by Kate Birch | Dec 25, 2025 | News
There is no Christmas without peace and yet war and genocide continue and these are ignored or even supported by the so-called ‘developed’ world, by the global north and beyond. The powers that be in Israel and its army continue to decimate Gaza and make...
by Kate Birch | Dec 8, 2025 | News, Picks of the Month
I have lived this. I believe every woman from Iran who reads her words will feel every line of the poems she writes. Two powerful sentences that show why Mariam Saidan’s ‘A Cry’ is the IS&T Pick of the Month for November 2025. This is a...
by Kate Birch | Nov 16, 2025 | News, Picks of the Month
Beautiful, subtle merging of that moment of sporting destiny and the creative process Many talk of poetry in sport but few know that it is very often the subject of poetry and that poetry is perfectly placed to portray the tension, the exhilaration, the atmosphere,...
by Kate Birch | Nov 1, 2025 | News
The Heart and the Stomach Fists of smooth muscle curl in sleep clutch at hunger. Sticky with a sick feeling they anticipate the winter tundra of empty cupboards. They are stirred into living by a shushed conversation between the Fog and the Sea. I press my face...
by Kate Birch | Oct 19, 2025 | News, Picks of the Month
Quietly devasting poem Fresh, alive, original, funny Voters had a range of reactions to our winning poem this month. They saw it as striking, powerful, beautiful, eloquent and ‘quietly devastating’. It was honest and to the point. It was unsettling and yet...
by Kate Birch | Sep 15, 2025 | News, Picks of the Month
Evocative, descriptive, challenging and uplifting The eloquence of phrase and sentiment and timing is brilliant. It is for these reasons and many more that voters chose ‘sclerenchyma’ by John Bartlett as the IS&T Pick of the Month for August 2025. They...
