Natasha Ryan

Funeral programme for Chris Holifield, with a photo of Chris smiling.

Happy National Poetry Day! Started the day by saying goodbye to the incredible Chris Holifield, a tremendous force for good in the poetry world and a mentor to many. She'll be much missed.

Now on to games, workshops and performances in the Poetry Cafe, which feels fitting.

The free press fights back... Introducing the Nerve. From the wreckage of my old newspaper, comes a new all-women, journalist-owned, independent publication. Join us!

Right. A bit more about what we’re up to.

Would love feedback, do stick a comment at the end. And do please consider signing up to find out more www.thenerve.news

open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

Chris Holifield – A Tribute On Wednesday 3 September 2025, Chris Holifield passed away. So Gaby, Liz and Laura wanted to write a blog to celebrate and honour her, as the founder and driving force behind the Children’s P…

This is sad. Lovely tributes to Chris Holifield who died Sept 3.

childrenspoetrysummit.com/2025/09/25/c...

Ok. They’ve pissed me off.

I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards:

1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.

Just arrived from the printers.

The Book of Bogs began as a community response & has grown beyond the Walshaw Moor into a wider celebration & campaign for bogs & other peatland ecologies.

This was the most brilliant crowdfunded project, with over 40 contributions from artists & poets.

OUT NOW.

This year’s Keats-Shelley Memorial Prizes are now open. Themes are dystopia / utopia
I’m glad to be judging the poetry prize again with Will Kemp. Closing date 2nd February and more info here

keats-shelley.org/prizes/keats...

Shame on Downing Street for going along with this. So much for being committed to a free press

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

1/ I don't think many folk see my Bluesky posts, but if you can and you're a poet who likes to slam, and you're in shouting distance of Ironbridge then @pandemonialists.bsky.social are looking for 15 poetry slammers for an event on the afternoon of Sunday 28th September 2025.

The APPG Modern Languages has shared a Letter to The Times by Baroness Coussins, Co-chair of the APPG, in response to their recent leading article arguing falling languages uptake narrows young people's horizons (www.thetimes.com/comment/the-...)

For poetry friends from Dorset, UK, I wanted to let you know about a new Stanza group, based in Dorchester. It's been running quietly over the Summer (I've recently started attending myself) and it would be cool to see new faces - poster attached... high quality poetry chat and feedback guaranteed!!

Books by people vs books by AI Announcing a new book certification scheme that enables publishers to prove their books are written by humans

Announcing a new tool to fight AI slop in the book world - and authenticate that the books we publish are written by, you know, humans.

Books by people vs books by AI
open.substack.com/pub/samj/p/b...

Kathleen Jamie · Poem: ‘Considering a Hike to Yon Tree’

I gather
you snap your fingers
in the face of the east wind

feel the moon groan as she
learns the ropes again
tangled among branches

that you bend, so you say,
to shake her free.

‘Considering a Hike to Yon Tree’, a poem by Kathleen Jamie: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Classroom Voices.
From September I plan to use my blog as a platform to share a weekly post written by a teacher - who may not want to write lots or set up a blog of their own. If you want to be involved, use this form to upload your submission. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Young Scots Writer o the Year Award We’re on the lookout for talented young folk aged 11–18 writing and creating in Scots.

One week left to enter the Young Scots Writer o the Year Award 2025! 🗓️

Are you someone with stories to share? Or a teacher working with young writers we should know about? Then there is still time to enter:

There's now just one week left for young writers aged 14-19 in Exeter to apply for a great opportunity: develop as a writer and performer and be the voice of a UNESCO City of Literature (@exetercityoflit.bsky.social) by becoming the first Exeter Young City Laureate.

YouTube video by T. S. Eliot Prize Jane Clarke reads 'Recipe for a Bog'

On July 26th for Int Bog Day
@tocharstories.bsky.social partners with @nlireland.bsky.social in Seamus Heaney venue -presenting a discussion inspired by Heaney's powerful poem 'Bogland' - with us is Jane Clarke whose own bog poem 'Receipt for a Bog' also delights !
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNGe...

🌟AI and Poetry: UK Symposium🌟 27 June @wshed.bsky.social
The UK's first ever AI and Poetry symposium, as poets, technologists and creatives share their work, ideas and research. Everyone is welcome to attend this free event and to join the conversation 👇🏼book now www.lyrafest.com#e127080

The UK government was just defeated in the House of Lords for a *fifth* time over AI training data transparency.

Please watch the electrifying end to Baroness Kidron's closing speech ahead of the vote. Creators have no greater champion.

🧵 1/2

Image of a blue rucksack with a green and red Emma Press patch. The Emma Press logo and Creative Access logo are featured in the top right and bottom left respectively. Text on the image reads: The Emma Press, 2025 recipient of the David Tebbutt Internship Fund.

Amazing news! 🎉 We've been chosen as the first ever recipient of the David Tebbutt Internship Fund to support people from under-represented backgrounds to build a career in publishing!

This paid internship will last 6 months! Find out more & apply by 30 June: 
buff.ly/sqNAkm1

📜 NOW ANNOUNCING: EUROPEAN POETRY FESTIVAL 2025

This summer, pairs of European poets visiting and based in the UK are creating and performing brand new works at events in London, Norwich, and Liverpool

Interested? See below for event details 👇

Midlands Fringe 2025 Application Form Applications must be sent in by 7th June, latest. Successful applications will then need to pay a £20 non-refundable deposit by Sunday 15th June to confirm their place in the festival line-up. However...

We're running a Midlands Fringe in Wolverhampton over the last weekend of July. Got a 40-50 minute one-person show? Apply to take part here forms.gle/s1cZFMPfRhcW... Know someone with a show? We'd love you to tell them about it. Re-posts very welcome. Thank you.

I work for Scottish Book Trust and we’re running a survey for parents/teachers/kids book enthusiasts about how they find books for kids. I’d be enormously grateful if anyone can spare 5-10 mins to share their thoughts. #KidLitUK
forms.office.com/e/EdVhWA0T0n

Alice Notley, RIP

Historian of crime, death and women here.
The law these women are being persecuted is the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.

It is 164 years old.

It was introduced when women had no pregnancy tests, no ultrasound scans.

My Brain Finally Broke Much of what we see now is fake, and the reality we face is full of horrors. More and more of the world is slipping beyond my comprehension.

I understand the narcissism of the personal essay industrial complex, but this is very good www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

We're launching The Bee magazine today because the UK publishing and writing industries have a bit of a class problem.

Coming of Age: Poems on Growing Up - Paisley Book Festival 25th April at 1-2pm

#ScottishPoetryEvents

Another pick of the poetry at Paisley Book Festival focuses on Coming Of Age: Poems On Growing Up. Fri 25 April 1-2pm, part of their Poetry Corner series:

💥 Charles Lang
💥 Andrés N. Ordorica @andresordorica.com
💥 Lorna Callery-Sithole

paisleybookfestival.com/programme/co...

Faber Launches 2025 FAB Prize with a Publishing Deal for the Winner Faber announces the opening of the 2025 FAB Prize for undiscovered writers and illustrators of colour, with a publishing deal for the winner.

2025 #FABPrize now open for entries:

www.faber.co.uk/journal/fabe...
#kidlitUK

Séamas O'Reilly: I discovered my own memoir had been used to train Meta AI I hate that writers and artists must suffer the indignity of being pickpocketed by the richest men who’ve ever lived.

Having my book stolen by Meta to train their large language models doesn't feel great. But it does present me with another opportunity to declare how much, and how vehemently, I hate everything that Big AI's snake-oil peddling hypemen stand for.

www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-co...