Richard ‘Dick’ Copeland, Poetry Society Member and North Herts Stanza Rep for the Letchworth-based Poetry ID, passed away on Christmas Day 2018. Friends and fellow poets pay tribute. “Dick was a mainstay of the group, attending every week if he could with his wife Ann, also an excellent poet, since they first joined over 18 […]
“… It made me realize what you can write about and how you can use language to exert power on the world and your own life.” The Poetry Society has released a new podcast with US poet sam sax, hosted by Joelle Taylor. The podcast also features our eight SLAMbassadors from 2018, and was recorded […]
Foyle Young Poets Jade Cuttle and Aisha Mango Borja will both have their poems read by Natalie Simpson on 30 December 2018 as part of BBC Radio 3’s Words and Music programme. The programme will be available from 17.30 on 30 December here. This episode of Words and Music is titled Rebel, Rebel, marking the […]
The Poetry Society has released a short film of Joseph Coelho’s new poem ‘Look Into My Lights’, commissioned as part of the Look North More Often programme. The short film, created by Hamlett Films, follows three pupils from St Clement Danes Primary School on the day of the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree lighting up ceremony, […]
Turn off the TV, unpeel yourself a satsuma and settle down with the latest copies of The Poetry Review and Poetry News, which will either have safely landed on your doormat, or are speeding the last few miles to you through the post. The latest issue of The Poetry Review includes new poems by Fleur […]
Magma have been running a pamphlet competition to celebrate their 25th birthday and the winner is Alice Willitts for Dear, which will be published next spring. Lisa Kelly: (Dear) received unanimous support from the Magma judges. Every one of us liked it for its imagination, the way it takes interesting risks and the effective use […]
The winners of the 2019 Verve Poetry Festival competition, on the theme of ‘community’, have been chosen by judge Joelle Taylor. The three winning poets will appear at the festival and will read alongside the 21 other commended poets and 6 others who have been commissioned for the anthology by Verve. First place goes to […]
On 18 November 2018 we celebrated another year of SLAMbassadors at King’s Place, London. Eight young poets took part in a writing and performance masterclass led by Joelle Taylor across the weekend of 17-18 November. They then performed brilliant new work created in the masterclasses at Sunday’s Showcase. Big up this year’s SLAMbassadors Aaisha Alfathi, […]
On 10 December Tally Koren and Lord Eames hosted a reception in the River Room of the House of Lords to celebrate the winners of a poetry competition for UK schools on the theme of peace. The event, called ‘Visions of Hope’, included short talks by The Poetry Society’s Director, Judith Palmer; poet Pete Brown; […]
Poetry Society Member Sarah Barr is the winner of this year’s National Memory Day poetry competition for her poem ‘Fog’, and there was further success for fellow member Kathy Miles who was third for ‘Brock’. Poetry Society Member Tony Ward won first prize ‘What Will Survive of Us’ in the Best Poem by a Primary […]
This year marks ten years of Look North More Often, a collaborative Christmas poetry programme. Since 2009, The Poetry Society has commissioned a new poem by a children’s writer to celebrate the friendship between Oslo and London, as symbolised by the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree. Joseph Coelho wrote this year’s poem, taking inspiration from London […]
Poetry Society Members Zillah Bowes and Molly Underwood are on a five-strong shortlist in the £10,000 Manchester Poetry Prize that also includes Katie Hale, Libby Hart and Maggie Millner. Zillah is a writer and filmmaker. She has won the Wordsworth Trust Prize and Poems on the Buses Competition, and was shortlisted for the Wasafiri New […]
Poetry Society Member Jay Whittaker, from Edinburgh, is this year’s winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year for her first full-length poetry collection Wristwatch (Cinnamon Press). Jay: “It was a huge honour – and very exciting – when Wristwatch was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year […]
Congratulations to the four poets on the shortlist for the 2018 Costa Poetry Award. Us by Zaffar Kunial (Faber & Faber) Assurances by J. O. Morgan (Jonathan Cape) Soho by Richard Scott (Faber & Faber) Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan (Faber & Faber) In 2011, Zaffar Kunial won third prize in the National Poetry Competition […]
The shortlist for the 2018 The Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets has been announced and includes Poetry Society Member Gina Wilson for ‘It Was and It Wasn’t’ (Mariscat Press). Congratulations to Gina and her fellow poets on the shortlist: Liz Berry, Ian Parks, Rakshan Rizwan and Carol Rumens. Gina’s first poetry pamphlet, Scissors, Paper, […]
Congratulations to Poetry Society Member Pippa Little who has won this year’s Carers UK poetry competition, judged by Cheryl Moskowitz. Cheryl says of Pippa’s winning poem ‘Inside with English Breakfast’: (it) invites us to view the world through the window of a café and conjures a scene so real you can almost taste it with […]
Mab Jones has picked Poetry Society Member Luke Palmer as winner of this year’s Prole Pamphlet Competition for Spring in the Hospital, which is available to purchase now from Prole. Fellow Member Scott Elder was Commended for My Hotel. A second Commendation went to Paul Jeffcutt for True. Mab on Spring in the Hospital After […]
The top three places in this year’s Battered Moons Poetry Competition have been taken by Poetry Society Members with Julia Webb winning for her poem ‘We is in the bank’, with all bar one of the Commended poets being Society Members too. The competition was judged by Jacob Sam La-Rose and Cristina Navazo-Eguía Newton with […]
On Saturday 27 October four Foyle Young Poets caught the train to Cambridge for the Race & Poetry & Poetics conference Legacies of Colonialism, accompanied by Education Co-ordinator and Foyle Young Poet Helen Bowell, and poet Cheryl Moskowitz. As part of this year’s 20th anniversary celebrations of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, […]
On Saturday 10 November the brilliant poet and educator Colin Watts visited South Shore Academy in Blackpool. The school entered students’ poems into the Young Poets Network challenge with End Hunger UK and won a prize draw to receive a free poet visit. Colin delivered workshops as part of the school’s weekly ‘Shine at South […]
Poetry Society Member John Freeman is this year’s £5,000 winner of the Bridport Poetry Prize for his poem ‘Exhibition’, judged by Daljit Nagra. John was winner of Wales Book of the Year (poetry) 2017 for What Possessed Me (Worple), and National Poetry Competition 3rd prize winner in 2013. Fellow Society Members Vanessa Lampert and Sam […]
Left to Right: Anita Pati, Nina Mingya Powles, Claire Collison Congratulations to Poetry Society Members Claire Collison and Anita Pati who, along with Nina Mingya Powles, are the winners of the first-ever Women Poets’ Prize – launched this year by the Rebecca Swift Foundation in memory of Rebecca, founder of the Literary Consultancy, an editorial […]
The Poetry Society in partnership with the Keats Foundation and Keats House celebrated the birth of poet John Keats today with a service in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. In an annual event, fans of John Keats gathered at the Abbey to read a selection of his poems and lay a wreath by the […]
The Poetry Society’s partnership with the Canal & River Trust has been busying up the waterways this month. We have a newly commissioned poem from canal boat dweller and National Poetry Competition-commended poet Joseph Butler; and our Canal Laureate Nancy Campbell was resident at Oxford Canal Festival to create a crowd sourced poem with festival […]
We are delighted to announce the line-up for the SLAMbassadors Showcase 2018. On Sunday 18 November at King’s Place, London, we will be celebrating the next generation of spoken word artists, hand-picked by Joelle Taylor, as well as 17 years of SLAMbassadors. Eight new artists will work with Joelle Taylor over a weekend of Masterclasses, […]
Ten brilliant young poets are adding their voices, and their poems, to the Poetry Archive as part of a 20th anniversary celebration of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award. This will ensure preservation of their work and place in poetry history. The recording took place on Tuesday October 23rd at The Soundhouse, a […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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’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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
🎚️🎚️New Poetry Mixtape 🌠 @DzifaBenson gives us her top poetry picks including @luckyflowerhowe // Anne Carson // @warsan_shire // Terrance Hayes // @DBtodomundo and more: poetrysociety.org.uk/publications-s…
And there: a girl, running for the riverside. She wore my face, the shade of ash. Book now to see last year's Peggy Poole award winner @YvonneReddick reading @theBluecoat in Liverpool on 13th March, 6.30pm with mentor Deryn Rees-Jones @DerynRJ bit.ly/peggypooleread…
How the public domain offers new life to poetry classics such as "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" pbs.org/newshour/arts/…
Just been on the Today programme talking with @lemnsissay about the growth in poetry sales. I was speaking to the presenter with the phone balanced on my neck while I breastfed my 7 wk old baby. Nice to have a Good News Day for poetry. & empowering to combine media & maternity! Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Guardian poem of the week - The Calabash by Christopher Reid theguardian.com/books/booksblo…
What Mary Oliver can teach us about handling criticism with grace qz.com/quartzy/152820…
Poetry sales soar as political millennials search for clarity theguardian.com/books/2019/jan…
Save the date #WiltsHour Sat 2 Feb 2-4pm Poetry @DrawingProjects #Trowbridge. Tom Sastry was chosen by Carol Ann Duffy for a Laureate's Choice publication (@poetrybusiness) & Bath poet @msiagirl is published by @FlarestackPoets. Event organised by Trowbridge @PoetrySociety Stanza Retweeted by The Poetry Society
We're delighted to be included in a piece about Burns Suppers by James Naughtie in latest episode of From Our Home Correspondent. In his piece, which starts exactly one minute in, he discusses, briefly the Library itself. We have a 'throbbing atmosphere'! bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Announcement! Submissions are OPEN for The Forward Prizes for Poetry 2019. More information and entry guidelines on our website: forwardartsfoundation.org/2019-forward-p… #ForwardPrizes @BookmarkContent @southbankcentre @AndrewPoetry @J_M_Andrews @ShahidhaBari #poetry #prize #ceremony Retweeted by The Poetry Society
UK poetry sales at all time high in 2018, reflecting "a hunger for more nuanced & memorable forms of language" esp. among young. Proud of role played by #NationalPoetryDay & partners. @BAbooksellers @BBCarts @ace_national @educationgovuk tinyurl.com/yavsbpcc Retweeted by The Poetry Society
#mooneclipse I feel a bit crazy tonight, my mood heightened, unstable: maybe because it’s full moon, or maybe because we’re living on borrowed time.... From Borrowed Time #poem by Ruth Fainlight poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/borrowed…
Classical translation klaxon! @sadpresspoetry will launch Adam Roberts' Wodwo Vergil & Roz Kaveney's Catullus @PoetrySociety's Poetry Café, London 15 Feb. Mary Beard called them 'edgy', Neil Gaiman 'scabrous, & gloriously readable'. Come see for yourself! facebook.com/events/3699306… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
“And she says: ‘Hold me upside down by my ankles, and swing me from side to side like a pendulum.’ So I do.” Book your ticket to hear Joseph Butler read with fellow #NationalPoetryCompetition commended poet Jane Slavin and 2017 judge @hannahlowepoet, 6 Feb bit.ly/npccafe
Robert Burns murals unveiled to celebrate life of the bard stv.tv/news/west-cent…
To end the week’s tribute to Mary Oliver here is her I Worried #APoemADay Retweeted by The Poetry Society
In celebration of tonight's moon, my poem Orange Moon, Villanelle for a Vampire #bloodmoon #redmoon @threedropspoems @ProletarianPoet @PoetrySociety @IMcMillan @ianduhig @BBCFrontRow @McgoughRoger Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Two things poets make us know. 1. We have interior lives. 2 Our natural world is broken. #MaryOliver @POETSorg @PoetrySociety @PoetsAndWriters Thanks @jenbenka on CBC cbc.ca/listen/shows/q… Retweeted by The Poetry Society
‘When a book’s gone to press, I think, What is a poem? What are poems for? Where do they come from? Will I ever write one again?’ - @ruthpadel Retweeted by The Poetry Society
Well! The Fabulous Queer Shuffle at the @PoetrySociety cafe was standing room only, life-affirming, and by turns tear-inducing, laugh out loud funny, wistful, gut wrenching and poignant, and best of all in front of an audience who knew what is still at stake Retweeted by The Poetry Society