The Little Griefs tour has taken a...detour. Next reading in York, for Our Friends in the North. London following! Book York tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-gri...

Book launch postponement! Now taking place...same time, same venue, same readers...on Thursday 7 May. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-gri...

I YAM WHAT I YAM N DATS WHAT I YAM. Thank you Rafael for these kind words on the sailor's life.

Happy eightieth birthday to that fine poet Peter Didsbury, from Sean O’Brien, me, and all the contributors to During the Late and Long Continuing Cold, a Festschrift in his honour published by Broken Sleep Books. Hoping he enjoys the work we have taken such pleasure in secretly assembling.

New on the writer’s bookshelf this morning: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the brilliant Andrew Neilson.

"I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse".

It feels a missed opportunity that Ryan Gosling's Ryland Grace in Project Hail Mary was not named Thomas, or Tom...Tommy...etc...Grace. A great film, bar the very final screen-test-pleasing shot.

I find this persistently fascinating and moving - the mind and the sea -"how it folds itself / over and over". One of the great 21st Century poems.

I'm reading with some fantastic fellow poets at the London launch of Little Griefs next month. Here's @kathryngray.bsky.social on Rosemary Tonks/Lightband. Free tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-gri...

Little Griefs the mini-tour continues with a gig at the brand spanking new Poetry Pharmacy in York! Featuring @kathryngray.bsky.social @matthewpaulson.bsky.social and @katymilkman.bsky.social Hope to see anyone northwards there 🙏 @poetrypharmacy.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-gri...

Little Griefs the mini-tour continues with a gig at the brand spanking new Poetry Pharmacy in York! Featuring @kathryngray.bsky.social @matthewpaulson.bsky.social and @katymilkman.bsky.social Hope to see anyone northwards there 🙏 @poetrypharmacy.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-gri...

Alastair Reid, poet and @newyorker.com critic, friend of Robert Graves and inveterate Hearts of Midlothian fan, would have been 100 today. He also wrote the definitive poem of my patria 🙏

London book launch for Little Griefs! Next month in Covent Garden. Free but ticketed: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-gri...

London book launch for Little Griefs! Next month in Covent Garden. Free but ticketed: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-gri...

The government is failing on fire safety in prisons and backsliding on 20 years of intended improvements! Excellent reporting by The Guardian and featuring my excellent colleague Gemma www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Book developments. A tour schedule of sorts with further details TBC! www.bluediode.co.uk/product-page...

Tragic. Almost 20 years on from the Corston Review, women in prison are still dying needlessly. 'Missed opportunities', particularly in this case as regards fire safety, seems an understatement. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

I’m very moved by this poem by Graeme Richardson from his new Carcanet collection Dirt Rich

My Mother's Day poem is for my mum's mother. From Little Griefs. Poem, and my mum. ❤️

Lovely post on a lovely afternoon.

The first words in Little Griefs are an epigraph from James Merrill. So this news is wonderful and I am very grateful to the spirit of JM and his legacy. 🙏

Edinburgh launch for Little Griefs complete! Next up: London in April. Free but ticketed: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/little-gri...

Ahead of the Edinburgh launch of Little Griefs tonight, there's a poem from the book on the Poetry London website poetrylondon.co.uk/origins/

A thread for James Merrill's centenary.

James Merrill would have been 100 today.

Richard Wilbur, a writer who means rather a lot to me, would have been 105 today

Last promo push by me for the Edinburgh launch this Friday coming of my poetry collection, Little Griefs. Tickets almost sold out! Details of a London shindig imminent...https://www.eventbrite.com/e/little-griefs-by-andrew-neilson-tickets-1982316379654

Despite, or perhaps not despite, the Jewish reference in this poem...I wrote it at the height of the depredations in Syria and dedicated it to my life partner. A time to remember our shared humanity, and the immense luck some of us experience over other people.

Exactly one week from now! www.eventbrite.com/e/little-gri...

Exciting moment, if you are me!

Edinburgh calling! Come to Leith and enjoy some poems. www.eventbrite.com/e/little-gri...

"Grief wrongs us so". Poem for a Sunday, by Douglas Dunn.

Edinburgh calling! Come to Leith and enjoy some poems. www.eventbrite.com/e/little-gri...

ICYMI 👀 Don't miss this guest post: Auden's 'Imaginary Friends' – @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social on how the literati cope as Rome falls buff.ly/2GbQ3tb #NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky

I have a book out in less than a month and so I am plugging it shamelessly. Here is the opening poem. Please consider joining our attendance to the office of the moment by pre-ordering a copy here! www.bluediode.co.uk/product-page...

I have a book out in less than a month and so I am plugging it shamelessly. Here is the opening poem. Please consider joining our attendance to the office of the moment by pre-ordering a copy here! www.bluediode.co.uk/product-page...

OUT NOW. Issue twenty-three: 'Wildfires' badlilies.uk/issue-twenty-three

New guest post 📰 @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social on how the literati cope as Rome falls Read here: buff.ly/2GbQ3tb #NorthSeaPoets #PoetrySky

Everything happens all at once. My debut poetry collection, Little Griefs, is out in March...but available now for pre-order: www.bluediode.co.uk/product-page...

A bump for this guest @northseapoets.bsky.social post. I've always loved this Auden poem and I have always loved the notion of an imaginary friend. So here I am writing about both: open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

A bump for this guest @northseapoets.bsky.social post. I've always loved this Auden poem and I have always loved the notion of an imaginary friend. So here I am writing about both: open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Coming soon...

OCEAN'S FOUR: merely a hop, skip and a lengthy jump away from Leith's Ocean Terminal. Not a heist but a quest, or maybe even a bris (ouch, at my age). Yes, it is the Edinburgh launch for my debut collection, Little Griefs, out next month! www.eventbrite.com/e/little-gri...

OCEAN'S FOUR: merely a hop, skip and a lengthy jump away from Leith's Ocean Terminal. Not a heist but a quest, or maybe even a bris (ouch, at my age). Yes, it is the Edinburgh launch for my debut collection, Little Griefs, out next month! www.eventbrite.com/e/little-gri...

Our co-florist @andrewjamesneilson.bsky.social has written a guest post for @northseapoets.bsky.social on Auden and 'Imaginary Friends' northseapoets.substack.com/p/audens-ima...

I posted elsewhere about a lady in one of my Leeds Irish Health and Homes workshops who wrote 'I've had dementia / for as long as I can remember'. It came back to me reading @ravoon.bsky.social's tremendous debut 'Dirt Rich', full of technically brilliant, emotionally-devastating work like this:

‘Supermax-style units’ for most dangerous criminals to be introduced in England and Wales

I don't know what it means but it means something. People publishing poetry for the first time who are turning 50, including myself. Call us the True Generation (we've lived and loved, and come bearing hard-won lessons for life) . @ravoon.bsky.social @jobratten.bsky.social

X.J. Kennedy, RIP