Burning the old year with this fab poem by Naomi Shihab Nye and welcoming in the first weekend of 2026. 🎆

Final chance – one of the world's biggest prizes for a single poem closes midnight, your time, wherever you are! 🌟 €11,000 in prizes up for grabs. Judged by Ishion Hutchinson. bit.ly/mothpoetry25

Still writing? Not long to go! This year's Moth Poetry Prize closes TOMORROW – midnight, your time, wherever you are. Don't miss your chance to win a share of €11,000. ✏️ bit.ly/mothpoetry25 (Painting by Federico Zandomeneghi)

❛ For the sake of a single poem, you must see many cities, many people and Things, you must understand animals, must feel how birds fly, and know the gesture which small flowers make when they open in the morning. Poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who died #OTD in 1926.

⏰ THREE DAYS LEFT TO ENTER ⏰ The Moth Poetry Prize closes for entries on 31 December! Twelve prizes in total – one overall prize of €6,000, 3 prizes of €1,000 for the shortlisted poets and a further 8 prizes of €250 for commended poems... 🌟 bit.ly/mothpoetry25

Out of offices still on? From Issue 7, 'Father and Son, 2010' by Billy Childish 🌨️

Do you have a favourite festive poem? Share it in the comments so others can enjoy it. We'll start with a perfect betwixtmas poem – for the post-holidays days – from Jane Kenyon... 🎄

One week to go! ⏰ Don't miss your chance to win a share of this year's €11,000 Moth Poetry Prize pot... 🌟 1st PRIZE €6,000 🌟 3 RUNNER-UP PRIZES OF €1,000 🌟 8 COMMENDED PRIZES OF €250 Closing 31 December. Rules and entry this way: bit.ly/mothpoetry25

❛ I suppose we can finally stop talking / about the plastic pineapple / your mum bought for me / last Christmas. Where else would you find a poem about 'Homes Under the Hammer'? From Issue 34. 🍍

❛ The more I paint the more I like everything. Jean-Michel Basquiat, born #OTD in 1960.

❛ For / assuming there is / such a secret, yes / for that / most of all. Denise Levertov, who died #OTD in 1997.

From the Moth Archives, Clare Elsaesser's 'Bird in Hand' (Issue 16) 🐦‍⬛ #ThrowbackThursday

🚨 2 weeks to go! 🚨 Don't miss your chance to enter this year's Moth Poetry Prize for the chance to win a share of this year's €11,000 prize pot. Not long until entries close for another year... bit.ly/mothpoetry24

The theme of this week's Moth Studios Challenge is of course Christmas! Complete your work within 2 hours and submit it from 9-11pm on Tuesday evening to The Moth Studios (via Facebook DM). This will be the last challenge of 2025. 🎨 Fred Yates

❛ The very nicest thing about being a writer is that you can afford to indulge yourself endlessly with oddness, and nobody can really do anything about it, as long as you keep writing and kind of using it up, as it were. Shirley Jackson, born #OTD in 1916.

We're thrilled to be announcing this year's winners of The Moth Nature Writing Prize - as chosen by Mark Cocker! This year's first prize goes to Nils Röper, who grew up in rural Northern Germany, near the former Iron Curtain, for his prose piece 'Lost Range'.

❛ If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way? Emily Dickinson, born #OTD in 1830

Talking process with poet Sharon Olds, from our interview which originally appeared in Issue 40 of The Moth... 🦋 #MothArchives

This week's Moth Studios Challenge is to produce a painting/drawing which features a bridge. The work must be completed within two hours and submitted from 9-11pm on Tuesday evening to The Moth Studios (by private message on FB). Open to everyone – good luck! 🎨 Leon Kossoff

❛ This much you can say for any grave, / it's landlocked. The late Steve Heighton's 'Christmas Work Detail, Samos', which was shortlisted for The Moth Poetry Prize in 2019.

❛ I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. Joan Didion, born #OTD in 1934.

❛ One of my secret instructions to myself as a poet is: “Whatever you do, don’t be boring." – Anne Sexton 4 weeks to go until entries close for this year's Moth Poetry Prize. Don't miss out on your chance to win a share of our massive €11,000 prize pot! 🌟 bit.ly/mothpoetry25

Anyone else feeling dog tired? #HumpDay Bradley Wood's 'Lap Dog', from Issue 30. 🐩 bit.ly/pastmoths

The theme of this week's Moth Studios Challenge is hairdressing. Your artwork must be completed within two hours and submitted from 9-11pm on Tuesday evening to The Moth Studios (by private message on FB). Open to everyone. Please share and good luck! 🎨 Margaret Clarke

❛ As somebody who desperately wants to communicate my inner world to other people, the poem just seemed like the most useful little machine. From our interview with poet Victoria Kennefick (Issue 50).

❛ I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead. We're sorry to hear of the passing of Tom Stoppard. #RIP

Counting down to The Moth Poetry Prize with one of our previous winners as inspiration – an extract from Lance Larsen's 'Things I'm Against', selected by 2023 judge Hannah Sullivan. This year's prize closes 31 December... Enter here: bit.ly/mothpoetry24

Today's #ThrowbackTuesday from The Moth Archives, 'Dance with Fox' by Anna Jung Seo, originally from Issue 47 🦊

The theme of this week's Moth Studios Challenge is a heat source. The painting / drawing must be completed within two hours and submitted from 9-11pm on Tuesday evening to The Moth Studios (by private message on FB). The challenge is open to everyone. Please share and good luck! 🎨 Vija Celmins

❛ There will be dying, there will be dying, / but there is no need to go into that. / The poems flow from the hand unbidden / and the hidden source is the watchful heart. Poet Derek Mahon, who was born #OTD in 1941.

Every back issue of The Moth features two exclusive interviews, with the likes of Sarah Hall, Seán Hewitt, Sharon Olds, Sally Rooney, Eimear McBride, Kit de Waal, Hera Lindsay Bird, and more. Come kick back with your favourite writers... 🐡 bit.ly/pastmoths

❛ A true artist should be able to make something creative or artistic out of anything he's got... you should be able to take the whole world as your material. Artist and writer Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, who died #OTD in 2010.

❛ I meet people who are full-time writers and I can’t figure out how they do it. How can you pay your rent like? Seriously. 'Like an Ordinary Life', our interview with writer Donal Ryan, from Issue 16. #MothArchives

The theme of this week's Moth Studios Challenge is pigs. The painting / drawing must be completed within two hours and submitted from 9-11pm on Tuesday evening to The Moth Studios (by private message on FB). The challenge is open to everyone. Please share and good luck! 🎨 Monique Sarkessian

A sleepy Saturday throwback, 'All Hands Belong' by Beth Booth - from Issue 37 #MothArchives 🐕

❛ Aside from painting and gardening, I am good for nothing. Claude Monet, born #OTD in 1840.

❛ It seems to me madness to wake up in the morning and do something other than paint, considering that one may not wake up the following morning. Frank Auerbach, who died #OTD one year ago today.

This week's Moth Studios challenge is to paint / draw a root vegetable. The work must be completed within two hours and submitted from 9-11pm on Tuesday evening to The Moth Studios (by private message on FB). The challenge is open to everyone. Please share and good luck! 🎨 Lizz Lovell

The Moth Poetry Prize's past judges include Claudia Rankine, Marie Howe, Billy Collins, Nick Laird, Warsan Shire, Hannah Sullivan, Fiona Benson, Louise Glück and more. We're delighted to add Ishion Hutchinson to the list this year! Open now. Enter here: bit.ly/mothpoetry25

❛ Everyone's really fucking lazy. They want me to be one thing. They want to pin down everybody and they want them to be one thing they can call confessional or experimental... I tried them all out because I just have to. And I'm not one thing. Alice Notley, born #OTD in 1945.

‘The Moth magazine is a thing of beauty’ Caoilinn Hughes 'It manages to have gravitas and coolness simultaneously’ National Poetry Library 'It’s beautiful. I always want to frame it ’ Fiona Benson Back issues from just €5, including P&P... 🦋 bit.ly/pastmoths

Hello November! 👋 The penultimate month. Who has a favourite piece of poetry that reminds them of the season? We'll start with this gem from (former Moth interviewee) Billy Collins...

A little #ThrowbackTuesday to this stunning piece by Dutch artist Kenn Gregoire! 🪁 Originally from Issue 12 of The Moth.

The theme of this week's Moth Studios Challenge is Time. The painting / drawing must be completed within two hours and submitted from 9-11pm on Tuesday evening to The Moth Studios (by private message on FB). The challenge is open to everyone. Please share and good luck! 🎨 Edvard Munch

The Moth Poetry Prize is one of the biggest prizes in the world for individual poems. Open to anyone over 16, each year we hear from thousands of new and established poets from over 50 countries worldwide. Is this the year you join them? 🌟 bit.ly/mothpoetry25

❛ I am a simple man and I use simple materials: Ivory Black, Vermilion, Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, Flake White and no medium. That’s all I’ve ever used in my paintings. L. S. Lowry, born #OTD in 1887.

Happy Halloween, friends of The Moth! 👻 (Painting: 'The Night' Aksel Waldermar Johannessen)

❛ When I am working, I am only aware of the canvas and what it tells me to do... I am certainly not aware of myself. Painting is a way of forgetting oneself. Artist Joan Mitchell, who died #OTD in 1992.

❛ I saw her when she materialized, / shadowed and hooked, at the foot of my bed, / in her smoked cloud of hair. We couldn't resist a Halloween treat from the archives – Bethany W. Pope's poem 'The Witch', originally from Issue 41. 🧹 #MothArchives

The theme of this week's Moth Studios Challenge is Halloween! Your artwork must be completed within two hours and submitted from 9-11pm on Tuesday evening to The Moth Studios (by private message on FB). The challenge is open to everyone. Good luck! 🎨 Paul Delvaux