by Kate Birch | May 29, 2026 | Word & Image
Flora the Poet In Roundling time when days were young and she grew younger – Flora who dressed in blossoms of the seasons: poinsettia, pansy, honeydew and rose, whose dewy topiary hair was adorned with watermelon-colored dumplings and her face painted mountain ochre,...
by Kate Birch | May 13, 2026 | News, Picks of the Month
An artful description of the feeling by simultaneous belonging and separation of second-generation immigrant from their ancestral homeland That sense of simultaneous belonging and separation, of connection and longing was key to those who voted for this amazing poem....
by Kate Birch | Apr 12, 2026 | News, Picks of the Month
It captures the silence and stillness of childhood snow and all it can mask and hide beautifully It was a poem of two halves. Some voters were drawn to the joy of playing in the snow. It had a ‘vivid wintry feels’, it reminded them of their childhood, with...
by Kate Birch | Apr 11, 2026 | News
The Forward Prizes have given us the green light that our submissions have been successful and we are pleased to announce that poems by John Bartlett, Rachael Clyne and Mariam Saidan are our three nominations for the Prizes Best Single Poem award for 2026. Please join...
by Kate Birch | Mar 7, 2026 | News, Picks of the Month
succinct, modest, affecting portrait of a good but constrained life It takes great skill to make the ordinary extraordinary and the well observed and considered ‘At the Barbers’ by Stephen Chappell has done just that. It is for this reason and many more...
