'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...

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.

👓 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

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

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/...

So, I’ve written a new play about Mary Whitehouse, The Gay News Blasphemy Trial and homophobia in the 70s and 80s. Also, Maxine Peake is in it… 🤯

Relating to this quote at the moment… ‘I write so slowly, I could write with my own blood and not hurt myself.’ - Fran Lebowitz

‘They eat their oats in their sleep’ I love this prose poem by Rita Dove

‘Your father’s father’s father poisoned a beautiful horse’ - Dane Holt

Tonight at 7, i will have the pleasure of hosting Dane Holt’s online launch. Join us us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

one of the all-time beautiful Monday poems imo, “Amends” by Michael Burkard

This beautiful poem by Katharine Towers in the latest @poetrylondon.bsky.social is just stunning.

OK, and these two by @shevchenkoknight.bsky.social Basket magazine is my new favourite basketmagazine.co.uk/issues/issue...

‘It’s grim, the way I’m never dead and neither are you, in this zombie apocalypse called poetry.’ @poetclare.bsky.social knocking it out of the park

ALSO I have the pleasure of hosting Dane Holt’s online launch for his frankly brilliant collection ‘Father’s Father’s Father’s Father.’ 26th March. At 6.30pm. You can book your free ticket here…go on, do it now :)👇 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dane-holt-...

I really admire this poem by Dane Holt. He takes that particular ‘flatness’ of grief and finds a playfulness within it… which is so hard! How on earth do you play with flatness? Like this:

'The Murder House' from Ambush at Still Lake by @carolinebirduk.bsky.social was the Poem of the Day this weekend on @poetrydaily.bsky.social!

The most gorgeous of love poems, the absolute number one in my #Valentine’s countdown, mid-air from The Air Year by @carolinebirduk.bsky.social #poem #poetry #lgbtq

‘Tonight I lingered over your name’ -Naomi Shihab Nye

Are you free 16th February, 6-7.30? I’ll be giving a poetry workshop on the movement of the mind across the page… in all its erratic glory. It’s hosted by the brilliant Sustenance community and you can register here: lu.ma/0butddbk?loc...

Some stunning line-breaks here… by Denis Johnson

‘It must be Friday by now’ - a little Monday poem by Anne Sexton

This might just be my favourite episode of the brilliant Is It Rolling Pod? podcast. Just a joy to hear poet @carolinebirduk.bsky.social recite the lyrics to Isis with such relish. "We're all poets when we dream." podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

Happy new year everyone! Here is a wonderful Ruth Stone poem which somehow feels like the right thing x

Registration closes today!! Sign up now if you’d like to begin the new year (perhaps masochistically) by writing a *drastic* amount of new poetry….

Random poem from a random book on my bookcase

Registration CLOSES 30 Dec for @outspokenacademy.bsky.social online intensive poetry courses — don’t miss out > 6-week Standard: @aanaxagorou.bsky.social, @carolinebirduk.bsky.social, Jack Underwood, 6 Jan–14 Feb > 4-week Mini: Joelle Taylor & Malika Booker, 7–30 Jan outspokenldn.com/academy

‘We work in this building and we are hideous’ - Denis Johnson

If you want a drastic poetry course for the new year, sign up to this one with me, Anthony and Jack

Exciting things lined up for early 2025. The brilliant @carolinebirduk.bsky.social is headlining Rise Up! - supported by Oliver Carmichael & Minal Sukumar. Hosted by @chadpie.bsky.social & yours truly. There’s also a workshop opportunity! Tix are on sale here: www.eventbrite.com/e/rise-up-a-...

“A lot of people refuse to do things because they don’t want to go naked, don’t want to go without guarantee. But that’s what’s got to happen. You go naked until you die.” —Nikki Giovanni (Thanks to @kristenchapman.bsky.social for this one.)

Evalyn’s poetry-workshop-drawings never fail to make me happy

This is on Tuesday… Fancy a massive Christmas poemathon? If you came to this last year, come again! There will be ALL NEW exercises. It’s not a repeat, it’s a sequel.

I am absolutely living for my poem a day in @annierutherford.bsky.social’s Poetry Advent Calendar. Such poems! All donations will go to Médecins Sans Frontières. Still time to sign up! book.benefacthq.com?id=poetry-ad...

This is so good. @ellafrears.bsky.social writes horror and satire and pathos and eros and real, real life and hallucinations into each good sentence

‘I spent a year inside the word GOD like a budget hotel room’ - Amelia Loulli, from her excellent collection ‘Slip’

We're back in 2025 with fantastic tutors leading online courses & an updated programme: Join > @carolinebirduk.bsky.social Jack Underwood & @aanaxagorou.bsky.social on our 6-week Standard course > Joelle Taylor & Malika Booker on the 4-week Mini! Register now: http://outspokenldn.com/academy

‘It’s hard to mourn in shorts’ - Stephen Sexton

Join Caroline Bird, Anthony Anaxagorou & Jack Underwood for 6 'drastic' weeks of poetry on our Academy Standard online poetry course. 6 Jan–14 Feb 2025 Workshops: 7-9pm Mon & Fri Weekly O2Os & peer feedback Instalment payment available. Registration now open: https://buff.ly/4g5oCC4

yday marked 91 years of Holodomor memorial. we also recently surpassed 1000 days since the full-scale invasion. these moments are intrinsically linked, something which i grasp at in Food for the Dead, a collection which as @carolinebirduk.bsky.social puts it, is an act of “memory in present tense”

On the train to Edinburgh. Come and see @carolinebirduk.bsky.social & me at 3.30 today - ‘titans of poetry’ (lol) ⚔️ pushtheboatout.org/events/titan...

I’ve started a substack called CLARE’S POETRY CIRCLE. It’s free to read and subscribe. Today we’ve begun a readalong of Keats’ LAMIA 🐍🐍🐍 Do read part one and join the conversation! clarespoetrycircle.substack.com/p/reading-la...

‘The telephone fell from my shoulder, a black parrot repeating’ - Nick Flynn

Laying out some numbers! We’re excited to be back in January with Caroline Bird, Anthony Anaxagorou & Jack Underwood leading our 6-week Standard Course. Registration open > www.outspokenldn.com/standard

The secret ambition of all lyric poetry is to stop time. —Charles Simic