Friday, May 05, 2006

About Poets On Fire

What is Poets On Fire?

We're a database for all live poetry, spoken word events, and poetry in performance coming up in the next 14 days. We do our best to let you know how you can get your fix of live poetry, and we're not restricted to the big cities - we try to cover everywhere in the UK if we possibly can. It gets pretty busy around here, as you can imagine, so check back often!

Who's behind it?

Poet, novelist and critic Jane Holland started stoking the furnaces of Poets on Fire in 2006. In May 2008, Jane became editor of Horizon literary review, and, to ease her increasing work load, called in re-enforcements to ensure the blog keeps burning brightly. Nina Davies, Matt Merritt, and Charlotte Runcie share Jane's fiery passion for live poetry (whether in pubs, clubs, bookshops or theatres, whether it's Slam!, open mic or formal reading) and are hell-bent on bringing you up-to-the-minute news about all the live poetry events in the UK.


Jane Holland

Jane's latest poetry collection, Boudicca & Co, is available from Salt Publishing. She has a personal blog at Raw Light, and details her adventures as Warwick Poet Laureate at Warwick Laureate. You can hear her read her work at Jane Holland Live

Praise for Boudicca & Co:

'Extremely powerful and varied ... Holland has both the clarity for the reader and the mastery of language to say what she means in a way that makes the brain tingle with both shock and pleasure ... This collection is outstanding.'
Angela Topping, Stride Magazine, April 2007


Charlotte Runcie

Charlotte is a poet and co-editor of Pomegranate, the poetry ezine for writers under 30. She is 18 years old and has won several awards for young writers, including the Foyle Young Poets of the Year award in 2006, and first prize in the Christopher Tower Poetry Competition 2007. Her first pamphlet of poems is due to be published by tall-lighthouse in summer 2009, and in the meantime she is attending poetry events left right and centre, splitting her time between London and Edinburgh.


Nina Davies


Matt Merritt

Matt is a poet and journalist, whose debut collection, Troy Town, was published by Arrowhead Press in March 2008. A chapbook, Making The Most Of The Light, was published in 2005 by HappenStance Press. He is 38 years old, and was the winner of the 2004 Plough Poetry Prize. He lives near Leicester, and blogs on poetry at Polyolbion. 

How do I send you details of upcoming events?

Just email all event details to poetsonfire at hotmail dot co dot uk and we'll put it up on the site. You can also use that email address to let us know about any questions or comments you might have about the blog. 

That's enough reading! Now shut down the computer and go hear some poetry!