Caroline Bird

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, When the Words Leave The poet Caroline Bird explores the silences when it feels like the words have left you.

...listen to @carolinebirduk.bsky.social's documentary through BBC Sounds (or in the Falling Tree archive) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Was Queen Victoria's doctor the first psychoanalyst? Queen Victoria began to experience dark visions after giving birth to her second child. Concerned that she might have inherited the madness of her grandfather, George III, Prince Albert summoned her d...

"Being poets, they were able to explain what creativity and creative silence feel like in ways that lingered on the ears, not least because many of their metaphors and similes sprang from the radio..."

When the Words Leave is reviewed in today's Spectator www.spectator.co.uk/article/was-...

Ah thank you Elizabeth, that means a lot x

Ah thank you for listening Katrina!

In the company of other poets, @carolinebirduk.bsky.social explores the silences when it feels like words have left you.

Listen to When the Words Leave on BBC Sounds www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

@oliverinthenorth.bsky.social @hannahcopley.bsky.social

Music - Phil Smith
Prod - Eleanor McDowall

Was a pleasure to talk to Caroline Bird about how it feels when the words leave.

Produced by the stunning artistry of Eleanor McDowall. Original music by Phil Smith. @fallingtreeprod.bsky.social

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, When the Words Leave The poet Caroline Bird explores the silences when it feels like the words have left you.

Tonight at 7.15 on Radio 3. Writer’s block, dry spell, fallow period, worrisome silence, that terrifying, lonely time when you *cannot* write a poem. I speak to Liz Berry, Oliver Carmichael, Hannah Copley, Marie Howe, Vanessa Kisuule and Jack Underwood! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Friends, I'm grateful to have a poem from my forthcoming book, IF YOU LOVE THAT LADY, in this week's New Yorker. 🤍

Happy launch day to @antoshwojcik.bsky.social

Here’s one of my favourite poems from his new collection ‘Suburban Locust’

A new poem in the new issue of Agni @agnimagazine.bsky.social 🫨

As a child By Vidyan Ravinthiran because my voice was not the right voice and could not be understood I stood before the mirror — a murky glassen word this mouth can’t shape right to this day — and was made to watch my teeth and lips being imprecise. So this is why I come across a Southron and not from Yorkshire, or Sri Lankan; but I’ll complain no more about this clarified and potent tongue for when the moustached gent at US Customs asked me in his hapless twang are you a terrorist, my borrowed posh it sure abashed that poor colonial; and it was of course what my child-face perceived or could not in the glass which made of me a scrutineer of sound, a listener for and into every glitch in the aathma, the script, the avid void of English.

Congratulations to Vidyan Ravinthiran, who has jointly won (with Karen Solie) the Forward Prize for Best Collection with Avidyā (Bloodaxe). Its brilliant final poem, "as a child", describes how an early speech impediment led him to be "a scrutineer of sound" with a love of "the avid void of English"

‘This poem is me at my beast’

Huge congratulations to all the winners and shortlistees (is that a word?) for the @forwardprizes.bsky.social. The readings last night were a triumph.

I love this poem from Isabelle Baafi’s ‘Chaotic Good’ (winner of best first collection)…

Oh amazing, would love to read it!

Masterclass: Infinite Ways in to Writing Poems | Tackling big subjects with wonder | Arvon For the third year running, with all new prompts and exercises, Arvon favourite Caroline Bird returns for our final Masterclass of the year, which promises to be a bolt of creativity to kick-start som...

Are you free on the evening of December 16th? 🎄 Join me for this masterclass all about finding multiple (infinite?) ways in to the same subject matter. We’ll write a ridiculous amount of poems in 2 hours…with brand new exercises ⁦‪‬⁩
www.arvon.org/writing-cour...

Haha this was not the demographic I was expecting. I did terribly on my physics GSCE. I love the idea of forklift truck drivers reading my poetry, I hope that’s true.

Boom! Omg was it really five years ago? Wow. Your absolute love and talent for poetry was so clear from the beginning. Chanel’s loss was poetry’s gain. x

Final night of “The Last Stand of Mary Whitehouse” by @carolinebirduk.bsky.social . I doubt there’s any tickets left but it’s a fantastic play. Maxine Peake and Samuel Barnett are superb. Let’s hope there will be another run.

Ah thank you Rosie, so happy you enjoyed it!

Ah thank you Gillian, I’m so glad you enjoyed it - Maxine and Sam are incredible

Top photo: Maxine Peake in The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse at Nottingham Playhouse. Photo by Helen Murray. Bottom photo: Playscript cover of The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse by Caroline Bird.

'Incredibly powerful'
★★★★★ WhatsOnStage

'Witty and timely'
★★★★ Guardian

The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse by NHB author Caroline Bird is now on @nottmplayhouse.bsky.social.

Get your playscript copy at the venue or online: www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/the-last-sta...

Maxine Peake playing Mrs Mary Whitehouse

If there are ANY tickets left for this, I advise you to snap em up.

Standing ovation on the first night.

It’s feckin brilliant.

Caroline Bird’s THE LAST STAND OF MRS MARY WHITEHOUSE

nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/events/the-l...

Starring Maxine Peake and Samuel Barnett.

Mind blowing.

A woman, wearing a blue quilted coat and pink rollneck with dark glasses, stands between two theatre curtains, holding them open. She has a frown on her face and is looking off to the left.

A garden shed against a blue backdrop on a stage. Standing in front of it a woman wearing a blue cardigan, pink rollneck and patterned skirt. She is pointing one finger up and looking upwards with a smile on her face.

A man wearing a silk gown and hair wrap, and a woman wearing a long navy coat and matching hat sit, opposite one another at a wooden dining table. They are staring intently at each other, with the man reaching out one arm across the table in an attempt to reach the woman’s hand.

👓 Take a first look at The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse, with our fabulous production photos.

💐 Sending love and best wishes to our wonderful cast, creatives and crew for press night tonight.

📷 Helen Murray

Writer @Carolinebirduk.bsky.social

‘The one thing it doesn’t have is actual sex’: the new Mary Whitehouse play that would have infuriated Mary Whitehouse She was the morality crusader who became a figure of ridicule. Now Whitehouse is the subject of a new production starring Maxine Peake. We meet the gay feminist playwright who wrote it

‘The one thing it doesn’t have is actual sex’: the new Mary Whitehouse play that would have infuriated Mary Whitehouse

A woman with blond hair in a ponytail, glasses and wearing a pink t-shirt sits on a 1970s floral garden chair. She holds a folder in her lap, raises her left hand to her chin and looks off, a distant look on her face.

A man and woman, both wearing pale pink t-shirts, sit opposite each other on wooden chairs, holding hands. They both look out. In front of them, a woman in a blue shirt sits in a chair, leaning toward them.

A man in a pink t-shirt and glasses crouches sits sideways on the floor. He is frowning and looks off camera, concerned.

Straight from rehearsals, brand-new photos of world premiere The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse.

Starring Maxine Peake & Samuel Barnett, @carolinebirduk.bsky.social’s wickedly funny new play about a highly controversial figure.

bit.ly/NPMaryWhiteh...

📆 Fri 5 – Sat 27 Sep
📷 @helenmurraypix

Amtssprache So what would you pay to have your family safe In that house with the garden and the clean running water - And you walk in and hold them and kiss their faces? Your life? Too easy, and nobody’s asking. How about the life of an Afghan child, A city, the birds in the sky? Would you turn a blind eye? Would you turn off the news? Would you run the trains to death camps? Of course you would. You do. You do these things. (Poem by Clare Pollard)

Samuel Barnett to join Maxine Peake in The Last Stand of Mrs Mary Whitehouse | West End Theatre Final casting has been announced for The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse at Nottingham Playhouse.

Samuel Barnett to join Maxine Peake in The Last Stand of Mrs Mary Whitehouse

Read more: www.westendtheatre.com/297883/news/...

#MaxinePeake to star as Mary Whitehouse, with #SamuelBarnett playing 15 other roles

By Caroline Bird, directed by Sarah Frankcom

#NottinghamPlayhouse from 5 – 27 Sept

Final 20 tickets for our 11 June @queer-poetry-co.bsky.social evening with @carolinebirduk.bsky.social Richard Scott, Sophie Robinson and Roberto Salvador Cenciarelli x

It’s going to be an amazing night that I personally can’t wait for ❤️
www.outsavvy.com/event/27015/...

Beyond hyped for this one, the first in our summer event series! Join us for an incredible pride poetry night with @carolinebirduk.bsky.social, Richard Scott, Sophie Robinson and Roberto Salvador Cenciarelli ❤️

www.outsavvy.com/event/27015/...