How can Young Poets Network change your life? This month, we’ll be hearing from some of the young people involved in YPN from the past ten years, starting with two brilliant poets from different continents, who curiously got started with the same challenge. Jayant Kashyap I first got involved in Young Poets Network in 2017, […]
Happy tenth birthday to Young Poets Network (YPN)! To celebrate, throughout April we’re showcasing some of the brilliant things YPN has achieved in the past decade, and hearing from young people whose lives have been changed. In this feature, we’re looking into YPN’s never-before-seen history and some of the highlights of the past ten years. […]
Today we’re asking: how can you get into academia? How do you become a poetry critic? How do you balance writing poetry and writing about poetry (and is there such a thing as too much poetry)? We’re speaking to Sandeep Parmar who lectures at the University of Liverpool and co-founded the Ledbury Poetry Critics programme, […]
Many famous poets were also activists, but how many historical figures do you know who wrote poetry for fun – and what can their writing tell us about them? In this feature, poets Jay Bernard and Walt Hunter explore the under-appreciated writings of Claudia Jones, who was most famous for setting up London’s first Caribbean […]
With 80% of young people saying their mental health is worse because of the pandemic, we all need to find ways to be kinder to ourselves. As part of her new campaign #WriteThroughThis, Young People’s Laureate for London Cecilia Knapp offers some tips on how to have fun and (re-)discover the magic of writing, even […]
Foyle Young Poet Libby Russell explores what we gain when we read queer poets. Maybe I’m biased, but I think poetry is the perfect medium to explore, understand and celebrate queerness. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick said the word ‘queer’ could refer to ‘the open mesh of possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and excesses of […]
February is LGBT+ History Month, so we asked some recent Foyle Young Poets to share their LGBT+ poet-heroes. Dive in! Paul Verlaine (1844 – 1896, France) Nadia Lines writes: French poet Paul Verlaine isn’t so much of a hero, but really a slow-motion train wreck of a person. He was a late nineteenth century French […]
We reflect on the recent global attention on one young poet: Amanda Gorman. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even as we tired, we tried. Since the inauguration of President Biden earlier this week, everyone has […]
Today we hear from two writers who have made careers in literature organisations, at times combining part-time jobs and starting their own companies! In this feature, Ed Cottrell speaks about his roles in digital content and marketing for New Writing South and Modern Poetry in Translation, while Julia Bird tells us all about how she […]
A Story About Water so there’s a scorpion and a frog—they’re trying to get across this river—the scorpion says to the frog take me—the frog says are you sure because if you sting me we’ll both drown—the scorpion says of course i’m sure—so the frog takes the scorpion and the scorpion stings the frog and […]