The Poetry Society is delighted to announce the winners of ‘The Weariness, the Fever and the Fret’: Writing Illness, Health and John Keats, a writing challenge on The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network as part of its Keats200 celebrations. The challenge was set by Amy Mackelden earlier this year. Inspired by John Keats’s training as […]

Ledbury Poetry Critics have announced the new cohort of nineteen 2021 Ledbury critics, which includes Poetry Society Members April Yee, Hasti, Niroshini Somasundaram and Shash Trevett, as well as Foyle Young Poets and Young Poets Network challenge winners Annie Fan, Gazelle Mba, Isabelle Baafi, Maggie Wang and The Poetry Society’s Education Coordinator Helen Bowell. Ledbury […]

The Poetry Society has released new essays by Paula Bohince and Tarn MacArthur, the latest in the online Behind the Poem series in which poets reflect on the inspiration and development of one or more of their poems in The Poetry Review. Paula Bohince explains how her poem, ‘The Skunk’, published in the spring 2021 […]

The Poetry Society is delighted to announce the winners of the Human Cell Atlas challenge, run on The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network with Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts, as part of a project called One Cell at a Time. One Cell at a Time explores the areas where art and science meet and […]

Young Poets Network gave me a huge sense of self-worth. It really helped me believe that I could be, that I was, a poet. John Blackmore It’s got everything – whether you’d like to read new poems, find resources on writing or find free writing challenges to submit to, YPN’s incredibly resourceful and has been […]

NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is a creative writing project held every April, originally set up by poet and publisher Maureen Thorson in 2003. NaPoWriMo invites poets to write a poem a day for the duration of April, coinciding with National Poetry Month in the US and Canada. To mark the occasion, The Poetry […]

As part of World Poetry Day’s celebrations, the UK’s plans for an AI-powered interactive poetry installation for the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai have been announced. The Expo 2020 is now scheduled to take place in October 2021 – March 2022. Using AI generated poetry, a ‘Collective Message’ will be projected on the façade […]

The 23rd Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, one of the largest and most prestigious awards for young poets aged 11-17 writing original works in English, opens today for entries from young writers aged 11-17. Run by The Poetry Society, with the generous support of the Foyle Foundation, the competition invites entries from both […]

Today – 23 February 2021 – marks the 200th anniversary of John Keats’ death. To commemorate the life and legacy of the young Romantic, The Poetry Society and Keats House, Hampstead, commissioned three poets to write new poems inspired by his work. Ruth Padel wrote ‘Night Singing in a Time of Plague’ in response to […]

As part of the London Borough of Culture 2020 celebrations, The Poetry Society ran a series of workshops in Brent schools during the Autumn term 2020, leading up to the creation of a borough-wide ‘Love Letter to Brent’ film. The final film can be watched below. It explores the borough of Brent through the words […]

To mark LGBT+ History Month this February, The Poetry Society has created a new shelfie, recommending a handful of LGBT+ poets who have made history. Find the shelfie here. For a more in-depth exploration of LGBT+ poets and how to bring them into the classroom, discover our brilliant new free resource by Nazmia Jamal in […]

The Poetry Society congratulates Bhanu Kapil, the winner of the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize for How to Wash a Heart (Pavilion Poetry/Liverpool University Press, 2020). Bhanu Kapil was unveiled as the winner at a digital awards ceremony for the Awards presented by Southbank Centre on 24 January, hosted by Ian McMillan. Chair Lavinia Greenlaw, who […]

Kaleem Hawa‘s poem, ‘Learned Helplessness’, first published in the The Poetry Review last year, is the subject of Katrina Naomi‘s online critique for The Poetry Society’s ‘In Front of the Poem’ series. It’s a poem that works at speed, Katrina Naomi writes: “I find myself considering how much the box of the prose poem contains […]

Amanda Gorman became the youngest poet to participate in an American presidential inauguration, when she performed her new poem, ‘The Hill We Climb’ for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Washington on 20 January.   “Where can we find light in / This never-ending shade?” Gorman’s poem asks, going on to speak of a country […]

    The second Versopolis Festival of Hope is launching on 21 January 2021 at 6pm GMT which will be broadcast daily via their website and social media channels, and The Poetry Society is delighted to be involved again in this year’s festival, this time presenting a Young Poets Takeover event. The new festival follows […]

Our lives, whether in the city or the country, are inextricably linked to nature. This is the nature poetry that I am interested in. One that does not disregard the human element or involvement. I want poems that are able to appreciate nature in different, interesting ways. Tell me about the park that sits alongside […]

Every year The Poetry Society commissions a poem, welcoming Norway’s gift of a Christmas tree to London’s Trafalgar Square as part of its Look North More Often project. This year’s poem, ‘The Christmas Pine’, is by Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo and a former children’s laureate. The poem is always unveiled as part of […]

The Poetry Society has commissioned a wonderful new poem,‘The Christmas Pine’, by the former children’s laureate and author of The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson, as part of the long-running Look North More Often programme. The poem will be unveiled as part of the lighting-up ceremony of the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree. The poem is also printed […]

The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network has teamed up with Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts to challenge young writers everywhere to respond to the language of the Human Cell Atlas through poetry. Inspired by a poem by Vona Groarke, writers aged 25 and younger worldwide are asked to pen new poems whose sounds evolve […]

The Poetry Society is delighted to support a new foundation for black poets, the Obsidian Foundation, launched by award-winning poet Nick Makoha. The Obsidian Foundation will provide a one-week retreat for black poets of African descent, who often face multiple barriers of access to literary resources and professional development. The retreat will be led by […]