Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2024
Now open! Judged by Vanessa Kisuule and Jack Underwood 
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<p class="summary"><img class="size-full wp-image-239909 alignleft" src="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cover-image-from-pcard-tall-lighthouse-218x300-1.jpg" alt="" width="218" height="300" />Celebrate the launch of Brendan Cleary's elegiac poetry pamphlet with readings from Brendan, Matthew Caley, Michaela Coplen plus others TBC.</p>

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FREE for all - poetry reading & signing & wine!

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<div class="event-details__section-title"><a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/brendan-cleary-last-poems-launch-party-tickets-890072499807">Book a free ticket with Eventbrite here.</a></div>
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<em>The Poetry Society is pleased to present its 2024 programme of workshops, in which expert poets will lead generative workshops on a topic which inspires and intrigues them. Our May workshop is <strong>Monstrosity as Diasporic Form </strong>with <b>Will Harris.</b></em>

‘What is born in England but is never English?’ What grew a tail? What leaned over and rested its hands on its knees? An immigrant has a set of complex origins, is from elsewhere; the monster is made, on the other hand, from local mixtures of organic and inorganic materials, repurposed teeth, selenium, lungs, pink lightning, public health concerns. [...] I thought I was writing about an immigrant. I was writing about a monster.

—Bhanu Kapil, <em>Ban en Banlieue</em>

Who rests best as conspiracy // Nostalgia // Uncatalogued // Monster

—Eunsong Kim, <em>Gospel of Regicide</em>

In this workshop, join Will Harris to take the patched-up materials and hand-me-down traces of other struggles, lost homes and lives to construct new monsters of your own.

<strong>Will Harris</strong> is a London-based writer. He is the author of the poetry books <em>RENDANG</em> (2020) and <em>Brother Poem</em> (2023). He co-translated Habib Tengour’s <em>Consolatio</em> with Delaina Haslam in 2022, and helps facilitate the Southbank New Poets Collective with Vanessa Kisuule. <em>Siblings</em>, a conversation between Jay Bernard, Mary Jean Chan, Harris and Nisha Ramayya, is published by Monitor Books.

<em>This workshop takes place in-person at The Poetry Café, London. Suitable for all levels of writer. 18+ only.</em>
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Come along to hear from the up-and-coming stars of the poetry world…

This Young Poets Takeover will feature some of the most recent winners of the <a href="http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/foyle-young-poets-of-the-year-award/">Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award</a> and the writing challenges on <a href="https://ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk">Young Poets Network</a>. But there’s also an open mic section for absolutely anyone aged 25 or younger to sign up and perform.

Tickets are <strong>free, but booking is essential. </strong>We hope you’ll be able to meet some of your peers as well as listen to some top-notch poetry. So join us for a poetry gig by and for young writers, hosted by The Poetry Society’s Education Co-ordinator Cia Mangat.

<strong>Want to perform?</strong>

If you’re feeling brave, <strong>arrive at 2pm</strong> to sign up for a 2 minute open mic slot. We welcome all styles of poetry, and writers at all stages in their development. It’s first come, first served and open mic slots are popular, so arrive promptly to get your name on the list!

<strong>Just want to listen?</strong>

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If you don’t want to perform but do want to hear young talent and meet your poetry peers, come along! We definitely encourage getting to know other young poets (though mingling is not required).

Arrive at 2pm for tea and chat. Readings start at 2.30pm promptly.

Email queries and any access requirements to <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>. The Poetry Cafe has a lift between the ground floor and basement, an accessible toilet and a hearing induction loop.

Get involved in the <a href="http://ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk/">Young Poets Network</a> community by <a href="http://ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk/sign-up">signing up to our mailing list</a>, and entering our <a href="http://ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk/workshop/">free competitions</a> for young people!
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FREE Launch Party of Brendan Cleary’s ‘last poems?’

Celebrate the launch of Brendan Cleary’s elegiac poetry pamphlet with…

In-Person Workshop: Monstrosity as Diasporic Form with Will Harris

The Poetry Society is pleased to present its 2024 programme…

Young Poets Takeover in The Poetry Cafe

Come along to hear from the up-and-coming stars of the…

View more...

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Featured Poem

'Sertraline fever' was commended in the 2023 National Poetry Competition, judged by Will Harris, Clare Pollard and Jane Draycott. From the judges: 'This brilliantly intense poem is a fever-dream, the speaker trying to find meaning by obsessively noticing orange - kimchi, chimney pots, tomcats, cantaloupe. The sense of building mania is visceral and truly disorientating; the ending devastating. I was all in.'

More poetry »

Sertraline fever

by Katie O’Pray

                       I dreamt thick
marmalade – elastic bagels – dad’s
chevy – everything good bleeds
orange – I’ve been noticing –
the pause before the traffic slows
or starts – the cars do move but
gingerly – I’ve woken to the steamed
peaches of my windows – jangled
bags of groceries and the change
tray on the bus – copper-full – both
my childish earrings tugging
at my lobes – I like to eat orange
zest and hot sauce and butter
-nut squash – everything good blushing
warm and dusky – kimchi – inari –
the streetlights twitching on
in my feeble little body – I am finding
the orange in every scene – panning
to a chimney pot – a salt lamp – to ripped
and rolled train tickets – herb glow –
my neighbour’s brickwork but not mine –
a skulking tomcat – I tip my hat
to him – I am a starlet playing
my role so perfectly – I feel like
a breaking fever – a clockwork
cantaloupe – putting the plastic
in the recycling bin and moving
my beech lipstick around my lines
with poise – drawing attention –
my own mouth giving it all
meaning – I am humming along to channel
orange in the kitchen – sweet life – being
happy enough to bear it – smiling wide
as a tiger – I’m collecting orange hearts
on instagram – can’t hear anyone
else talking much – just the hiss
of my candles getting smaller – them –
becoming more orange flame than wax

The Poetry Society was founded in 1909 to promote “a more general recognition and appreciation of poetry”.  Since then, it has grown into one of Britain’s most dynamic arts organisations, representing British poetry both nationally and internationally.  Today it has more than 5,000 members worldwide and publishes The Poetry Review.

With innovative education and commissioning programmes and a packed calendar of performances, readings and competitions, The Poetry Society champions poetry for all ages.

More about the Poetry Society…