The Lonely Crowd

‘Gulls’ by Amanda Rackstraw From beneath the cliff, a sudden din and these flattery-chatterers take off, thicken the channel with threads. A black lace veil lifts and swirls in the glare, risking scorched feathers.   Fro…

The final poem from our February Poet of the Month

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/26/g...

‘The Dish’ by Amanda Rackstraw I broke a dish today, a little blue dish just large enough to hold in the cupped palm of my hand.   The colour, soft aqua blue. A good colour, cool yet warm to receive yoghurt, soup, all kinds…

The second new poem by our #poetofthemonth is ‘The Dish’

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/13/t...

First review of Exposure: war, media, democracy by @cjwagstaff.bsky.social. @liamcarson.bsky.social @richardwynjones.bsky.social @katrinanaomipoet.bsky.social @thelonelycrowd.bsky.social @eatthestorms.com

How I wrote ‘Wolf Moon’ / Amanda Rackstraw Our February Poet of the Month reflects on the composition of her piece, ‘Wolf Moon’. Interesting to come back and close read this poem. Written a year ago, it could have been written i…

Our February Poet of the Month reflects on the composition of her piece, ‘Wolf Moon’.

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/11/h...

Short Story of the Month: ‘Heartwood’ by Glyn Edwards The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Glyn Edwards. There was once a boy who bec…

‘The woman seemed known to him somehow. Familiar. She reminded him of a woman, long ago, who gave him charms to hang at Christmas, & showed him where to see the goshawks’ nests in the canopy. He shook away the memory.

‘Where is your magic tree?’’

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/06/s...

Poet of the Month / Amanda Rackstraw The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish three new works by Amanda Rackstraw. The first of these, ‘Wolf…

Wolf Moon

‘It is a clear, cold night

in January when I stand

away from brittle lights,

out on the green,

wrapped in winter ghosts…’

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/06/p...

Poet of the Month / Amanda Rackstraw The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish three new works by Amanda Rackstraw. The first of these, ‘Wolf…

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/06/p...

Short Story of the Month: ‘Heartwood’ by Glyn Edwards The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Glyn Edwards. There was once a boy who bec…

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/06/s...

Poet of the Month / Amanda Rackstraw The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish three new works by Amanda Rackstraw. The first of these, ‘Wolf…

The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish 3 new works by Amanda Rackstraw. The first of these, ‘Wolf Moon’, is published today with two more poems to follow throughout the month.
thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/06/p...

Short Story of the Month: ‘Heartwood’ by Glyn Edwards The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Glyn Edwards. There was once a boy who bec…

The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish a new piece by @glynedwards.bsky.social.

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/06/s...

Poet of the Month / Amanda Rackstraw The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish three new works by Amanda Rackstraw. The first of these, ‘Wolf…

The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish 3 new works by Amanda Rackstraw. The first of these, ‘Wolf Moon’, is published today with two more poems to follow throughout the month.
thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/06/p...

Short Story of the Month: ‘Heartwood’ by Glyn Edwards The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish a new piece by Glyn Edwards. There was once a boy who bec…

The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For February, we are delighted to publish a new piece by @glynedwards.bsky.social.

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/02/06/s...

Lovely to get a mention in The Lonely Crowd's Books of the Year!

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza kill at least 30, with death toll expected to rise Attacks, which killed women and children, come day before border crossing is due to open in Gaza’s southern most city

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

EXPOSURE launches in Cardiff Feb 20. Irish launches to follow. @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social @irishlittimes.bsky.social @booksireland.bsky.social @blackboughpoetry.bsky.social

Short Story of the Month, January: ‘The Attic Over the Weigh House’ by P.C. Evans The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For January, we are delighted to publish a new piece by P. C. Evans.   The Attic Over the Weig…

‘Nicky finished up at the strip club at around one a.m. She got showered & dressed, said goodnight to the bouncer at the door, who opened it with a kindly smile & ushered her out into the night. She walked through the neon-lit crowd…. Her face was a rigid mask.’

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/04/s...

On my new collection. @byleaveswelive.bsky.social @poetrysociety.org.uk @poetryireland.bsky.social

On Writing ‘Exposure’ / Angela Graham I was a documentary maker for decades – images and truth my daily concerns in the business of representing the lives of other people. The three poems in my Poet of the Month feature appear in my ne…

‘Journalists & poets work hard to access our inner world. Both employ word & image. The collection examines some of the ways that journalistic images capture reality & how they present or re-present that reality?’

@angelagraham.bsky.social discusses her new poems

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/26/o...

Short story: Hannah Rensenbrink’s Postcards From Qasigiannguit A story first published in The Lonely Crowd.

Would you like to read something about Greenland that isn't about geopolitics, but is instead about love, and grief, and gyrfalcon nests? Here's a story I wrote once for @thelonelycrowd.bsky.social. richarddsmyth.com/2021/10/01/s...

Short Story of the Month, January: ‘The Attic Over the Weigh House’ by P.C. Evans The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For January, we are delighted to publish a new piece by P. C. Evans.   The Attic Over the Weig…

The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For January, we are delighted to publish a new piece by @pcevans.bsky.social:

‘The Attic Over the Weigh House’

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/04/s...

‘Bombarded City 3’ by Angela Graham The air has changed. It shrinks from us when we emerge – the sun a shrivelled leaf, the air thinning. Even the ants limp and the cats are eating their own paws. Buildings lean on one another like e…

The third & final poem by our January #PoetoftheMonth is now online.

See the site tomorrow for an essay by @angelagraham.bsky.social on her poems for this series.

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/25/b...

Imprisoned hunger striker linked to Palestine Action tells friend: ‘I’m dying’ Francesca Nadin visited Heba Muraisi, 31, in a Wakefield prison at the weekend and says ‘her body is shutting down’

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

‘Campaigners for Voter Registration, Mississippi’ by Angela Graham A crucifixion but the cross is a threatened man. A bleeding victim clings to him. In the foreground another sprawls, nearly dead, trying to rise. The painter positions us face on to them in the fin…

A crucifixion
but the cross is a threatened man.
A bleeding victim clings to him.
In the foreground another sprawls,
nearly dead, trying to rise.

Read @angelagraham.bsky.social, our #PoetoftheMonth

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/11/c...

‘It felt like she was asking me to save her’: the film based on a five-year-old Palestinian girl’s dying pleas The Voice of Hind Rajab has stunned audiences with its use of the real-life audio of a girl’s call for help after her family’s car was attacked by an Israeli tank in Gaza. Its director explains why sh...

www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja...

Let’s be clear: if the Palestine Action hunger strikers die, the government will bear moral responsibility | George Monbiot The three remaining hunger strikers have been convicted of nothing. Yet with astonishing cruelty, ministers refuse to listen to their reasonable demands, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Poet of the Month, January: Angela Graham The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For January, we are delighted to publish three new works by Angela Graham. The first of these, ‘A Plan f…

‘…the sand feels nothing.

It was made to be moved.

Formed from the crushing of large things into small…’

A Plan for the Development of Gaza by @angelagraham.bsky.social

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/03/p...

Short Story of the Month, January: ‘The Attic Over the Weigh House’ by P.C. Evans The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For January, we are delighted to publish a new piece by P. C. Evans.   The Attic Over the Weig…

‘I exited the alley and passed by the church of Our Dear Lord in the Attic, and walked along the canal to the Mekhong River. Its name was imprinted in red Thai letters on the front of the white and green facade. I leant my shoulder into the door…’

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/04/s...

Short Story of the Month, January: ‘The Attic Over the Weigh House’ by P.C. Evans The Lonely Crowd will feature a new short story by a different author each month throughout 2026. For January, we are delighted to publish a new piece by P. C. Evans.   The Attic Over the Weig…

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/04/s...

Poet of the Month, January: Angela Graham The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For January, we are delighted to publish three new works by Angela Graham. The first of these, ‘A Plan f…

‘What does the sand feel?

Dumped over bodies hustled into shallow graves,

hurled up to heaven by contemptuous bomb blasts,

blown across bulldozed olive groves…’

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/03/p...

Poet of the Month, January: Angela Graham The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2026. For January, we are delighted to publish three new works by Angela Graham. The first of these, ‘A Plan f…

‘What does the sand feel?

Dumped over bodies hustled into shallow graves,

hurled up to heaven by contemptuous bomb blasts,

blown across bulldozed olive groves…’

thelonelycrowd.org/2026/01/03/p...