Christopher DeWeese offers a searching reading of Dominic Leonard’s ‘Eclogue’, in the latest addition to The Poetry Society’s ‘In Front of the Poem’ online series – the facts of it (“The horses are dying”) and the tensions within its language and form that “[keep] the poem slightly off balance”. “Poems teach us how to read […]

Huge congratulations to all on the 2021 T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist. Judges Glyn Maxwell (Chair), Caroline Bird and Zaffar Kunial have chosen the shortlist from a record 177 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers. The shortlisted poets are: Raymond Antrobus, All the Names Given (Picador) Kayo Chingonyi, A Blood Condition (Chatto & Windus) […]

Happy National Poetry Day! This year’s National Poetry Day is on the theme of ‘Choice’ and to celebrate The Poetry Society has an assortment of activities throughout the day for you to pick and choose from including video readings from the Stanza poetry competition winners plus past National Poetry Competition winners, a multiple choice quiz, […]

The Poetry Society has seen a surge in Poets in Schools bookings this Autumn, especially around National Poetry Day, as many schools have been able to invite visitors in again. Hosting a poet in school can support students’ creativity, wellbeing and excitement about poetry, and help them to find their voice. Last week poet Caleb […]

October is Black History Month, and to celebrate the occasion, Poems on the Underground have released a selection of poems by Black poets with close links to England, Scotland, North America, the Caribbean and Africa. The list includes much-cherished writers including Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, Lorna Goodison, Benjamin Zephaniah, Langston Hughes, Jackie Kay, James Berry, Grace […]

The UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 has now officially been launched, featuring an AI algorithm that will use words from thousands of visitors throughout Expo 2020 Dubai to create a poetic ‘Collective Message’ projected onto the front of the pavilion’s cone-shaped structure. The Expo 2020 runs from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. The […]

The autumn issue of The Poetry Review is now on its way to readers worldwide. The print edition of the latest issue, with artist Kate Dehler’s thoughtful poetry hound in the big chair on the cover, is in the mail, but while readers await that reassuring thump on their doormats, they can visit the issue […]

Come and work for The Poetry Society, and combine your energies and ideas with ours! We’re expanding our staff team and have vacancies for a new Head of Operations and an Education Officer. If you have a passion to inspire the creativity of the next generation of young poets, our Education Team would like to […]

Today is International Literacy Day, set up by UNESCO in 1966, an annual celebration of reading and writing to emphasise the importance of literacy as a human right and the importance of lifelong literacy learning for youth and adults. International Literacy Day 2021 focuses on “Literacy for a human-centred recovery: Narrowing the digital divide”, during […]

The fifth Sealey Challenge today comes to an end, though as the Sealey Challenge Twitter account today says “As you finish your last book of the month, remember that poetry can be a part of your life all year long. Don’t stop reading!”  Set up by Nicole Sealey, the challenge is an invitation to read […]

With two months until the National Poetry Competition 2021 closes,  The Poetry Society is releasing a series of video readings over the August bank holiday weekend as part of a series called ‘Then & Now’. In each short video, a poet who has previously been placed in the competition reads their National Poetry Competition winning […]

They’re washing down the towpath walls in Sheffield, ready for the installation of a newly commissioned poem. Poet Warda Yassin has created a crowd-sourced piece exploring the people and history of the Sheffield to Tinsley Canal as part of the Waterlines collaboration between The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust. Over the summer, […]

This August marks the fifth anniversary of The Sealey Challenge, set up by Nicole Sealey, to read a poetry book (or pamphlet) every day for the whole month. To support the challenge and encourage wider reading of poetry, The Poetry Society has asked poets, including contributors to The Poetry Review, to recommend texts for people […]

The National Poetry Competition 2021 is in full swing, and the entries are starting to stack up. As the competition progresses, The Poetry Society is commissioning writing guides from prize winners about poems that have been placed in the competition in past years. The latest of these is by Joe Dunthorne, who was commended in […]

To mark Independent Bookshop Week (19-26 June), The Poetry Society spoke to two booksellers at leading independent bookshops – Kate Claughan of Book Corner, Halifax, and Ross Bradshaw of Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham – about poetry, sales and their hopes going forwards. While the Covid-19 pandemic has posed the retail sector with major challenges, bookshops […]

The Poetry Society is delighted to announce the winners of Young Poets Network’s 10th anniversary writing challenge. Marking ten years of The Poetry Society’s online platform for poets aged 25 and younger around the world, the challenge invited young writers to respond to any of the 136 writing challenges or 253 features published in the […]