We are delighted to announce that this year’s Patrons of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award are Matt Abbott and Theresa Lola! Matt is a poet, educator, and activist from Wakefield. His debut collection for children, A Hurricane in my Head, was published by Bloomsbury in summer 2019. In April 2020, he released […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Member Laura Scott who has won the Seamus Heaney Centre First Collection Poetry Prize for her debut collection So Many Rooms (Carcanet, 2019). This prestigious prize is awarded annually to a writer whose first full collection has been published in the preceding year, by a UK or Ireland-based publisher. The winning […]
With libraries beginning to re-open, The Poetry Society launches a series of virtual bookshelves with reading suggestions for young people. We’re also asking you to send in your own poetry recommendations for young readers. Find out more. above: shelfie by Foyle Young Poets Browse, borrow, request, renew – lovely words to me. A library […]
When searching for this year’s commission for our annual National Poetry Competition artwork, The Poetry Society immediately fell in love with Arna Miller’s menagerie of cute but strangely menacing animals, cast into vintage, circus-like artwork alongside beautiful lettering. You can see Arna’s artwork for this year’s competition above, and read our interview with the […]
It’s that time of year when, in normal circumstances, some 200,000 people would don their wellies and flower crowns, and head off to camp in a field for four days. Yes, it’s Glastonbury weekend! Although this year’s festival was cancelled, the BBC has stepped into the breach with a whole programme of highlights from past […]
Poems that transcend their moment and are renewed with fresh meaning in the wake of future events is an aim of the latest issue of The Poetry Review, edited by Emily Berry. The issue features new poems by Moniza Alvi, Isabelle Baafi, Jodie Hollander, Amaan Hyder, Tom Jenks, Rachel Long, D. Nurkse and Jack Underwood, […]
The Poetry Society is pleased to announce a duo of award winners, for two fantastic poems published across our publications in 2019. Congratulations to Phoebe Stuckes, who has won the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize for ‘Thus I became a heart-eater’. The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize is for the best poem published in The Poetry Review by a […]
The four winners of the third Coast to Coast to Coast Individual Poet Journal Competition have been announced and each will receive Limited Edition hand-stitched journals – including Poetry Society Members Clare Best, Stephen Keeler and Maria McManus, alongside Sarah Salway. The journals will be created for launches in Liverpool in Spring 2021. There were […]
Glyn Maxwell has selected his winners of this year’s Ware Poets Open Poetry Competition. First prize goes to ‘Curling’ by Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan is the Editor of Poetry Wales and runs poetry feedback sessions – Poetry Surgeries – on behalf of The Poetry Society and you can book online sessions with him now. Second prize […]
Coinciding with the release of the Summer issue of The Poetry Review, The Poetry Society is running a Midsummer digital subscription promotion from Midsummer’s Day on 24 June running until 7 July. Use the code MIDSUMMER20 at the checkout on the Exact Editions website for 20% off a year’s digital subscription (normally £24.99, now £19.99) […]
For this year’s National Writing Day, The Poetry Society has asked Pascale Petit to delve into the National Poetry Competition archives, taking two poems from the competition’s history as the starting point for a brand new writing resource on eco-poetry. Whether poets are looking for prompts for group discussion on nature writing, or want a […]
22 June marks Windrush Day. To commemorate it and to celebrate the work of Caribbean poets, The Poetry Society will be sharing poems by poets of the Windrush generation from the Poems on the Underground collection on Twitter throughout the day. Poems on the Underground has been offering poetry to London’s tube travellers since 1986. […]
Inspired by Stonehenge’s plan to live-stream the Summer Solstice, The Poetry Society is gathering together a selection of sunshiny (and sunburnt) poems to accompany the northern hemisphere’s longest day. Check #poetrysolstice on The Poetry Society’s Twitter account on Sunday 21 June for some sun-themed poetry, and if you or young writers you know are inspired […]
Over the past few months, The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network has been working with Newcastle University, asking young poets to delve into and respond to the digital Bloodaxe Archive. We launched a series of four writing challenges, designed to lead young poets down new paths and to write in response to poems they found […]
Congratulations to everyone who received a Society of Authors award this year, including a healthy number of Poetry Society Members. Neil Rollinson and Inua Ellams each receive a Travelling Scholarship, enabling British creative writers to keep in touch with colleagues abroad. Roseanne Watt receives a £4,000 Somerset Maugham Award for published work by writers under […]
15-22 June is Refugee Week 2020. To mark it, The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network has launched a new poetry translation challenge in partnership with Modern Poetry in Translation. Young people up to the age of 25 are invited to co-translate a poem by Suhrab Sirat, a poet, writer and journalist in exile from Balkh […]
Moyra Donaldson and Naomi Foyle have chosen their shortlist for the the fourth Mairtín Crawford Poetry Award and it includes four Poetry Society Members: Alan Weadick, Elena Croitoru, Estelle Price, and Maia Elsner. The shortlist is completed by Patrick James Errington and Ruby Fatimilehin. Alan Weadick has been publishing poems widely for over ten years, […]
Congratulations to Valzhyna Mort who has been shortlisted in the Forward Prizes’ Best Single Poem Category for her poem ‘Nocturne for a Moving Train’, first published in The Poetry Review’s Autumn 2019 issue. The poem, which draws the personal, the political and the pastoral into the focus of a single cross-continental train journey, can be […]
‘On the eve of my 40th birthday I watch a news report about a pet alligator’ is the brilliant title by Poetry Society Member Jeanette Burton, chosen by Jonathan Edwards as the winner of this year’s Welshpool Poetry Competition. Jeanette wins £150 for her poem and had another, ‘It is difficult to write a poem […]
Billy Collins has chosen Poetry Society Member Vanessa Lampert‘s poem ‘Some Pleasures’ in second place in the Fish Publishing poetry prize. Vanessa wins a week in residence at Anam Cara Writer’s and Artist’s Retreat in Ireland. All the winning poems will be published in the Fish Anthology 2020. Billy said of Vanessa’s poem: A version […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Member Joanna Ingham, picked by Wendy Pratt as the winner of the inaugural Paper Swans Press competition for her poem ‘Scan’. “Scan takes a complicated, emotionally difficult situation and transforms it into a landscape. It’s an imagery dense poem that never loses the metaphorical map, a poem which keeps the reader […]
Poetry Society Members Mary Noonan and Julia Copus are included on the shortlist for the first annual Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry – to be awarded to a full-length book of poems by a living poet who is not a US citizen published in the previous calendar year. The 2019 short list is: • T.O. […]
Congratulations to Poetry Society Members Rosalind Easton and Sarah Wimbush, who join Jill Penny and Wendy Pratt as the winners of this year’s Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Competition, judged by Imtiaz Dharker and Ian McMillan. Rosalind Easton wins for her collection Black Mascara (Waterproof). Black Mascara (Waterproof) is full of wicked invention, retelling […]
The winners have been announced for the 2020 FPM-Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine: and they are both Poetry Society Members. Sarah James (Leavesley) is the winner of the Open Prize and Judith Wozniak has won the Health Professional Prize. This year’s judges were Roland Jackson and Lawrence Sail. With an awards fund of £5500, […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Member Alasdair Paterson who will be published alongside Elvire Roberts and Mark Granier for winning the Candlestick Press ‘Getting Older’ poetry competition from 900 entries judged by Costa-shortlisted poet John McCullough. All three poets each receive a cash prize and their poems will appear in Ten Poems about Getting Older to […]
Congratulations to Gary Bills, a runner-up in the 2020 Robert Frost Poetry Contest for his poem ‘Change After Whispers’. Hailing from Ledbury, Herefordshire, Gary was the only British poet in the list of ten. Pnina Shinebourne is longlisted for her novel-in-verse Unbridled Messiah in the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. The longlist for the Prize, now […]
The Exmoor Society has announced the winners of its poetry competition for 2020. The purpose of the competition is to inspire people about Exmoor, one of England’s finest landscapes, and especially poignant this year with the travel restrictions. The judges were impressed with the standard of entries. Rachel Thomas, The Exmoor Society Chairman, said: ‘I […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Members Michaela Coplen and Felicity Sheehy, first and second in the York Poetry Prize judged by Sean O’Brien. Michaela’s winning poem ‘Venus Victrix’ is described by Sean as: …a subtle and musically assured dramatic monologue which revisits a theme that has fascinated American writers since Henry James and Edith Wharton – […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Member Jenny Mitchell who has won the Fosseway Writers Poetry Competition on the theme of ‘remote’, judged by Leanne Moden. Jenny’s poem is called ‘How to Grow an Orchid’. Her prize-winning debut poetry collection Her Lost Language is available from Indigo Dreams. Her poems have been broadcast on Radio 4 and […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Members Natalie Crick and Pippa Little who are second and third in this year’s Newcastle Poetry Competition Adult Poetry Prize, judged by Colette Bryce. The winner is Damien O’Brien. Hurray! to fellow Society Member Vanessa Lampert (Highly Commended) and to Foyle Top 15 winner 2018 Georgie Woodhead, a winner in the […]
Poetry Society Member Nigel Speight‘s poem ‘Auntie Florence’ has won Holland Park Press’s Is Royalty Relevant? Competition. After studying in Oxford Nigel Speight taught English Literature and was Head of an English Department. This overlapped with 40 years as a journalist in the gambling industry and a stint as a chuchwarden in St. Mary Magdalen’s, […]
Poetry Society Member Jane Wilkinson is the winner of this year’s Strokestown International Poetry Prize for her poem ‘If I were to land’. Judges were John F. Deane and Enda Wyley. Jane was first – and second – in the Guernsey International Poetry Competition earlier this year and was also winner of the Against the […]
Deborah Harvey has chosen Poetry Society Member Rachael Matthews’ poem ‘Ghazal: The Sea’ as the winner of the inaugural Coastal Writing for Wellness Competition. Fellow Society Members Sarah James (Leavesley) and Marion Ashton were Commended. The competition is organised by The Beach Hut, an online coastal themed platform for contemporary poetry & flash fiction: “Celebrating […]
Congratulations to Poetry Society Member Sarah Watkinson, second in the 2019 Mother’s Milk Books Poetry Prize, judged by Ruth Aylett and Beth McDonough, for her poem ‘Maternity Leave in the Age of Giorgione’. Fellow Poetry Society Member Erin Coppin was Commended for ‘Plum’. Sarah has just published a pamphlet with Romola Parish, The Woods of […]
Stephanie Norgate has chosen Poetry Society Member David Swann‘s poem ‘Bulletin from Blue Yonder’ as the winner of this year’s Binsted Prize, part of the South Downs Poetry Festival. Fellow Poetry Society Members Pat Murgatroyd (‘Teaching Refugees in the Church Hall’) and Sue Davies (‘Stonewalling’) are second and third respectively. Stephanie: In this time of […]
Earlier in 2020, The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network teamed up with the Freud Museum London to run their third writing challenge together. They asked young poets aged up to 25 worldwide to submit poems about how the climate crisis has affected them and their mental health. The responses were overwhelming. Hundreds of poets from […]
Artlyst and The Poetry Society are delighted to announce the longlists for the inaugural Art to Poetry Award, in both the adult and youth competitions. The Artlyst Art to Poetry Award is a new international award for poetry responding to works of art. It launched in December 2019. The adult entries were judged by the poet and art […]
The 2020 National Poetry Competition is now open for entries! This year’s trio of expert judges are renowned as award-winning poets and editors. Poet Neil Astley, the distinguished editor of the poetry publishing house Bloodaxe Books, is well known for best-selling anthologies such as Being Human and Staying Alive. Jonathan Edwards has won the Costa […]
Poetry Society Member Nancy Campbell is the recipient of the Royal Geographic Society’s Ness Award for the popularisation of geography through poetry and non-fiction writing. These are part of a series of awards that recognise extraordinary achievement in geographical research, fieldwork, teaching, policy, and public engagement. Nancy says on Twitter: “Honoured to receive this year’s […]
Congratulations to Poetry Society Member Heidi Williamson, this year’s winner of the 2019 Plough International Poetry Prize, judged by Greta Stoddart. Greta chose Heidi’s poem ‘With a rootless lily held in front of him’. Heidi runs Poetry Surgeries by Skype on behalf of The Poetry Society, offering feedback on your poems-in-progress. In her twenties she […]
I DIDN'T KNOW THIS. I have a review in The Poetry Review!!! (It's no use, I'm definitely going to have to read the book...) Thank you, very much, to Carol Rumens, @PoetrySociety @NineArchesPress, & Alison... 🙏❤️ (May have to delete later when I've seen what the review says...) twitter.com/ABRACKENBURY/s… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Wow these poems by 11-17 (🤯) year olds have made the rain go away today - thanks to @Foyles young poets of the year booklet from @PoetrySociety & Gs @RaymondAntrobus @JackieKayPoet for choosing them❣️ Retweeted by The Poetry Society
What are the best poems about football? @BenWilko85 "I’d recommend checking out Don Paterson’s ‘Nil Nil’, Simon Armitage, Sarah Wardle, Neil Rollinson..." theguardian.com/football/2020/…
#ArtsCrowds We enter the music as we enter a sea, wishing to be transformed in some small, elemental way... When the silence, when our immersion ends, we all stand and clap our flippers like hands. @michaelshann1 poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/blakeney…
I just entered the bit.ly/natpocomp #NationalPoetryCompetition via @PoetrySociety Retweeted by The Poetry Society
The Friends of poet @helencadbury have created a Poetry Exchange at her bench in @Glen_gardens in York. Everyone is welcome to sit & enjoy reading one of the books 📚 or borrow one, leaving another in its place.
William McGonagall: The story of Scotland's "best worst poet" thenational.scot/news/18565141.…
Linton Kwesi Johnson: ‘It was a myth that immigrants didn’t want to fit into British society. We weren’t allowed’ theguardian.com/books/2020/jul…
Treated myself to this a few days ago and been working my way through the dreamy archive ever since. twitter.com/poetrysociety/… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
It's the final day of the Midsummer Poetry Review offer! 20% off an annual digital subscription @exacteditions for Poetry Review including the brand new Summer issue and the modern archive. Details here https://t.co/UseiAAOdUX pic.twitter.com/I0SVhYNVax
— The Poetry Society (@PoetrySociety) July 7, 2020
Delighted to be a Patron of the #FoyleYoungPoets of the Year Award 2020, alongside the wonderful Matt Abbott (@MattAbbottPoet) Read more bit.ly/38DmH6e If you're aged 11-17 you can enter for the Foyle Young Poets Award at foyleyoungpoets.org deadline is 31 July. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Ridiculously excited to get my copies of @magmapoetry and @PoetrySociety's Poetry News today and to have a poem in both next to some fantastic poets 🥳✍️ Retweeted by The Poetry Society
This, to me, is a perfect poem. It’s so well written. I have been thinking about it for hours ❤️ @Elaine__Beckett Retweeted by The Poetry Society
From the outside, working in the arts can sometimes seem mysterious, impenetrable, or even impossible. So we're asking arts professionals to share their career paths, starting with @ace_national's James Trevelyan and @ledburyfest's Phillippa Slinger: ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk/features/how-t… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Some entries of NI interest here on the reviews front in the latest @PoetrySociety Review .. @nemoloris @RoryWaterman Carol Rumens Medbh McGuckian Colette Bryce @seanehewitt ... Love, as they say, in “the nighttime of life” .. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
It's the final day of the Midsummer Poetry Review offer! 20% off an annual digital subscription @exacteditions for Poetry Review including the brand new Summer issue and the modern archive. Details here bit.ly/reviewmidsummer
Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson has been awarded the PEN Pinter Prize 2020. He will receive the award in a digital ceremony co-hosted by the British Library on 12 October, where he will deliver an address. englishpen.org/posts/news/lin…
Benjamin Zephaniah: 'Coppers were standing on my back and I thought: OK, I’m going to die here.’ theguardian.com/books/2020/jul…
Here’s @ArtsCouncilNI ACES poet and writer @JCPattz in the latest @PoetrySociety Review. Subscribe for the full poem, which is in tribute to Ciaran Carson .. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
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