On lighthouses: open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... You know you have half an hour to spare... go listen to @helenmort.bsky.social exploring how light is housed. It's lyrical and you can feel how the coast hugs its slender guardians.

I’m hosting this in conversation event with brilliant Mai Serhan tomorrow at 11am, registration via the link: rise.mmu.ac.uk/activity/i-c...

It was wonderful to do this ‘listening chair’ for Elizabeth Alker recently and talk about John Grant but - more importantly - this episode of Unclassified features musical gorgeousness from Sheffield…. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I’m doing some short & sweet online poetry workshops over the coming weeks, first ones are this Friday. Would be lovely to have your company if anyone would like to join! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poems-that...

Online poetry workshops with Helen Mort? Yes please! Poems that make things happen. One off or book the whole series - 1 hour sessions of creativity. @helenmort.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poems-that...

In a masterclass on Sunday, someone asked if I would consider sharing my drafting process. So I had a go! open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

It's impossible to capture all the events of 2025 from CPW in one image, but here's a snap shot of some of the brilliant things our members have been involved with this year. Including @helenmort.bsky.social Andrew Michael Hurley, Nikolai Duffy, Rachel Lichtenstein & Jean Sprackland.

My Christmas jumper is ON. My silly festive writing prompt is free for all to access on Substack! open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

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!