A joy to interview Martin Parr yesterday at @mcrlitfest.bsky.social

Tomorrow night in Sheffield I’ll be reading a new commissioned poem for Jane Austen (and women who write!). Please join us: offtheshelf.org.uk/events/a-hou...

RIP Tony Harrison – a piece on metre and voice in his poetry With the sad news of the passing of Tony Harrison, who as a working class poet had a great impact on me during my formative years of writing in the 1980s, I went back to a piece I was commissioned to write for an OUP collection of essays…

I was a fourteen year-old public schoolboy when our English teacher introduced us to 'The School of Eloquence' sequence. It blew the cobwebs off poetry for us, broadening its range and power and shocking our comfortable political assumptions. There was no one like him. RIP Tony Harrison

On turning 40, the influence of Tony Harrison and some stuff about leaves. Oh, and a poem from my next collection. open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

can we not all have composter syndrome instead. a desire to mulch.

On Thursday @britishlibrary.bsky.social @helenmort.bsky.social hosts @writeback.bsky.social with Eliza Clark, whose horror-adjacent novels include the pitch black comedy sensation Boy Parts; renowned author and educator Musa Okwonga, and celebrated novelist Olivia Sudjic events.bl.uk/events/write...

Tomorrow - a free Centre for Place Writing pop up event at Manchester Met. Please come and join us! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/centre-for...

A new poem about being ‘safe’. open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

‘so we have a man… protect / him against / life his / life’ @helenmort.bsky.social’s ‘Dad vs. Dad’ is a work slim enough to finish over a lunch-break, but like shards of glass (indeed, like history) these poems and collages will stick deep in you. @vervepoetrypress.bsky.social have given us magic.

Annie Dillard, Melissa Febos, Audre Lorde, poetry & weasels. helenmort.substack.com/p/ecstatic-d...

Been enjoying an early read of this brilliant book published by @andotherstories.bsky.social - www.andotherstories.org/dreaming-of-...

What have John Berger, Erving Goffman, an invented actor, an imaginary Fringe show and my ridiculous glasses got in common? Only one way to find out. 😂 open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

Herons. 🐦 (why is there no heron emoji?!)…I make most of my Substack free but regularly post unpublished, poems stories and other things-with-wings for paid subscribers. Thank you to anyone who reads on either plan for the support! open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

On wrongness, wrong-as-a-place, poetry and wrong, Bill Matthews and tattoos. helenmort.substack.com/p/into-the-t...

On wrongness and wrong-as-a-place and Bill Matthews and Charles Simic and tattoos; helenmort.substack.com/p/into-the-t...

Tonight - got your tickets yet? events.bl.uk/events/write...

Thoughts at the end of a @centreplacewriting.bsky.social poetry series on ‘eco-poetry’. Wait, who made that paw print?! 🐻 🐾 helenmort.substack.com/p/how-i-miss...

Fairytales, time, trails of breadcrumbs and pebbles. open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

This Thursday, 6.30pm at Manchester Poetry Library, a Poetry Research Group and Centre for Place Writing event. www.mmu.ac.uk/poetry-libra...

Love this pic of a wonderful night of poetry in Berlin on Sunday with fellow poets from around the world. Photo by Natalia Reich and event organised by Haus fur Poesie. Thank you so much, and special thanks to Jan Wagner for translating my work. ❤️

Got your tickets yet for the next @writeback.bsky.social on June 26th at @britishlibrary.bsky.social ? Writers talk about themes and issues that preoccupy, inform, haunt & change their creative work. It’s a unique format from the ace brains of @aanaxagorou.bsky.social and Tom Macandrew and it WORKS.

‘To believe / in kindness, you must ignore the man on the train / using an extra seat for his sticky chicken wings…’ - this and other dubious ‘life advice’ from my notebook. open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

Is poetry sometimes all about ‘sad songs with happy tunes’? What were the first embarrassing cassette singles I bought? And how does my friend Molly have such great ideas while deadlifting at 7am?! All these questions and more…. open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

If you missed Roy McFarlane in conversation with @helenmort.bsky.social last week at Manchester Poetry Library, you can watch/listen back here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuNQ...

Very much looking forward to the next edition of @writeback.bsky.social featuring these stunning writers who’ll each deliver a short presentation on a chosen subject, before interviewing each other on stage. Hosted by the mighty @helenmort.bsky.social events.bl.uk/events/write...

The ‘Seasons of Change’ project, working at Arctic Station, unites science, local knowledge and storytelling to amplify Arctic voices in Kalaallit Nunaat. Changes highlighted through lake-sediment cores. @helenmort.bsky.social @iestynbarr.bsky.social @kirstenseesternc.bsky.social Kathryn Adamson.

The next event curated by @helenmort.bsky.social for the Poetry Reading Series: Roy Macfarlane in conversation with Helen Mort - Thursday 29th May, Manchester Poetry Library. funded by the Manchester Poetry Research Group & the Ctr for PW. #Poetry #events #manchester www.mmu.ac.uk/poetry-libra...

What a month! In May, we welcomed Kevin Barry, Robert Macfarlane and Laura Bates to Manchester. Thanks to everyone who came and brought their brilliant thoughts into the room. Also a big thank you to our radiant hosts @helenmort.bsky.social & Terri White!

I share unpublished short stories about women in bars on my Substack for paid subscribers (there are about 8 or so of them up there now). Sometimes they even include a brief heron, spider or - like this one - an unexpected goat. open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

Happy publication day to this startling, urgent new book from the one and only Laura Bates. I will be interviewing Laura tonight at Festival of Debate and there are still a few tix left: festivalofdebate.com/2025/laura-b...

Full house for Laura Bates at the Central Library tonight, with the brilliant @helenmort.bsky.social hosting again!

It’s Tuesday so OBVIOUSLY you need a picture of my French Bulldog Denver getting cosy and warm after her bath.

He needs no introduction - we’re here at Contact Theatre with @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social and @helenmort.bsky.social 🫶 discussing his ‘most searching book yet’, in Helen’s words.

The second WriteBack event, hosted by @helenmort.bsky.social has now been announced: with Nuar Alsadir, Nikesh Shukla, Claire-Louise Bennett and Helen Mort. What do writers talk about when they’re not writing? Thursday 26th June, 7pm @britishlibrary.bsky.social events.bl.uk/events/write...

Happy 99th birthday to the man who gave voice to the wild. 🎉 Sir David Attenborough, thank you for a lifetime dedicated to the natural world, and for sharing its story with wisdom, wonder, and grace. You've inspired generations to fall in love with nature.

Much news today but to add, tickets now available for conversation with the brilliant @helenmort.bsky.social, Sheffield, May 28. We'll be talking about women and the wild and Ethel Haythornthwaite, who steered the Peak into being the first National Park www.welcometosheffield.co.uk/content/even...

On grief, ice and inheritance. & in memory of Beryl Pound, 1931 - 2025. I will never forget you. ❤️ open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

On May 9th I will be in conversation with @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social about his new book Is A River Alive? @mcrlitfest.bsky.social manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/rober...

Scientists and geographers at @arcticstationucph.bsky.social have been filling my notebook with their thoughts on the seasons!

On the return from a research trip to Disko Bay, Greenland with colleagues from quaternary science Dr Kathryn Adamson & @iestynbarr.bsky.social working with @kirstenseesternc.bsky.social at @arcticstationucph.bsky.social - so much to process from another humbling encounter with ice and place.

Live literature on Thursday eve at Manchester Poetry Library with @poetrys MA tutor Glyn Maxwell. Still some tickets available and more poetry and ecology events coming up in May and June: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/glyn-maxwe...

I wrote about ‘Overnight’, the new book from @danzep.bsky.social for my Substack which delves into time-and-place each week: helenmort.substack.com/p/night-as-p...

Another glorious episode of The Poems We Made Along The Way dropped today. Gather yourselves around the wireless and listen to my conversation with the legendary @helenmort.bsky.social.

I’ve come up with a new quarterly event series called @writeback.bsky.social at the British Library. The format is each writer presents for 20 min on a subject of their choice, then in the second half the writers interview each other. It’ll be hosted by @helenmort.bsky.social.

Then in May we have the wonderful Roy Macfarlane - 6.30 - 8pm at Manchester Poetry Library. www.mmu.ac.uk/poetry-libra...

First event in the series is March 27th, 6.30pm - 8pm at the Manchester Poetry Library with @poetryschool.bsky.social MA tutor Glyn Maxwell - www.mmu.ac.uk/poetry-libra...

I’m hosting a series of environment-themed poetry events at Manchester Poetry Library this Spring. Poets discussing place, creatures, ecological peril and how to engage with these themes (+ more). Supported by the Poetry Research Group & @centreplacewriting.bsky.social www.mmu.ac.uk/poetry-libra...

Get your tickets for this fab event at the British Library on March 18th! www.seetickets.com/event/writeb...

New @mcrlitfest.bsky.social Spring25 event 🥁📚 🎤🎤 Writer & #EverydaySexism campaigner Laura Bates discusses how misogyny & inequality are being coded into our world via AI & tech with host @helenmort.bsky.social 🗓️ Tue 13 May, Central Library 🎟️ manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/laura...