by Kate Birch | Apr 19, 2024 | News
Keen to develop your writing and stagecraft? Ink Sweat & Tears asks three top poets to share some tips by Tim Relf Finding time to write is a big hurdle for most people, says Holly Winter-Hughes. ‘I used to have a romantic notion that my best...
by Kate Birch | Apr 12, 2024 | News, Picks of the Month
This poem is pure enchantment. The captivating vocabulary intensely immersive imagery had the hairs on the back of my neck prickled from the outset. Voters loved the imagery, the descriptive power of this poem. They found it evocative, eerie, heart-wrenching. And for...
by Kate Birch | Mar 26, 2024 | News
Each year, we select our three submissions for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem from those winning and shortlisted poems from our Pick of the Month series that remain eligible. This year our choices are Eve Chancellor’s Two Girls on a Greyhound, The Sorry...
by Kate Birch | Mar 11, 2024 | News, Picks of the Month
Loss captured beautifully. This poem was absurd, gritty, weird, clever. It made people cry but had a humorous touch. Some felt it was about grief, some about getting old, others about being taken advantage of. And for all these reasons and more, ‘Burglaries’ by Darren...
by Kate Birch | Mar 6, 2024 | News
The Year of Return In 1962, 5th year of Ghana’s birth, 2 MP’s fail to assassinate President Kwame Nkrumah who shouts “Long live African independence!”, Kojo Besia stay in hiding, whilst Grandmother stands still, lengthy, sturdy. Beehive combed and poofy holding...
by Kate Birch | Feb 18, 2024 | News, Picks of the Month
‘It is so spare – every word used to the max – beautiful, slow, confident, visceral words. I love it!’ Yes, voters loved the spareness of it but also the way it played with the senses, the imagery, the ‘the s-s-s sounds in the poem as if...