About the Friday Poem”
First Friday
On the first Friday of the month we put three original, unpublished poems by our poet of the month on our front page. Previous Friday Poems are placed lovingly in our Archive. We also publish poetry book reviews and articles of interest to poets and poetry readers. Subscribers get an email on the first Friday of the month with a Friday poem, details of new reviews or articles, and links to the site. Subscribe to The Friday Poem at the foot of this page.
Who are we?
Hilary Menos
Editor
Hilary Menos won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2010 with Berg (Seren, 2009). Her second collection is Red Devon (Seren, 2013). Her pamphlet, Human Tissue (Smith|Doorstop, 2020), won The Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Competition 2019. Her newest pamphlet is Fear of Forks (HappenStance, 2022). She has worked as a student union organiser, journalist, food reviewer, arts critic, organic farmer, script overseer and dramaturge.
Andy Brodie
Web designer and content manager
Andy Brodie toured the world for fifteen years as co-founder and guitarist of legendary show band The Rhythm Doctors, and now plays original chansons with French band Lucky et les Vagabondes. He was a founder member and director of Exeter-based children’s theatre company Quirk Theatre, and has also worked as a ship agent, a boat builder, a yacht skipper in Greece, an actor with Kneehigh Theatre, and an organic farmer.
Helena Nelson
Consulting Editor
Helena Nelson is a poet, critic, publisher and the founding editor of HappenStance Press and Sphinx Review. Her first collection, Starlight on Water (Rialto, 2003), was a Jerwood / Aldeburgh First Collection winner. Her second was Plot and Counterplot (Shoestring, 2010). She also writes and publishes light verse, including Down With Poetry! (HappenStance, 2016) and Branded (Red Squirrel, 2019). Her most recent collection is PEARLS: The Complete Mr & Mrs Philpott Poems (HappenStance, 2022).
Bruno Cooke
Spoken Word Editor
Bruno Cooke studied Comparative Literature at Queen Mary College and an MA in global journalism at Sheffield University. He has lived in France, China, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, working as a writer, educator, and occasional chef, and has worked as a freelance journalist, primarily for GRV Media, since 2019. He has written one novel (Reveries), four plays and two feature screenplays. He likes, among other things: black and white Japanese films, pub quizzes, fermentation and baklava. Bruno Cooke’s website is at onurbicycle.com.