Features

Lorna with short gray hair, she is wearing glasses.

Ups and Downs

In Conversation: Lorna Dowell talks about her first teachers at school, setting up Poetic Licence, and how creative expression is key to general well-being and mental health

One year of daft editorial pictures

WTAF has been going on with the monthly editorial photos ...

Black and white picture of William looking directly at the camera. He is balding and wearing glasses, he has a black sweater.

The hail clanjamfrie’s singin

Regina Weinert writes in memory of William Bonar (1953-2021)

Photo by Kim Ayres

Photo of Sarah, she has short dark brown hair and is wearing a thin blue scarf and a blue linen top.

Castaway Companions

Castaway poet Sarah Wimbush chooses poems by Ted Hughes, Liz Berry and Paul Bentley to take to a desert island

Photo of Tom standing on a a river bank with a bridge in the background. He has a dark beard and glasses and is wearing a blue waterproof jacket and a grey check scarf

Finding the source

Tom Sastry writes about politics, connection and what poetry is for

a green lawn close up with some bowling balls on it , a red flash on the top left corner reads "The Worlds finest bowls"

Considering the effects

Matthew Paul looks at poems featuring bowls by Stephen Payne, Pauline Stainer and Ted Walker

a hand holding a pen with a blue winners rosette attached to it

The Competition Poem

Is there such a thing as the competition poem? And, if there is, how do you write it? The Frip talks to Ian Duhig, Helena Nelson and Christopher James to find out

A dusk sky, lanterns are strung across the image, its all a bit blurred.

The Understory Conversation: Building Connection

Charlotte Gann talks about her new project, The Understory Conversation

An old Russian Tank and the front of a US military plane in a museum in Korea

North and South

Rory Waterman talks about his time as international writer in residence for Bucheon UNESCO City of Literature and his commission to write about the border

an abstract concrete like shape on a sky background, there are six holes each one drips coloured paint,red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

Andrew McMillan was commissioned to write a poem for the Nymphs and Thugs Disarm Hate x Poetry project. He talks about how he did it, about the impact of public art, and about how a commission can challenge a poet to make something completely new

Sophie sitting at a desk turning to look at the camera, she has a green jumper, two books are on the desk, her chin is resting on her hand.

Poetry: a lockdown journey

Sophie Buchaillard talks about the Writers on Reading podcast, how poetry can be a real conversation between writer and reader, and about the future of Welsh poetry

a man sitting at a table reading a book which hides his face, also on the table is a tabby cat

I’m enjoying the anonymity while it lasts

We talk to the Poet Laureate of Twitter, Brian Bilston, about pressure to publish, how writing about politics can be a form of therapy, and why he's writing love poems now