HEY LADY! YOU CALL HIM DR JESUS!

#TheDeeperRead 11 drops tomorrow: a close reading of "Clearing Dad's Shed" from @matriches.bsky.social Collecting the Data from Red Squirrel Press. Great to feature a fellow drey-dweller! Please like and subscribe: substack.com/@suzannafitz...

Showtime! Helping at the @poetryschool.bsky.social MA open day with a table groaning with tutor and graduate publications, and this is just a selection! Glyn Maxwell and Meryl Pugh are running sample seminars, Artistic Director James Trevelyan is here, and @tessafoley.bsky.social islogistics queen.

#TheDeeperRead 10 drops tomorrow, featuring Anne Stewart's "Body Language" from her Oversteps Books collection The Janus Hour. Please like and subscribe at substack.com/@suzannafitz..., it's free!

www.samszanto.com/blog For those who don't know me very well, I'm Sam, a writer and PhD researcher. When I'm not doing those things, I have a blog helping indie writers promote their latest books, because as the author of 3 of them I know how hard that is! If you have one to promote, get in touch.

Agreed… outstanding!

Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted child sex trafficker, gets gardening time, sports, therapy dogs, and spa products in prison. Migrant children in custody are sleeping on concrete floors without enough food or clean water. Our priorities are so fucked.

This week's #TheDeeperRead drops 8am Friday and features "The family tartan" by fellow Poetry School MA graduate Kevin Scully, which won the inaugural Ashdown Forest Poetry Prize in 2024. Please subscribe and share if you like, it's free! open.substack.com/pub/suzannaf...

We know prizes are bullshit! They’re just taste cosplaying as authority. So we stripped away the lie & left the contradiction standing. No prestige. Just cash. We'll pick our favourite poems & won't pretend we're doing anything else! #TheBrokenSpineAward #ByPoetsForPoets #PoemsAbout #LiftToTheSky

But… but is there *ANY* way this could be a woman’s fault…?

When your poetry reading was so bad Dracula refuses to bite you and throws you straight out.

Caley advice

One day, if we are lucky, the erasure of American history will itself be remembered as a shameful chapter in American history

TICKETS NOW ON SALE! “Let’s go together” A workshop on the poetry of friendship with Tessa Foley as part of Portsmouth Bookfest. Friday 27th February, 2026 Start time: 2:00pm 18 and over #portsmouth #portsmouthbookfest #poetry #poetryworkshop #friendship wegottickets.com/event/682850...

Eliots hilarity.

Second poem in Ionosphere 3.1 from @ampliconpress.bsky.social, a great journal exploring the interfaces of science, technology and the human experience. A ghazal; yes, the use of a form traditionally used for love poems is deliberate!

So proud to announce the shortlist for the pamphlet/chapbook competition. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to submit. livecanon.co.uk/competitions... PS if you are waiting on the collections shortlist, it will be live on Wednesday

I have a brand new page on the Portsmouth Creative Directory. So there is a brand new way you can contact me. www.portsmouthcreativedirectory.co.uk/organisation... #poetry #portsmouth #southsea

An amazing analysis of a poem of mine by Suzanna Fitzpatrick. She share things that I see and I go ‘ohhhh yehhh!’… Crazy when that happens. And joyous.

The Deeper Read is a new Substack series in which I close-read a contemporary poem - @tessafoley.bsky.social is up first. You can subscribe here if you're so minded. I had fun, hope you do, too! open.substack.com/pub/suzannaf... Tessa's book available here: www.livecanon.co.uk/store/produc...

I don't know who needs to hear this, but cops are not allowed to shoot people just because you didn't do what they said. That is called murder when they do that. Some cops are working hard to convince people otherwise.

“i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...” A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today. lithub.com/renee-nicole...

ICE murdered a poet and mother today. I don’t know how to process this horrific act, to be honest, let alone the right’s beyond-fucked-up response to it. This country is terrifying.

Im trying to articulate something, anything about what happened in Minneapolis and I’m failing. My rage is being pissed on by despair. It’s in plain view. It’s not like the old days when things weren’t caught on camera. They murdered a woman on the world’s stage: Renee Nicole Good is dead.

WITNESS: "I just can't let this narrative of self-defense go any further. That’s absolutely not what it was… ICE agents didn’t let anyone help her for 15 minutes, then medics couldn’t get through with their ambulance.”

TICKETS NOW ON SALE! “Let’s go together” A workshop on the poetry of friendship with Tessa Foley as part of Portsmouth Bookfest. Friday 27th February, 2026 Start time: 2:00pm 18 and over #portsmouth #portsmouthbookfest #poetry #poetryworkshop #friendship wegottickets.com/event/682850...

Oi oi. Portsmouth BookFest 2026 is approaching. The amazing @tessafoley.bsky.social is hosting "Let's Go Together" a workshop on the poetry of friendship on Friday 27th January. All the deets on this, and other events, are here:

Every day it's like how do you want the fact that a personality like Donald Trump's exists to horrify you now?

We're holding a poetry open mic via Zoom on Wednesday 14th January at 7.30 pm, when our featured poet will be David Van-Cauter. His latest book is "Breathing" (Arenig Press). The event is free and open to all. Please email [email protected] for a link and say if you would like a reading slot.

Issue nine - trespass - just published. Brand new work from sixty excellent poets. 💙🕊️ Please check the website for order details x

The poetry community built this award. It was never about me—it was always about funding a career-changing prize for poets. Facilitated by @AlanParry83.bsky.social, but made possible #ByWritersForWriters. Last chance to give. 🔗

So pleased to take silver in @glynmaxwell’s superb advent competition with ‘Wholegrain Entitled’. All poems selected are outstanding so v glad to be among them. Do yourself a favour, follow him on substack & check them all out. #poetry #adventcalender open.substack.com/pub/glynmaxw...

Time to trot out the Christmas poem. Happy things on things. X

Excellent night for the launch of @blackirispoetry issue 5. Every reading was an absolute banger, including Glyn Maxwell and the @poetryschool.bsky.social MA guest readers. Huge thanks to Lauren Thomas and Sarah Gibbons for editing, organising and MCing. www.blackirispoetry.com/issue-5

Bus News in Portsmouth. People of Pompey, please keep an eye out XXX

The Point building in Milton Keynes is looking likely for the chop. My thoughts on the place exist here… tessa-foley.ghost.io/whats-the-po...

Just been sent this by a friend. Waiting at Newcastle Station for the Kings X train, tired but happy. MA done. What's next? @poetryschool.bsky.social @newcastleuni.bsky.social

Over 150 calls for literary competitions and submissions including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, photography, and more - contests, literary journals, residencies, bursaries etc - open or with deadlines in December 2025. Please share & best of luck! www.thisiswordbox.com/wordbox-blog...

Pathways Through Poetry is launching today with The Big Give! ✨ We’re raising £5k to fund 5 fully sponsored places for emerging poets from underrepresented backgrounds — and every pound will be doubled. 💫 👉 Donate today and double your impact: donate.biggive.org/c...

We’re grateful for every person who has supported this so far. It’s been nearly a year of fundraising, and we’re so close. Let’s end 2025 knowing we made something amazing happen for poets. Help us hit £5,000. 🔗

Calm before Christmas Online writing workshop 2 places left Gentle writing activities using our imagination to find a bit of mindful presence and calm during busy holiday season. Sun 14 Dec, 2-4pm (UK time). Only £25. Booking details: www.writingforwellbeing.co.uk/therapy-and-... #writing

Don’t perform your stance. Embed it in every line. #SpineEdicts #PoetryIsPolitical #CaptionCultureIsRot #ChooseTuesdays

Huge thanks to Black Iris Poetry, Sarah Gibbons and Lauren Thomas for printing this - check out their new series #poetryofbreakingnews #poetryofinstagram lots of fellow @poetryschool.bsky.social MA colleagues there too. Open for submissions until 28 Nov.