The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019, for poems by writers aged 11-17, is open for entries – but closing soon! Now in its 21st year, the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is the biggest poetry competition for 11-17 year olds in the world. It’s free to enter and poems can […]
Young Poets Network launches an exciting new feedback programme… Have you written a poem that you’d like to show someone else? Are you wondering which bits of your poetry are working, and which bits aren’t? Do you want a professional poet’s opinion on your work? We’ve got just the thing for you! Young Poets Network […]
If you’re into poetry, you might have heard of Rupi Kaur. With over 3.6 million Instagram followers, she’s one of the best known ‘Instapoets’ – her debut collection milk and honey, which she originally self-published, sold more than 3.5 million copies, was on The New York Times Best Seller List for over 77 weeks, and […]
We’ve teamed up with Modern Poetry in Translation to challenge young poets to translate the poem ‘Today’ by the Armenian poet Lola Koundakjian into English! How? Foyle Young Poet Adham Smart has provided us with a bridge translation, and below he has transliterated the poem to help you get a feel for the sound of it. Find […]
Foyle Young Poets are running Birmingham! From 2018-2020, 16-year-old Aliyah Begum is Birmingham’s Young Poet Laureate, and Richard O’Brien is the adult laureate. How do you become a poet laureate? What does a young poet laureate do, and how does it compare to the adult laureate role? We’ve been finding out… Thanks so much for […]
On 29 March 2019, the date on which the UK was expected to leave the EU, fourteen centres from across Europe organised simultaneous gigs showcasing the responses of young poets to the theme of borders. Spoken word legend Joelle Taylor and Bristol-based arts organisation boomsatsuma are behind the Borderlines project, bringing young people across Europe […]
“If you want to be a poet, go for it.” On 20th March 2019, ten former prize-winners of the National Poetry Competition will be reading at King’s Place, London, celebrating 40 years of the competition. We’ve been speaking to some of the readers – so scroll on for words of advice, encouragement and nostalgia from […]
How can poetry affect life outside poems? What’s it like to be shortlisted for an award? What one book or podcast should you be reading/listening to right now? We speak to the shortlisted poets in the 2018 Ted Hughes Award… The Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry is a poetry prize in the […]
The National Poetry Competition is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a big poetry event at Kings Place, London on 20th March 2019, bringing together ten former winners of the prize. We’ve been speaking to some of the award-winning readers at that event – this week Liz Berry and Mark Pajak offer words of encouragement, and […]
“Read books about embroidery or euchre or how telephones work, or about art history or about the art of art history,” offers Stephen Sexton. “Don’t become complicit in your own failure by not trying,” says Fran Lock. We’ve been speaking to a few of the ten poets who’ll be reading at the National Poetry Competition’s […]