Rachel Carney

The 3 rules for writing great poems — by our poetry critic Graeme Richardson waited until he was 50 to publish his first poetry collection, Dirt Rich. He explains how he fell in love with language as a Nottinghamshire choir boy

“The ratio of reading poems to writing them should be about 50:1.”

@ravoon.bsky.social on his debut poetry collection and how it got here.

(Very pro author photo with hand on chin, in the contemporary style.)

Some more prep for upcoming #creativewriting courses...
#poetry

Call for Submissions: Poetry That Remembers, Mourns, and Refuses to Let Go - The Broken Spine Submissions Open Throughout January 2026 | Publication Later That Year

This call is about memory and refusal.
What we carry.
What carries us.

If that’s central to your practice, submit.

#PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky #WednesdayWIPs #SpineEdicts #PoetryCommunity #SubmissionWindow #OpenCall #Poetry

Last Saturday - celebrating 6 years of iamb Join iamb's creator/curator Mark Antony Owen & host Louise Longson for a night of poems to celebrate 6 years of this great poetry showcase.

On Feb 1 2026, @iamb.uk celebrates six years online. Join @louisepoetical.bsky.social and creator/curator @markantonyowen.com on Jan 31 – plus a hand-picked selection of poets from the 380 who've featured in the journal so far – for a free, fun evening of poetry readings. 🥳🎂

bit.ly/iamb_is_six

New blog post! "I like the fact that you can read a novella in one sitting, but that its narrative stays with you long after you have finished reading. Perhaps the novella has more in common with the poem than we might think." createdtoread.com/book-review-...

Really pleased to have a chapter in this @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social book due to be published April 2026! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/divergent...
My chapter is titled 'The Power of Words: Neurodiversity, Authenticity, and Inclusion in the Creative Writing Classroom'
#neurodiversity #creativewriting

This online #poetry #creativewriting course is now available to book! 📚 createdtoread.com/experimentin...

@vikkicwrites.bsky.social @lucycoatswriter.bsky.social @createdtoread.bsky.social and many more feature in this starter pack of people associated with the great Bridport Prize. @bridportprize.bsky.social Please follow and repost if you can #poetsonbluesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #booksky

Preparing materials for my online course 'Writing Neurodiversity: Processing Lived Experience through Poetry' which begins 27th January! createdtoread.com/about/events...
#neurodiversity #neurodivergence #creativewriting
@serenbooks.bsky.social @lucentdreaming.bsky.social

I was pleased to be able to display my interactive collage book at the launch of my poetry-film! It's a meta-ekphrastic response to some of my own ekphrastic poems www.instagram.com/reel/DQ7I3e4...
#collageart #poetryobject #ekphrasis #ekphrasticwriting #ekphrasticpoetry #ekphrastic

A piece of sheet music for a violin, where the musical notes have been replaced by numerous silhouettes of cats. The cats are depicted in various poses, climbing, tumbling, and napping along the musical staff lines.

The Symphony of the Cat, Moritz von Schwind, 1868. #Caturday

Looking forward to running this new online course! Starts 27th January. Details here - createdtoread.com/about/events...
Please share!
#neurodiversity
#neurodivergent #poetry #creativewriting
@serenbooks.bsky.social

Delighted to be nominated by @ekphrasticreview.bsky.social for the Best Microfiction Award! My hybrid #ekphrastic prose/poem text was inspired by this landscape by Thomas Gainsborough www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrast... #ekphrasis #ekphrasticwriting

Some behind the scenes photos of the process that went into making my #poetryfilm - ready for the launch on Thursday! www.eventbrite.com/e/fragments-...
#collageart #ekphrasis #ekphrasticpoetry

Great conversations, company & films at the #poetryfilm festival today! The Bristol lightship made for an interesting backdrop...
@helendewbery.bsky.social

Enjoyed reading at Bookspace Cardiff #poetry open mic 🎤 - here's me reading from my phone like a young person... 😊 I'll be one of the featured poets next month - 12th November - tickets here! www.bookspacecardiff.co.uk/products/poe...

Read New Ekphrastic Poem 'After viewing the installation I was irritable for hours' by Sadie Maskery exclusively in After... | Poems Inspired By Other Art

Art ... or artifice? That's the question posed by @saccharinequeen.bsky.social's new #ekphrastic poem.

'A tour guide holds forth on
body horror, the decayed viscera
of industrial decline, yah de blah,
but no, it‘s worse than that.
It‘s revolting pretentiousness.'

afterpoetry.com/poem/oct-07-...

Our Mugwort Magazine submissions inbox is OPEN until 31/10 for our special winter issue, Spectral & Strange, to be published in December.

Check out the guidelines: mugwortmag.wordpress.com/special-call...

...then send us your best eerie, weird, or unsettling fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and art!

The You’re Still Doing This? award for poets aged 45-55

Sharing my upcoming poetry-film launch event as it's #NationalPoetryDay today! www.eventbrite.com/e/fragments-... @imageworkscardiff.bsky.social

For #nationalpoetryday on the theme of #play here's my poem 'Learning to Play' from my collection Octopus Mind... 🎹 👌📖 createdtoread.com/about/poetry... @serenbooks.bsky.social

For #nationalpoetryday ‘Autumn Uprising’ - on the subject of #play - this year’s theme, published in @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social 🐻 🧍‍♀️ 🐝 🤠 🍂
Christmas-Winter 4

#toystory #wreckitralph #wreckitralph2 #writing #childhood #autumn

New blog post! A summer 🏝️🌞 of Publication createdtoread.com/summer-of-pu... poems being rather like buses 🚌 always arriving together... @mugwortmagazine.bsky.social @streetcakemag.bsky.social @gillconnors.bsky.social @serenbooks.bsky.social

I have a flash fiction piece in the latest issue of Mugwort Magazine! It's called 'In Queen Street' ✍️

I'm really pleased to have a poem appear in Lighthouse Literary Journal and happy to see my villanelle in the Write Out Loud anthology, which was long-listed in their 'echoes' competition a few months ago. The villanelle is #ekphrastic, responding to a painting by Gwen John.

Still time to sign up! The #ekphrasticwriting course starts in 3 weeks time! createdtoread.com/more-online-... Please do share with anyone interested in #poetry #creativewriting or #ekphrasis! @serenbooks.bsky.social

Thanks!

I have a villanelle in this anthology celebrating 20 years of Write Out Loud!
- www.writeoutloud.net/books/

Join me, @zoebrigley.bsky.social, Tangie Mitchell and Kandace Siobhan Walker on 21st of September at 3pm London Time.

Register here: course.veevart-apps.com/emilydickins...

I'll be speaking as part of this 'Divergent Writers' panel at the online @nawewriters.bsky.social conference this November alongside @christiecollins.bsky.social & other contributors to the forthcoming @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social book 📚 www.nawe.co.uk/writing-in-e...