It’s not often that a letter is sent to a national newspaper in the form of a poem – even when it’s from a poet. But Blake Morrison chose to do so in a letter headed  ‘A compilation of terrorists’ – it’s also the title of the poem - that was published in the Guardian.

In it Morrison lists people ...

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Raymond Antrobus and Zoë McWhinney have been shortlisted in the performance poem category for the 2025 Forward prizes, in the first year the prize has been open to poems performed in British Sign Lang...

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A poetry collection that has been said to confront experiences of abuse in a lesbian relationship as well as the relationship between a mother and daughter has won the Wales Book of the Year award for...

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Heartening news about the healing power of open-mic poetry – something we at Write Out Loud have always evangelised about – has come in an article in the Guardian.

In a first-person piece in the ne...

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Words from three of Scotland’s leading poets have been unveiled on the Scottish Parliament’s Canongate Wall, on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. Earlier this year, over 5,000 public votes were cast to choose w...

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Dozens of poets have added their names to a petition signed by 380 writers from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and ...

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Barry Fantoni, author, cartoonist, jazz musician, and creator of the satirical magazine Private Eye’s poet in residence, EJ Thribb, has died at his home in Turin at the age of 85.

As Wikipedia puts...

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A publisher that produced a bestselling anthology about the main trunk road through Wales is launching a new collection of poems about Welsh rivers. Editors Sian Northey and Ness Owen, who put togethe...

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The popular writer, comedian, poet and film and TV producer Henry Normal is turning down an MBE, he revealed to an audience at Whitley Bay during a performance last night. He made the announcement and...

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A campaign has been launched to preserve William Wordsworth’s family home at Rydal Mount in the Lake District, as a site of literary heritage. The poet lived there from 1813 to his death in 1850. It i...

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A momentous occasion has taken place in the poetry realm, an event rarer than hen’s teeth. Write Out Loud ‘old timer’ Graham Sherwood took to the stage for the very first time at Waterstones in Milton...

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Fiona Larkin has won this year’s £5,000 National Poetry Competition with ‘Absence has a Grammar’, which was described by judges Romalyn Ante, John McAuliffe and Stephen Sexton as “very impressive, ing...

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Faber is to publish The Poems of Seamus Heaney later this year, edited by Rosie Lavan and Bernard O’Donoghue with Matthew Hollis. It’s described as the definitive edition of  Heaney’s poetry, featurin...

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This year’s Spring Poems on the Underground posters include Foyle Young Poet Lewis Corry. The poster set was launched with readings outside the tube station at Covent Garden by Lewis, plus poets Niall...

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A poetry magazine that is published once a year has reached its £2,000 target after just seven days of a cash appeal to keep it going. Poet and novelist Richard Skinner said 14 Magazine, which publish...

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The confirmation of £5 million of government investment in the National Poetry Centre in Leeds has been welcomed by the poet laureate Simon Armitage as evidence that his brainchild “will become a real...

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Growing concerns over the development of artificial intelligence has compelled the ALCS (Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Authority) - which recovers money for authors that they are due – to issue ad...

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The American poet Jane Hirshfield has re-posted a poem she first publicised at the start of the first administration of President Trump in 2017, in protest at the new US government’s silencing of stat...

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The multi-award-winning poet Michael Longley has died at the age of 85. Longley was born in Belfast in 1939 and lived in the city until his death, which was announced on Thursday. In the late 1950s he...

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American poet Peter Gizzi has won this year’s £25,000 TS Eliot Prize for his collection Fierce Elegy, described by the chair of judges, Mimi Khalvati as “infinitely sad, yet resolute, and so alive in ...

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Bradford-born poet, spoken word artist and playwright Kirsty Taylor is the dramaturg – the literary adviser - of Bradford 2025 City of Culture, which was launched on Friday night in front of a packed ...

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The poet, artist and film-maker Imtiaz Dharker has been awarded an OBE for services to the arts in the 2025 New Year’s Honours List. Dharker was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014 and b...

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Poets Imtiaz Dharker and Ian McMillan are among celebrities that will read special versions of radio’s The Shipping Forecast to mark the centenary of the forecast on New Year’s Day.

The Shipping Fo...

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Season's greetings from everyone at Write Out Loud to all our users! We just wanted to say how grateful we are to all our Write Out Loud members and visitors. Thank you for all your poetry throughout ...

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Singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy, pictured, has released a new single, a winter-themed song written in collaboration with the poet laureate, Simon Armitage.

The link-up came after Armitage read o...

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The Hungarian-born poet George Szirtes, who came to England as a boy with his family following the Hungarian uprising and Soviet clampdown in 1956, is to be awarded the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry.  

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A tribute to Benjamin Zephaniah was screened on BBC4 on Saturday night to mark the first anniversary of the poet’s death. Dread Poets Society, a high-spirited and often hilarious fantasy in which Zeph...

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BBC Radio’s The Verb will be presenting a special programme looking back at this year’s Morecambe poetry festival at 9pm on Friday 3 January. The programme was recorded at the festival in September th...

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This year’s Poetry Society poem to celebrate welcoming the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree was performed by three pupils from the St Vincent’s Catholic primary school, Westminster at the lighting-up c...

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A native Gaelic speaker from the isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides has been appointed as Scotland’s new Makar, its national poet. Academic, writer and broadcaster Peter Mackay [Pàdraig MacAoidh] is ...

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The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, quoted a couple of words from the poet Philip Larkin in his speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet on Monday night. Sir Keir said: “My Lord Mayor. We have so much to ...

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A debutant poet at a Write Out Loud Zoom night delighted his fellow poets with a fully-fledged sonnet … about poetry on Zoom. Jamie Thompson, pictured, had attended a previous gathering of Write Out L...

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A new poetry anthology has been praised in the editorial columns of a national newspaper. Earth Prayers, edited by the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, was highlighted in a Guardian editorial, wh...

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A well-known north-west poet has written a poem that was performed in the final episode of the hit TV comedy series ‘Alma’s Not Normal’. Gerry Potter told his Facebook followers: “The worst kept secre...

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John Burnside, who died earlier this year aged 69, has been posthumously awarded the 2024 Laurel prize for his collection Ruin, Blossom (Jonathan Cape), it was announced on Saturday night.

The £5,0...

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The New Zealand poet Fleur Adcock, who celebrated her 90th birthday in February with the publication of her Collected Poems, has died in the North London Hospice in Finchley, after a short illness.

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The American poet Victoria Chang has won the £10,000 Forward prize for best collection with ‘With My Back to the World’ (Corsair), which engages with the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, the ce...

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