Features

Close up of Elizabeth Burns face, her head is tilted and she is wearing oval glasses

Parcels of light

Richie McCaffery looks at the poetry of Elizabeth Burns

Houses of the poets

Christopher James tells all about his new 'side-hustle' — paper cut-ups of poets houses

Julia Bird holding her book, she has medium length brown hair and is wearing a purple faux fur coat with a yellow wool scarf. she is standing in front of a white wall.

Castaway Companions

Castaway poet Julia Bird chooses three poems by Michael Donaghy, Eileen Pun and John Keats to take to a desert island

Picture of Emma smiling with shoulder length brown hair wearing blue shirt and dungarees sitting behind a table full of books.

In Conversation: The Friday Poem talks to Emma Dai'an Wright of The Emma Press about what it's like to be a gatekeeper, increased diversity in the publishing industry, and the joy of making nice things

black white head shot of the poet, he is looking upwards to the left and his chin is resting in his hand

I’d found a home

Steven Lovatt on reading poetry in translation, discovering Czesław Miłosz’s anthology Post-War Polish Poets, and the style and sensibility of Zbigniew Herbert

Martin and Helen standing in front of a wall, he is wearing a blue suit with red trainers, she is wearing a slightly retro frock in black with a white lace collar, she has fifty style glasses and a grey cardigan.

And lo! the people came

The Live at the Butchery Zoom readings won the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Night 2021 (despite being on at four in the afternoon). Hosts Helen Ivory and Martin Figura tell us all about them

Photograph of a man walking by a white wall in Kabul, on the wall is an illustration of a man pushing a wheelbarrow with a large red heart shape in it

Voices in a strange land

Feature: The Friday Poem talks to Exiled Writers Ink founding director Jennifer Langer. Photograph of Kabul Street Art by Kabir Mokamel

montage of eight eco poetry book covers illustrated with a variety of trees leaves and one large crashing wave.

What have you done with the blue, beautiful world?

Feature: It’s New Year — a time for making resolutions to live better. And we have a suggestion ...

A thumbs up and a two fingers salute in front of a poetry submission letter

We have never seen worse

Emma Simon asks poets about good rejections, bad rejections, and rejections that leave you hanging on forever

Black and white image of an intense looking young man, on the light grey background are some partially obscured words from Spenders poem "In Railway Halls, on Pavements Near the Traffic"

Two Poetries: Spender, Poetry and Ideology

Chris Edgoose considers Stephen Spender, revolutionary poetry and the need for trust between writers and readers of poetry

A ripe Camembert a bottle of Gaillac red wine with a poem on the label and a half full glass in front of a yellow window. The poem is Zaleo Premium by Matthew Stewart

Beyond the Bubble

Matthew Stewart asks how poetry can reach out to a wider readership

We need to pay attention to those who are calling it like they see it

In Conversation: The Friday Poem talks to James Conor Patterson about the four-way auction over his debut collection with Picador, the real Newry and why poetry is capturing the zeitgeist