The Poetry Business

📢 Late addition to our programme! 📢

The wonderful Kim Moore joins us in just a couple of weeks for another inspiring Writing Poems workshop.
Sign up here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thepoetrybusiness/2257866

Writing Poems with Kim Moore
Thursday 25 June, 11am - Zoom workshop

Kim Moore’s pamphlet If We Could Speak Like Wolves was a winner in the 2011 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition. Her first collection The Art of Falling (Seren Books, 2015) won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her second collection All The Men I Never Married (Seren, 2021) won the 2022 Forward Prize for Best Collection. Her first non-fiction book What The Trumpet Taught Me was published by Smith|Doorstop in May 2022. A hybrid book of lyric essays and poetry Are You Judging Me Yet? Poetry and Everyday Sexism was published by Seren in March 2023. She is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Ann and Peter Sansom at Arvon, The Hurst, Shropshire
Afternoon of Monday 29th June to Midday Friday 3rd July 2026

Drawing on inspirational contemporary poems, chosen to move your practice on, this is an intensive and enjoyable course of writing and reading with 'the best poetry teachers in the world' (The Guardian).

https://poetrybusiness.co.uk/arvon-developing-your-writing-practice-with-ann-and-peter-sansom/

Though the emphasis will be on new writing, the week will include two supportive critical workshops, and optional small group discussions. Before the course there will be a short reading and writing task.

In place of tutor and guest readings, the evenings will feature The World Poetry Festival, where everyone will give a short reading from a favourite poet. This will be alongside other optional activities including The Secret Poem game, short torchlight poetry walks, and sitting around with tea, wine or Baileys.

Cost: £825 payable in three or four instalments. Fully-catered with single-occupancy. Places are limited.

Please let us know at once if you are interested - the new deadline is Friday 12 June.

To Apply:

Application is to The Poetry Business. To apply, please email [email protected] with a short paragraph saying why you’d like to take part, and include a brief biog note together with three poems (published or otherwise). Please include 'Hurst application' in the subject of your email.

Ann and Peter are not looking for the ‘best’ or ‘most advanced’ poets but people who would get the most out of the week – and who would enjoy being part of a focused and serious but relaxed group. Please click here to see the provisional schedule, which gives more idea of the shape of the week.

As you may know, the Hurst is a uniquely inspiring place to write, with lovely ensuite rooms in a beautifully restored manor house, set in acres of rolling woodland. More details on the The Hurst on the Arvon website.

OUT NOW!

In Missing Person, Zoë Walkington blurs the line between detective fiction and poetic sequence. Through a series of poems that range from the playful and surreal to gritty and mysterious, we piece together evidence around the disappearance of 10-year-old Kyle Petch from a suburban underpass in York.

Along the way, our investigation will hear testimony from gravestones, AI chatbots, Forensic Science Reports, crisp packets, and the Readers Digest How to Clean Just About Anything. This electric new pamphlet combines powerful poetic experimentation with a gripping crime narrative and, for the attentive reader, a chance to solve the case.

Zoë Walkington’s pamphlet I Hate to Be the One to Tell You This was a winner of the 2022 International Book & Pamphlet Competition, judged by Romalyn Ante and Jonathan Edwards. She is a Professor of Psychology at the Open University, specialising in the psychology of police investigations.

Available to order from the PB website or from your favourite bookshop!

https://poetrybusiness.co.uk/product/missing-person/

THIS SATURDAY - Free poetry workshop with Ann and Peter Sansom at Blackpool Library!

Saturday 16th May, 10.30am to 1pm.
Palatine Library, Blackpool.
FREE
To book your place, speak to a librarian or email [email protected]

A rare chance to write poems and explore your writing practice in a warm and supportive atmosphere, with two of the country's best-loved poets and tutors. Whether a seasoned poet or new to verse, you will get a great deal from this entertaining writing workshop. Working from inspirational contemporary poems you will begin a number of new pieces and move your practice on.

Ann and Peter Sansom are co-directors of The Poetry Business in Sheffield, where they edit The North magazine and Smith/Doorstop Books. Ann Sansom's books include Romance and In Praise of Men & Other People (Bloodaxe) and Peter Sansom's include Selected Poems (Carcanet) and Writing Poems (Bloodaxe).

Two excellent new online poetry workshops coming up later this month!

Sign up here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thepoetrybusiness

Nigel Pantling will be giving a free online reading from his 2025 poetry collection A Foreign Country for Russell Sage College in Albany, New York on 16 April as part of US National Poetry Month.

The reading will be at 3pm BST, so UK readers can tune in too!

Sign up on Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nigel-pantling-national-poetry-month-event-tickets-1985445383589

Two brilliant new online workshops coming up for you next week!

🌦 Monday 6 April, 7pm
Writing the Weather and Seasonal Shifts with Jane Burn

🌅 Tuesday 7 April, 11am
Poetry’s First Light: Writing the Aubade with Vicky Morris

Sign up here: https://buytickets.at/thepoetrybusiness

Free poetry workshop with Ann and Peter Sansom at Rotherham Libraries next month!

A rare chance to write poems and explore your writing practice in a warm and supportive atmosphere, with two of the country's best-loved poets and tutors. Whether a seasoned poet or new to verse, you will get a great deal from this entertaining writing workshop. Working from inspirational contemporary poems you will begin a number of new pieces and move your practice on.

Ann and Peter Sansom are co-directors of The Poetry Business in Sheffield, where they edit The North magazine and Smith/Doorstop Books. Ann Sansom's books include Romance and In Praise of Men & Other People (Bloodaxe) and Peter Sansom's include Selected Poems (Carcanet) and Writing Poems (Bloodaxe).

Saturday 18th April, 9.45am to 12pm.
Riverside Library, Main Street, Rotherham S60 1AE
FREE
To book your place, speak to a librarian or email [email protected]

Join us on Saturday 11 April at Wordsworth Grasmere to celebrate the winners of the 2025 International Book & Pamphlet Competition, chosen by Kim Moore.

The winners Ian Harker and Annina Zheng-Hardy will be reading poems from their prize-winning pamphlets, alongside the competition runners-up, Sally Baker and Ilse Pedler.

More details and free tickets - head to the Wordsworth Grasmere website: https://wordsworth.org.uk/event-directory/

Fantastic to hear Michael Laskey on the latest episode of The Verb, reading from his new Collected Poems and reflecting on a long and epic career in poetry!

Available for the next month on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002scll

Michael Laskey's Collected Poems on the PB website: https://poetrybusiness.co.uk/product/michael-laskey-collected-poems/