October 2021 update

Our Stage 2 interviews are now completed. A special thanks goes out to all the Young Poets in our study … More

Second interviews with Young Poets

Young Poets’ Stories: second set of research interviews have begun this week.

Reading and writing in the Year of the Ox

As we move into the Year of the Ox, an animal symbolising hard work, intelligence and reliability, Young Poets’ Stories is celebrating its one year anniversary. To celebrate this turn of the year, Richard and Sue have been delving into the symbol of the Ox in different faiths, beliefs and in poetry. We hope the images, stories and poems will inspire your own writing.

Open the door: Jo Bell’s writing prompts

During Lockdown (version 2) Jo Bell, a former Canal Laureate and all round poetry wonder woman, published a daily writing … More

Ruth Padel’s Letter to a Young Poet

On Monday this week distinguished poet Ruth Padel gave a reading in the Nottingham Poetry Festival 2020 from her new … More

Science and Poetry: Atomic poems

Experiment with writing fibs or atomic poems by using the atomic poetry generator. The generator draws on the Fibonacci sequence, found in the natural world, to determine the word count and line structure of your poem.

Piece on Pandemic by Erin Blaney

Erin Blaney is an A level student at Bilborough College in Nottingham. She wrote her Piece on Pandemic poem very recently. We think she captures in such a spare and thought-provoking way the strange uncertainties and contradictory feelings of the times that she is living through.