The Lonely Crowd

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Submissions We are open for submissions until November 30th, 2025. Short stories can be anywhere between 500 and 5000 words in length. Please send no more than four poems. Please send in word docs rather than …

thelonelycrowd.org/submissions/

‘Carnival’ by Brian Kirk In July the carnival set up in a three-cornered field not far from the church. The town was alive. Visitors came by the busload every day. Mothers and children sat in the wind on the long be…

‘In July the carnival set up in a three-cornered field

not far from the church. The town was alive.

Visitors came by the busload every day.

Mothers and children sat in the wind

on the long beach while fathers stayed

in the city at work…’

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/11/14/c...

'Carnival' by Brian Kirk Brian Kirk is our Poet of the Month for November. Listen to him read his poem 'Carnival'.

'Carnival' by Brian Kirk by The Lonely Crowd on #SoundCloud
on.soundcloud.com/zqIzbstNjp8p...

Submissions Window We are open for submissions until November 30th, 2025. Short stories can be anywhere between 500 and 5000 words in length. Please send no more than four poems. Please send in word docs rather than …

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/11/13/s...

‘Carnival’ by Brian Kirk In July the carnival set up in a three-cornered field not far from the church. The town was alive. Visitors came by the busload every day. Mothers and children sat in the wind on the long be…

Read ‘Carnival’ by Brian Kirk

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/11/14/c...

Read ‘Carnival’ by Brian Kirk

Submissions Window We are open for submissions until November 30th, 2025. Short stories can be anywhere between 500 and 5000 words in length. Please send no more than four poems. Please send in word docs rather than …

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/11/13/s...

Submissions We are open for submissions until November 30th, 2025. Short stories can be anywhere between 500 and 5000 words in length. Please send no more than four poems. Please send in word docs rather than …

We’re open for submissions until the end of the month
thelonelycrowd.org/submissions/

‘Why acceptance is like sleep’ by Michelle Penn The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For October, we are delighted to publish three new works by Michelle Penn. The final installment of these, &#8…

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/10/27/w...

‘Little Dancer’, Fourteen' by John Freeman John Freeman is our Poet of the Month for May. Listen to him read one of his new poems, ‘Little Dancer, Fourteen'. Photo by Peter Sedgwick.

‘Little Dancer’, Fourteen' by John Freeman by The Lonely Crowd on #SoundCloud
on.soundcloud.com/3n6HUXk47OOz...

'Uploading the Impossible' by S. C. Flynn S. C. Flynn is our Poet of the Month for July. www.thelonelycrowd.org

'Uploading the Impossible' by S. C. Flynn by The Lonely Crowd on #SoundCloud
on.soundcloud.com/7RS1oJuBwv5z...

'Crusts' by Chrissie Gittins Chrissie Gittins is our Poet of the Month for September. Listen to her read her poem, 'Crusts' here.

'Crusts' by Chrissie Gittins by The Lonely Crowd on #SoundCloud
on.soundcloud.com/V6peXSP9aSrd...

'Self-Butchery In Two Parts' by Shauna Gilligan Shauna Gilligan is our Poet of the Month for August 2025. Listen to her read one of her new poems for us here.

'Self-Butchery In Two Parts' by Shauna Gilligan by The Lonely Crowd on #SoundCloud
on.soundcloud.com/GeukFHPrJDLf...

Poet of the Month, November: Brian Kirk The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For November, we are delighted to publish three new works by Brian Kirk. The first of these, ‘Keepsakes&…

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/11/07/p...

Poet of the Month, November: Brian Kirk The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For November, we are delighted to publish three new works by Brian Kirk. The first of these, ‘Keepsakes&…

Keepsakes

We kept our grandparents in a dusty box

high on top of the wardrobe in my parents’ room.

We never took it down, happy enough to know

they were there. We kept my father in the station

office down the road and my mother in the kitchen

by the range…

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/11/07/p...

Poet of the Month, November: Brian Kirk The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For November, we are delighted to publish three new works by Brian Kirk. The first of these, ‘Keepsakes&…

Brian Kirk has published two poetry collections with Salmon Poetry, After The Fall and Hare’s Breath. His poem ‘Birthday’ won Irish Poem of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2018. His short fiction chapbook It’s Not Me, It’s You was published by Southword Editions

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/11/07/p...

Israel’s underground jail, where Palestinians are held without charge and never see daylight Exclusive: Detainees at Rakefet include nurse and teenager who have been deprived of natural light since January

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Poet of the Month, November: Brian Kirk The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For November, we are delighted to publish three new works by Brian Kirk. The first of these, ‘Keepsakes&…

Keepsakes

‘We kept our grandparents in a dusty box

high on top of the wardrobe in my parents’ room.

We never took it down, happy enough to know

they were there. We kept my father in the station

office down the road and my mother in the kitchen…’

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/11/07/p...

Poet of the Month, November: Brian Kirk The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For November, we are delighted to publish three new works by Brian Kirk. The first of these, ‘Keepsakes&…

The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For November, we are delighted to publish 3 new works by Brian Kirk. The first of these, ‘Keepsakes‘, is published today with two more poems to follow throughout the month.

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/11/07/p...

Short Story of the Month: ‘Tow Zone’ by Megan Neary The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout the remainder of 2025. For September, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Megan Neary. Michael lef…

‘The sidewalks & streets were empty aside from a few barefoot children who played hopscotch & drew chalk butterflies & a few old trucks that rattled down the road. Michael felt like a ghost cast out from the land of the living, forced to wander the quiet streets.’

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/10/26/s...

Short Story of the Month: ‘Tow Zone’ by Megan Neary The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout the remainder of 2025. For September, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Megan Neary. Michael lef…

The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout the remainder of 2025. For October, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Megan Neary.

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/10/26/s...

Poet of the Month, October: Michelle Penn The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For October, we are delighted to publish three new works by Michelle Penn. The first of these, ‘I’m arra…

Our October #PoetoftheMonth is Michelle Penn.

Michelle’s new collection, Retablo for a door, is forthcoming from Shearsman in Jan 2026. Her other works are Paper Crusade (Arachne Press, 2022) & Self-portrait as a diviner, failing (Paper Swans Press, 2018).

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/10/12/p...

mornings, I wake and worry about what lasts / Michelle Penn someone pumped the rooms full of cement obliterating tassel lamps, wood floors, sinks   (the rings of Saturn are disappearing, the rings — )   kitchen, bedrooms, lounge, bath everything s…

‘someone pumped the rooms full

of cement

obliterating tassel lamps, wood floors, sinks…’

Read a new poem by our #PoetoftheMonth, Michelle Penn:

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/10/18/m...

Poet of the Month, October: Michelle Penn The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For October, we are delighted to publish three new works by Michelle Penn. The first of these, ‘I’m arra…

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/10/12/p...

‘Prince Andrew believed having sex with me was his birthright’: Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell and the king’s brother In an extract from her posthumous memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre remembers the day an ‘apex predator’ recruited her from Mar-a-Lago, aged just 16; how she was trafficked to a succession of wealthy a...

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

‘Cruelest forms of torture’: freed Palestinians describe horrors of Israeli jail Men who were held in Nafha prison say they were brutally beaten, bound at the hands and feet, verbally abused, allowed to contract fungal and skin diseases, and assaulted with loud music for up to two...

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Poet of the Month, October: Michelle Penn The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For October, we are delighted to publish three new works by Michelle Penn. The first of these, ‘I’m arra…

thelonelycrowd.org/2025/10/12/p...

US activist from Gaza flotilla alleges ‘psychological torture’ by Israel David Adler says Sumud Flotilla activists were 'kidnapped, stripped, zip-tied, blindfolded' and sent to prison camp.

www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...

Gaza flotilla members allege beatings and insults in Israeli detention Some of those held say guns were pointed at them, they were threatened with dogs and deprived of sleep

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...