryn Rees-Jones. The Peggy Poole Award is a new […]
Jay Bernard wins the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for Surge: Side A
Ted Hughes Award judges Gillian Allnutt, Lemn Sissay and Sally Beamish have chosen Jay Bernard’s 2017 performance piece Surge: Side A (Speaking Volumes), as the latest winner of The Poetry Society’s prestigious prize. The winner of the 2017 award was announced on 28 March 2018, at a reception at the Savile Club, London, where Carol Ann […]
Dom Bury wins National Poetry Competition for his poem ‘The Opened Field’
Judges Hannah Lowe, Andrew McMillan and Pascale Petit praise the winning poem’s “mnemonic force” and describe it as a “neutron star of a poem compressed inside the restraining machinery of a sestina” Out of more than 13,000 poems entered for this year’s award, Dom Bury’s poem ‘The Opened Field’ has been chosen as the winner […]

Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018 launches
The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018 is now open for entries and in its 20th anniversary year will be judged by Caroline Bird and Daljit Nagra. The competition is open to any writer aged 11-17 on the deadline of 31 July 2018. Entries must be written and English, and entry is completely free. One of the biggest […]
Free poetry workshops as part of the Get Creative Festival
As part of the Get Creative Festival, running from 17th to 25th March 2018, The Poetry Society is running a series of free writing workshops on the theme of writing poetry drawn from difficult personal experiences. These workshops will be held at four library locations around the country in Warrington, Oldham, Portsmouth and Norwich. The […]
Judges of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018 are announced
The two poet judges of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018 have been announced! We’re delighted to welcome onto the judging panel the brilliant writers Caroline Bird and Daljit Nagra. 2018 will be an extra special year, as it marks the twentieth anniversary of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award. […]
Ted Hughes Award 2017 shortlist is announced
The shortlist for the 2017 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry has been announced! Judges Gillian Allnutt, Sally Beamish and Lemn Sissay chose their shortlist of seven poets who released groundbreaking works in 2017, out of over a hundred recommendations from members of The Poetry Society and Poetry Book Society: Jay Bernard for […]

All-female shortlist for Moth Poetry Prize
Left to right: Natalya Anderson, Audrey Molloy, Cheryl Moskowitz and Teresa Ott There is an all-female shortlist for this year’s Moth Poetry Prize, one of the most sought after in the world for a single unpublished poem, with €10,000 awarded to the overall winner and three runner-up prizes of €1,000 by the publishers of The […]

Difficult Women, and Elastic Man, win Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize
Poetry Society Member Nicola Jackson and The Poetry Society’s very own Paul McGrane are joint-winners of this year’s Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize, judged anonymously by Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling of Indigo Dreams Publishing from over 200 entries. As a result, Nicola and Paul will have full collections published in summer 2018. Poetry Society Members […]

Pre-Raphaelite Poetry Prize Winners
Poetry Society Members feature very strongly in this year’s results, with second place going to Poetry Society Member Amanda Oosthuizen for ‘Bells and Marigolds’, the Poet in Residence’s commendation going to Wendy Holborow for ‘The Seeds and Fruit of English Poetry’, and the Vice-President’s commendation going to Eithne Cullen for ‘The Poet on a Pony’. […]

Gail McConnell and Jo Young win Ink Sweat & Tears Competition
Poetry Society Members Gail McConnell (above, left) and Jo Young are joint winners of Ink Sweat & Tears/Café Writers Commission. Both poets receive £2000, a published pamphlet, 100 copies of that pamphlet to do with as they wish and a reading at Café Writers in Norwich in November 2019. “With two poets, seemingly polar opposites, […]
New Poems on the Underground celebrate Foyle Young Poets
A new set of Poems on the Underground, one of Britain’s most successful arts projects, has now been released onto London’s tube network. Seven poems celebrate the diversity, history and vibrancy of poetry, including two past winners from The Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets Awards, now celebrating its 20th year. The poems will be displayed on […]

Tara Bergin, Leontia Flynn, Conor O’Callaghan, Mark Roper and David Wheatley in running for Poetry Now Award
Poetry Society Member David Wheatley joins Tara Bergin, Leontia Flynn, Conor O’Callaghan, and Mark Roper on the Irish Times Poetry Now Award shortlist. The five books chosen are are The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx by Tara Bergin (Carcanet), The Radio, Leontia Flynn (Cape Poetry), Live Streaming, Conor O’Callaghan (Gallery Press), Bindweed, Mark Roper (Dedalus […]
Young Poets Network and People Need Nature inspire winning poems on nature for the second year running
The Poetry Society’s platform for young poetry-lovers, Young Poets Network, and charity People Need Nature have teamed up for the second year running to challenge young writers to explore their relationship with nature. The free-to-enter challenge received over 100 impressive entries from poets aged 8 to 25 from countries as far afield as Canada, New […]
New war poetry competition launched by Prince William
The Poetry Society is supporting a war poetry competition launched by the Duke of Cambridge. The competition, ‘A Poem to Remember’, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War and also the opening of a new Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre for the Armed Forces. The competition, inspired by the war’s famous […]

Helen Dunmore wins Costa Book of the Year
Inside the Wave by the late poet and author Helen Dunmore has won 2017 Costa Book of the Year. The collection, Dunmore’s tenth, explores the borderline between the living and the dead, and the exquisitely intense being of both, and includes her final poem, ‘Hold out your arms’, written shortly before her death on 5 […]

Tammy Armstrong wins Cafe Writers Open
The 2017 Cafe Writers Open Poetry Competition, judged by Liz Berry, is Tammy Armstrong with her poem ‘Road Salt Dome’. Second and third prizes go to Poetry Society Members Elisabeth Sennitt Clough, for ‘Juno’s Augury’, and Sarah Westcott for ‘Fair Maids of February’. Among the Commended poets are Poetry Society Members Ayesha Drury, Sue Davies, […]

Molly Donachie wins Sentinel Poetry Book Competition
Congratulations to Molly Donachie who has won this year’s Sentinel Publications Poetry Book Competition 2017. As a result, Molly will have her winning collection Icarus published later this year, as will Poetry Society Members Konstandinos Mahoney (winner of The Poetry Society’s 2017 Stanza Competition) and John Lindley who were second and third respectively for Tutti […]

Jennie Carr wins Littoral Press Nature Competition
Poetry Society Member Jennie Carr is the winner of the Littoral Press Nature Collection Competition for A Tilt in the Year. The judge was Adrian Green, reviews editor of Littoral. “This collection is notable for its structure and understanding of nature and the interaction of people and nature. Too many nature collections leave out the influence […]
Lydia Kennaway wins Flambard Poetry Prize
Poetry Society Member Lydia Kennaway has won the £1,000 Flambard Poetry Prize. Her collection of poems, which are all linked by the theme of travelling on foot, drew high praise from judges, poets Ellen Phethean and Rebecca Goss. “I am delighted to have won the Flambard Poetry Prize, an award all the more significant when […]
Josephine Corcoran wins Buzzwords Poetry Competition
Poetry Society Member Josephine Corcoran (who is The Poetry Society’s Stanza rep in Trowbridge) is the winner of the 2017 Buzzwords Poetry Competition. Josephine’s winning poem, ‘The Domestic Life of Young Film Lovers’ was described by judge Adam Horovitz as ‘deliciously funny and tender, and a joy to read aloud.’ Josephine wins £600 in prize […]

John Foggin and Amy Kinsman joint-winners of Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize
Congratulations to John Foggin and Amy Kinsman, winners of the 2017 Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize. Among the Commended poets are Poetry Society Members Rosie Barrett and Antony Mair (winner of the Rottingdean Writers National Poets Competition in 2016). Indigo Dreams publish poetry pamphlets and collections, occasional anthologies and three poetry/prose magazines. They also run the […]
"For when there is too much fear there is never enough summer." Sarah Corbett reads tomorrow evening 6.30pm at The Poetry Cafe alongside Susan Wicks to launch the fantastic new exhibition Dorothy's Colour - free event! bit.ly/dorothyscolour…
A good afternoon spent ignoring my emails in the service of interviewing Anthony Anaxagorou for Poetry News as well as podcast type things. Read his poem 'After the Formalities ' if you haven't already. If you have, read it again poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/after-th… twitter.com/Anthony1983/st… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Had a lovely chat with @olliefox and @PoetrySociety about @OutSpokenLDN and my poem After the Formalities which features in the current issue. Podcast will be up soon with a full article of the interview in the next news bulletin. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Calling all Modernists! Apply! Join me! Lecturer in Modernism and Creative Writing Grade 7 at University of Liverpool jobs.ac.uk/job/BIW846/lec… #jobsacuk Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Cancer patients' own poetry of hope temporarily tattooed on their bodies in O, Miami project miamiherald.com/living/health-… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
A contemporary of Keats and Shelley, John Clare outlived both, becoming one of the finest poets of the English countryside. Join us on 13 May for 'Afternoon Poems' celebrating his talent. Free to book now: eventbrite.co.uk/e/afternoon-po… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
#MyHandleExplained 'Poetry': from a variant of the Greek term poiesis - 'making'. 'Society': a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis.
Our handle is taken from a Sir Patrick Geddes quote: 'This is a green world, with animals comparatively few and small, and all dependent on the leaves. By leaves we live. Some people have strange ideas that they live by money.' #MyHandleExplained Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Wahey 👏👏👏 We're especially delighted for Young Romantics Poetry Prize first-prize winner and #FoyleYoungPoet Allegra Mullan, and runner-up Nadia Lines also who won her age category in Young Poets Network's Turn Up The Volume challenge! twitter.com/Keats_Shelley/… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Battered Moons national poetry competition open for entries #poetry @PoetrySociety twitter.com/BATTERED_MOONS… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
BATTERED MOONS OPEN AND CALLING FOR ENTRIEShttps://t.co/XL70XvOm9T
— BATTERED MOONS (@BATTERED_MOONS) April 24, 2018
A bit of talk with @jsamlarose - on challenging the poets he works with "so that an understanding of a Black British voice within poetry can be complicated and detailed in some way, not locked down and defined but so we can appreciate the depth of it" hannahsilva.co.uk/a-bit-of-talk-… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
This Saturday: tickets available for our architectural tour of Keats House. Hear stories of its residents – John Keats, his good friend Charles Brown, and the Brawne and Dilke families – and discover how it was transformed into the building we know today. eventbrite.co.uk/e/architectura… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Christine Michael, Poetry Society Stanza rep for Stratford-upon-Avon, pays tribute to Pat Watson, who died in March. Read Pat’s poem ‘Meeting Moon‘, a winner of Poetry News competition on the theme of ‘Heroes & Heroines’, judged by Kathryn Simmonds poetrysociety.org.uk/news/pat-watso…
For #cityMW here is part of a Wordsworth poem about London: ‘This City now doth, like a garment, wear The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie Open unto the fields, and to the sky; All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.’ Retweeted by The Poetry Society
#MillicentFawcett #poem by Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman And out of these has come a monstrous thing, A strange, down-sucking whirlpool of disgrace, Women uniting against womanhood, And using that great name to hide their sin! poetryfoundation.org/poems/52090/th…
#millicentfawcett statue unveiling pscp.tv/w/ba8BmzE1ODM1… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Poetry on the Picket Line will be publishing a weekly poetry column from Thursday May 10 in the Morning Star @PicketLinePoets morningstaronline.co.uk/article/real-p…
Dylan Thomas’ ‘Do not go gentle…’ first draft revealed as handwritten manuscripts are digitised inews.co.uk/news/dylan-tho… Retweeted by The Poetry Society