Here you’ll find a host of ideas about how to go about all things poetry-related – from performing your own poetry to learning how to analyse a poem.
Find out how to…
Read more poems
- Read a poem closely
- Read more Scottish poets
- Read more American poets
- Read more Muslim poets
- Read more LGBT+ poets – and find out what you can gain
- Discover books on themes from climate crisis to Black Lives Matter, hand-picked by our Education Team, poets and young writers
- Read some summer reading recommendations
- Read some more summer reading recommendations!
- Find out more about Imagism
- Find out more about poets such as William Shakespeare, Carol Ann Duffy, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Browning, William Blake, Edith Sitwell, Ted Hughes, John Berryman, Seamus Heaney, Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Wordsworth, Timothy Corsellis, Sylvia Plath, Sarojini Naidu, James Berry, Audre Lorde, Imtiaz Dharker and Claudia Jones
- Unpack a poem by Elaine Beckett and Gboyega Odubanjo from The Poetry Society’s journal, The Poetry Review
- Be inspired by young writers and spoken word artists from the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award and SLAMbassadors UK, and performers at Young Poets Takeovers
Write more poems
- Keep a notebook
- Explore metaphor with Sarah Howe
- Use your own dialect in poems
- Play poetry games
- Procrastinate… creatively!
- Translate poems from another language
- Write a kenning
- Write a haibun
- Write a Golden Shovel
- Write nonsense!
- Write about climate crisis
- Collaborate with your friends
- Write Relief: cope with the exam season with poetry
- Get writing tips from top name poets such as Jo Shapcott, Luke Kennard, C.K. Williams and Matthew Sweeney, as well as young poets from all over the world
- Check out our latest challenges for inspiration
Edit your poems
- Edit your poetry with poet Holly Hopkins
- Edit your poems (tips from your peers!)
- Rewrite your poems to get the best out of them with Cliff Yates
- Title your poems
- Give (and receive) constructive feedback
Perform your poems
- Perform your poems on stage
- Warm up before performing
- Put on a poetry gig
- Perform at a poetry open mic
- Learn a poem by heart
- Beatbox
- Produce a live show
- Video or audio record yourself performing a poem
Submit and share your poems
- Submit your work to a publication or competition
- Start your own magazine
- Set up your own poetry community
- Put together and publish your first poetry book
Work in the poetry world
- Think about what to study at university
- Find an internship
- Write a covering letter
- Write a biog
- Get into publishing
- Work in the arts
And much more…
Hi I am the Editor of Whisper from the Heart Poetry Club and would like to list our competition details on your web site
Is this possible?
Hi Stan,
If you’d like to add an entry to our opportunities section, we’d be glad to hear from you – please contact [email protected].
Thanks!
Young Poets Network
How to send you poem and contact you
Hi Vrinda,
Thanks for your comment. You can enter any of our challenges by reading the ‘how to enter’ on the bottom of the page. Currently we have two open:
– http://ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk/workshop/end-hunger-uk-poetry-challenge/
– http://ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk/workshop/we-dont-intend-that-you-should-be-pleased-a-protest-poetry-challenge-for-universal-suffrage/
We hope to read your poems!
Helen
Hi,
Any tips on publishing under a pseudonym/pen name?
Hi Eva,
Thank you for your comment. When you submit a poem to a magazine or competition, you can usually include a note to say that you’d like to be published under a pen name. If there’s nowhere to say this, don’t worry – if they accept your poem, you can tell the organisers the name under which you’d like to be published.
Hope that’s helpful!
Best wishes,
Helen at Young Poets Network