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...
by Kate Birch | Aug 16, 2025 | News, Picks of the Month
This poem was as unexpected as a story plot! I loved it. This was a poem that mixed physics with philosophy, loss with whimsy and caught voters unawares with its perspective and observation. It is for these reasons and many more that Paul Chuks’ beautiful,...
by Kate Birch | Jul 29, 2025 | News, Picks of the Month
Because it is a beautiful evocation of the land/Palestine’s grief ‘Homeland’ by Rachael Clyne powerfully pinpoints the current horrors of the world, particularly the genocide in Gaza, but also speaks to the general sorrow of displacement and loss of...
by Kate Birch | Jun 13, 2025 | News, Picks of the Month
Vivid, precisely imagined, powerful ‘Wallpaper’ calls out to a troubled world, its potent imagery and raw language both striking and disturbing; and for this reason Joseph Blythe’s poem is the Pick of the Month for May 2025. Joseph Blythe’s prose and poetry has...
by Kate Birch | May 16, 2025 | News, Picks of the Month
Queer positivity It was so moving! I feel a bit numb upon finishing it. Sometimes a poem just captures a moment. Elena Chamberlain’s was originally published just over a week before the Supreme Court ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological...