Laura Mucha has won the inaugural YorkMix Poems for Children Competition for her poem ‘Rapunzel’ [And sweet Rapunzel’s golden curls / would slowly tumble and unfurl / allowing Witch to clamber up / (occasionally getting stuck).] The judge was Carole Bromley: “a superb, funny, original retelling of the fairy-tale. I was delighted to find it […]
We are sorry to announce the death of Carole Satyamurti, poet, sociologist, teacher and former winner of the National Poetry Competition, who died on 13 August. Carole was the author of six collections of poetry – her first three with Oxford University Press and the three thereafter with Bloodaxe. Stitching the Dark: New & Selected […]
This summer, The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network teamed up with Modern Poetry in Translation to challenge young writers worldwide to try their hand at translating poetry. As part of this partnership YPN and MPT set up a free poetry translation workshop with MPT editor and poet Clare Pollard in The Poetry Café. On 14 […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Members Lizzie Holden (second for From the Bottom of the Wishing Well) and Pam Thompson (third for Hireling) in the Paper Swans Press Poetry Pamphlet Prize – won by Jared A Carnie for his pamphlet Lyme. Also Commended was Poetry Society Member Maria Isakova Bennett with fellow Members Lucy Maxwell Scott, […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Members Mary Gilonne, Sheila Aldous and Jenny Mitchell, top three in this year’s Segora Poetry Competition. First prize £300, second £50, Third £30, judged by Maggie Butt. Also on the shortlist was fellow Member Tim Waller. Maggie Butt: “Judging the Segora competition has been hard. Not just because of the number […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Members Robin Houghton, Miranda Peake, Tania Hershman and Katie Griffiths – winners of the Live Canon Pamphlet Competition. All four will have pamphlets published by Live Canon. The competition was for pamphlets of between 18 and 35 poems. The winning publications are Was it the Diet Coke, and other questions – […]
CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Member Roger Bloor, winner of this year’s Poetry London Clore Competition, judged by Sasha Dugdale. Roger’s pamphlet A Less Clear Dream was shortlisted for the Arnold Bennett Book Prize in 2018, and Aldgedeslegh was shortlisted for the Arnold Bennett Book Prize 2019. He is also a Poetry Society Stanza rep in […]
The Poetry Society’s Timothy Corsellis Prize for poets aged 25 or younger is open for its sixth year. Timothy Corsellis was a young poet and pilot killed in 1941. The Prize was set up in his name, with the support of his family, to encourage more people to read the powerful but lesser-known poets of […]
To celebrate National Writing Day in June, Arvon ran a 5-day poetry challenge. Over the course of five days poets were asked to shape up a poem from first to final draft with guidance and exercises from Jen Hadfield. Each poet received an email daily containing a handy writing prompt, dutifully crafted for them by […]
Ledbury Poetry Festival is one of the highlights of the UK poetry calendar, and each year The Poetry Society heads to Ledbury to showcase recent winners of the National Poetry Competition. The most recent festival included readings from 2018 National Poetry Competition winners Ella Frears (commended), Katie Griffiths (2nd prize) and Wayne Holloway-Smith (1st prize), […]
It’s been a bumper year for Poetry Society Members in the 2019 Hippocrates Awards for Poetry and Medicine. Claudia Daventry has won the Open prize for her poem ‘for my Valentine in an fMRI scanner’. Claudia’s work has won several awards and commendations, including Arvon, Philip Larkin and McLellan prizes, and was placed first in […]
Congratulations to Dawn Gorman, the winner of the 2019 Brian Dempsey Pamphlet Prize, judged by Anna Saunders. Dawn will be offered publication of a 36-page pamphlet of her poems, including 20 copies, and £100 cash. Congratulations, too, to Poetry Society Member Derek Adams, one of three other poets on the shortlist. In the Individual Poem […]
Congratulations to Poetry Society Member Helena Goddard who is the winner of this year’s Poetry on the Lake Silver Wyvern competition for her poem ‘Rower, Battersea Lake’, and to fellow Member Graham Burchell, who has won second prize for ‘Dead in the Water’. Graham is a former winner of The Poetry Society’s Stanza Competition, as […]
Ilkley Literature Festival (ILF) have appointed Poetry Society Member Geneviève Carver alongside Shash Trevett as their new Apprentice Poets in Residence for the year. The position is usually awarded to one poet each year but this year the calibre of applications was so exceptional that ILF took the unprecedented step of offering the Apprentice role […]
This summer, The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network teamed up with Moon Festival to challenge young poets to follow in the footsteps of Li Bai, Sappho, P.B. Shelley, Alice Oswald and more – and respond poetically to the moon. The response to the challenge was fantastic. It was one of our most popular Young Poets […]
This Saturday 29th June, find The Poetry Society stand on Earlham St, Covent Garden, London, among the Seven Dials Festival 30 celebrations. The Poetry Society is running a special poetry trail of poems that have featured in its journal The Poetry Review among a series of selected shops in the area. Following the trail could […]
This year’s erbacce-prize for poetry received just under eight thousand submissions and from every country in the world. The winner is Peter D Lyons from Ireland. Close on Peter’s heels were Poetry Society Members Angela Platt, Caroline Maldonado, Colin Dardis, Denni Turp, Karen Tobias-Green, Dino Mahoney, Laurence Bainbridge, Lisa Lopresti, Rodney Wood, and Sarah Steele […]
Tina Cole is the winner of this year’s Welshpool Poetry Competition as judged by Liz Berry. Poetry Society Members Helen Kay and Kathryn Bevis were second and third, with fellow Society Members Jane Burn, Estelle Price, Paul Waring and Kate Wise among the Commendations. This year’s winning poems are: ‘Makeover’ by Tina Cole ‘Hen Coop’ […]
Mary Jean Chan has won The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize for her poem ‘The Fencer’ (now titled ‘Flèche’) for the best poem published in The Poetry Review by a poet who doesn’t yet have a full collection, while Carole Bromley has won the Hamish Canham Prize for her poem ‘First Year’, judged to be the best […]
The winner of the Teignmouth Poetry Prize is ‘Outside Chance’ by Poetry Society Member Linda Saunders. Judge John Greening said: “This poet knows what E.M. Forster meant by ‘only connect’, juxtaposing different elements with immense care and clarity: the shoes, the shell, the glasses, the egg-cups, the elephants, they all process and are processed into […]
Congratulations to Hannah Walker and Emily Vanderploeg who shared the Cinnamon Pamphlet prize this year for their pamphlets Attention and Loose Jewels. The 2019 judge was Ian Gregson. In total, over 500 pamphlets were submitted. Poetry Society Members Maiya Dambawinna (one of the Foyle Young Poet of the Year 2018 winners) and Scott Elder were […]
Plenty of Poetry Society Members on this year’s Live Canon pamphlet competition longlist. The competition was for pamphlets of between 18 and 35 poems. Four pamphlets will be selected for publication by the Live Canon Poetry Press. Poetry Society Members on the longlist are Robin Houghton, Miranda Peake, Maeve Henry, Kathryn Southworth, Tania Hershman, Christopher […]
Candlestick Press have announced the winners of their ‘Snow Poem’ poetry competition, judged by Carole Bromley. In the end they chose three (rather than the planned two) winners and we’re delighted that Poetry Society Member Joanne Key was picked among the three for her poem ‘for the love of snow’. Carole also chose ‘Snow Day’ […]
Poetry Society Member Mary Wight, from Melrose, is the winner of the 2019 Federation of Writers (Scotland) Vernal Equinox poetry competition, judged by Stephen Watt, FWS Makar for 2019. Stephen said of Mary’s winning poem, ‘Fish’ “I found this vibrant, eavesdropping poem incredibly endearing as it rotated like a slideshow with images of friendship, romance, […]
Congratulations to Alice Oswald, who has been elected as the next Oxford Professor of Poetry. She will be the first female poet to take up the prestigious post. Alice Oswald was elected by members of Convocation, which is a group that includes graduates of Oxford as well as the University’s members of staff. Three candidates […]
Congratulations to Damen O’Brien, winner of the 2019 Welsh Poetry Competition for his poem ‘The Map-Maker’s Tale’. This year’s judge was Mike Jenkins, winner of Wales Book of the Year in 1998 and former editor of Poetry Wales. Mike said of Damon’s poem: “it creates in such a short space, a world you inhabit, albeit […]
CONGRATULATIONS! to Poetry Society Member Val Ormrod (who also won the Ware Poetry Competition recently), this year’s winner of the Magic Oxygen Literary Prize for her poem ‘The Gathering’. Success too for Jonathan Greenhause who came third for ‘My Coworker Calls Out Sick’. Jonathan won an Aesthetica Creative Writing Award last year. Samantha Martin was […]
The Poetry Society is delighted to announce the Free Verse Poetry Book & Magazine Fair will be returning next Spring at London’s Conway Hall. The new Poetry Book & Magazine Fair will be held on Saturday 22nd February 2020 and promises to be a memorable day of poetry press sales, conversations and celebration, featuring a fabulous […]
To celebrate Stowe as a place of creative inspiration, the National Trust have appointed Poetry Society Member Dan Simpson as Poet-in-Residence. Dan will be writing in response to Stowe’s Grecian valley, Capability Brown’s first known landscape design, which is scattered with monumentally large temples. This summer, he will be helping to create a new tour […]
We’re delighted to hear that Poetry Society Members Mary Jean Chan and Seán Hewitt have joined former Foyle Young Poet winner Phoebe Stuckes, plus James Conor Patterson, Sophie Collins and Dominic Leonard as winners of this year’s Eric Gregory Awards, for poets under the age of 30. Each poet is awarded £4,725. The full list: […]
We’re delighted to hear that Poetry Society Member Malika Booker is one of four recipients this year of a Cholmondeley Award for outstanding contribution to poetry. Joining Malika on this prestigious list are Fred D’Aguiar, Allen Fisher and Jamie McKendrick. Each poet receives £2,100. Malika Booker is a poet and multi-disciplinary artist of Guyanese and Grenadian […]
The Somerset Maugham Awards are for published works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by writers under 35, to enable them to enrich their work by gaining experience of foreign countries. Past winners include Hari Kunzru, Helen Oyeyemi, Julian Barnes, Zadie Smith and Jonathan Freedland. Each writer is awarded £4,000. We are delighted that Poetry Society […]
The Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Poetry Prize for full first collection. The winner will be announced during the Seamus Heaney Centre’s annual Poetry Summer School, at the Awards Night on Tuesday 2nd July 2019, No Alibis Bookstore, Botanic Avenue, Belfast. Congratulations to the three Poetry […]
Poetry Society Member Amy Evans Bauer has won joint first prize in the inaugural Jonathan Williams Chapbook Prize in the US for her chapbook and umbels, judged by Lee Ann Brown and Evan Gray. Her chapbook will appear with Shirt Pocket Press, US, later this year. Judge Evan Gray writes: “and umbels is a melody […]
Poetry Society Member Anna Kisby has won the Binsted Prize for her poem ‘Five Times Raccoon’. The competition had no theme and was part of the South Downs Poetry Festival, judged by James Simpson. Anna is Research Associate on a writing collaboration between a historian, a playwright and a poet (Anna): Creative Histories of Witchcraft […]
The winner of the Strokestown International Poetry Prize is Majella Kelly from Co. Galway, Ireland with her poem ‘Virginia Creeper’. This year’s judges were Jo Shapcott and Gerard Smyth. Congratulations to Majella and the other winners – Poetry Society Member Rebecca Farmer (second) and Keith Payne (third). Among the ten-strong shortlist were Poetry Society Members […]
The winner of the inaugural Brotherton Poetry Prize, organised by Leeds University, is Dane Holt, a PhD researcher at Queen’s University Belfast. Among the runners-up were Poetry Society Members Pete Green and Maeve Henry, as well as Majella Kelly and Robyn Maree Pickens. The choice was unanimous among the judges, including Poet Laureate (and Professor […]
The Roehampton prize for the best poetry collection of the year has been awarded to Fiona Benson for her collection Vertigo & Ghost, published by Jonathan Cape – described by David Harsent as “a deep and compassionate engagement with human love and fear. No reader could leave this book unaffected or unchanged.” Congratulations to Poetry […]
Poetry Society Member Kaite O’Reilly has been announced as one of twelve writers on the shortlist for the prestigious Gladstones Library Writers in Residence award for 2020. Kaite was awarded the 2010 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for her extraordinary retelling of Aeschylus’ play, The Persians. Now into its ninth year and […]
Congratulations to Poetry Society Members S K Kim, Nick On, and Emma Simon who have been announced as the winners of the 2018/2019 Poetry Business International Book and Pamphlet Competition, alongside Hilary Menos – as chosen by Neil Astley, Michael Schmidt, and Amy Wack. “Good luck to all the authors and a shout-out for the […]
#OctoberPlans. Ahoy there #ThreeVoyagingPoets: Isabel Bermudez, Roisin Tierney and myself. Reading new and recently published work @PoetrySociety Café on October 23rd. Details here: kavitajindal.com/events/ Retweeted by The Poetry Society
.@PoetrySociety Stanza organised by Josephine Corcoran @And_OtherPoems in Trowbridge features @davidcchelt reading from The Europeans on Sat 7 Sept (fortnight) afternoon check Josephine's blog for details and much more ow.ly/8t3Q50vFTrk Retweeted by The Poetry Society
We are kicking off our SLAMbassadors Midlands weekend with the phenomenal @katfrancois & @jessgreenpoet Retweeted by The Poetry Society
About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters: how well they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along... Auden #poem
Don't forget to snatch up our poetry poster offer - reduced from £19.95 to £5 + P&P for just one week: bit.ly/poetryposterset
We have now published all 4 of our August challenges for 2019 - so get writing! They all close mid-September and are free to enter for anyone in the world aged up to 25. They're written by (and will be judged by) teen #FoyleYoungPoets. Links below! youngpoetsnetwork.org.uk Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Our fourth and final August challenge is now online! #FoyleYoungPoet and US Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson is challenging writers to create poems out of questions, inspired by Franny Choi and Jericho Brown. Find out more and enter the challenge: bit.ly/19augchall4 Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Got a poem you'd like a chat about? 1-1 feedback on your poems with @alysonhallett1- Bath, SAT 28 SEP Identify strategies for further developing your writing, discuss problems you may be experiencing and look at strategies for taking your work forward poetrysociety.org.uk/event/alysonse…
POEMS about SMELL: any recommendations, poetic hive-mind??👃🏾😁 . . . . . . . Context: I’m running an olfactory creative writing workshop for @poetryschool which involves many jars with mysterious contents... & poems to get readers’ noses twitching 🥰 Retweeted by The Poetry Society
🙌@lauramucha wins @theyorkmix Poems for Children Competition, chosen by @CaroleBromley1 @PoetrySociety Member Richard Carpenter 2nd, & CONGRATS to Members @jdeanknight @michaelshann1 @WakelingKate @janeburn1971 Jeremy Grant @ShaunaDarRob & Miles Salter poetrysociety.org.uk/news/yorkmixch…
Yes, Poetry Wales is hiring a new editor. Come work with us on a magazine that has a history of publishing the best poetry from the U.K. and around the world ❤️ twitter.com/rhea_seren/sta… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
...and ‘what was all that about?’ we say, as we stumble out of one more ill-spent evening. ‘Love’. Of course. poetrypf.co.uk/carolesatyamur… RIP Carole Satyamurti Retweeted by The Poetry Society
sorry to hear, through @ianduhig , of the death of the wonderful Carole Satyamurti; this astonishing achievement, her retelling of the Mahabharata , will last a very long time Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Sad to hear of the death of Carole Satyamurti. I found her to be a gracious, gentle person when she led an Arvon course that I did (years ago). Loved her poetry too. RIP. twitter.com/ianduhig/statu… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Carole Satyamurti RIP Retweeted by The Poetry Society
We are very saddened by the news of Carole Satyamurti’s sudden death: bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
RIP Carole Satyamurti. A poignantly fitting share of her fantastic poem ‘Passed On’, which explores loss, legacy, and letting go. Retweeted by The Poetry Society
