🎁 Christmas is coming, and if you need gift inspiration, how about a ticket to our WARS OF THE ROSES online course, which runs in January. A few hundred joined us earlier this year our Tudors course so we are expecting this one to sell fast once we begin properly promoting.

⏬️ In Brighton and Coventry this week. Go see it! ⏬️

Delighted to have a poem in the new issue of The Interpreter's House alongside @calebparkinpoet.bsky.social and @moette.bsky.social! My piece 'Fourpence', narrated by the women of Whitechapel during the time of Jack the Ripper, can be read here: theinterpretershouse.org/hainsworth-84

Tonnie Richmond explores the tainted love of one of our greatest writers today.

🔥 Launch Day 🔥 Trilogy: wife:widow:witch by @katiejenkinspoet.bsky.social — fierce, feminine, & fateful. Out now. amzn.eu/d/6Vi9RPW #PoetryCommunity #BookLaunch #NewPoetry

If you have an hour to spare on Saturday 25 Oct why not treat your ears to some of the best poetry going? @hool415.bsky.social @meggiepoet.bsky.social @saraswatinagpal.bsky.social @spiropoetry.bsky.social @jahshabby.bsky.social & Katrina Moinet, Zooming free! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/last-satur...

We are getting ready for our Nov.8 #NotJustPretty zoom. Are You? Our features creatively face glass ceilings. #OpenMic priority: women who haven't yet read in this series @thebrokenspine.co.uk All welcome to listen. Info: bit.ly/499kkJk #WomenSupportWomen #WomenSpeakUp #WomenSpeakOut #CanYouHearUs

Flash UK Kindle sale for The Process of Poetry! Just 2.99 for a book 37 readers have rated as 4.5 stars?! www.amazon.co.uk/Process-Poet...

And this! Thank you @afterpoetry.com @markantonyowen.com again 😌❤️

How many ways are there to say both WOW and thank you??? Being on these pages is an honor++++. More grateful than you will ever know. 🌩️🌨️⚡ bsky.app/profile/eatt...

I am honoured to be among those reading for this @thebrokenspine.co.uk event later this evening eventbrite.co.uk/e/notjustpre... a 90-minute online literary arts open mic amplifying women’s voices in poetry, performance & film. #poetrycommunity

Congratulations to Advanced Poetry Workshop alumni Lucy Heuschen whose debut poetry collection came out recently. Lucy was a student of John McCullough bit.ly/47Gpqw8

Tonight!

Congratulations are also in order for our runners-up, Nairn Kennedy and Jack Houston, as well as our commended poets, Corinna Board, Lucy Heuschen, Katharina Goda, Sam Phipps, Leah Larwood, Will Kemp, Suzanna Fitzpatrick, C.I. Marshall, Di Slaney, and Jacquie Shanahan!

Self promo plug to say if you’re interested in this & wanna invite me to your dept, esp if your city is nice - then invite me!! I am a good value seminar guest 😅

New podcast episode! @ewoodacre.bsky.social interviews Professor Nwando Achebe and Lydia Amoah, discussing the distinctive features of African queenship, including : royal women from across African history from ancient Egypt and Kush to the recent death of the Asantehemaa in Ghana.

This #NotJustPretty zoom launch feaures #RustyRose @petitecreature1.bsky.social @jenwithwords.bsky.social and 12 dynamic #OpenMicPoets. Lucky, lucky us! Tune in to hear and see #powerful #poems and #Poetryfilms. Will be amazing 💜 bsky.app/profile/theb...

Beyond thrilled to win 2nd prize at The Canterbury Poet of the Year tonight! Congratulations to Lucy Crispin 1st prize for her stunning poem! Thanks to all the judges! 🙏

The @poetrysociety.org.uk Stanza Comp 2025 results are in & I'm honoured to be commended for the second year in a row! Judge Jonathan Edwards has chosen beautiful poems that play with the theme of "play". 💗Congratulations to Marilyn, Nairn, Jack and all the commended poets too! #NationalPoetryDay

Come along to our #NotJustPretty reading on Saturday led by @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social @thebrokenspine.co.uk. Among poems of women of history, legend, myth and fantasy, I will read my commended poem from @poetrysociety.org.uk's Stanza Competition, just announced today on #NationalPoetryDay. 🍿💗

As one window shuts (@iambapoet.com), another opens – and this one's for the whole of October. If you have an 'after' or #ekphrastic poem that's looking for a home, that home could be @afterpoetry.com. So go on. Send it in. afterpoetry.com/submit

We are delighted to share the Call for Papers for our Spring Seminar Series 2026:

One week from today!! Saturday, October 4th @ 8pm GMT. Join me along with feature poets Rusty Rose, @petitecreature1.bsky.social and our wonderful host @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social for the first of a @thebrokenspine.co.uk special Zoom Series #NotJustPretty!!

It's come around fast, but it's here at last: your final chance to try out for a place in @iambapoet.com in either 2026 or 2027. Fewer than 20 spaces remain – so head over to iambapoet.com/audition before 23:59 BST today and submit your poem. Auditions won't reopen till Sep 2027, so don't wait!! 😉

#NotJustPretty — we don’t platform women to show them. We publish them to hear them. Poetry. Art. Defiance. Read it: thebrokenspine.co.uk...#NotJustPretty @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social @jenwithwords.bsky.social @petitecreature1.bsky.social

The report featured in the Guardian today on the inclusion of women in hustory lessons is really important - lets make women’s voices heard and their actions remembered. www.history.org.uk/secondary/ca...

Whoo hoo! The first event in the #NotJustPretty Zoom series is happening Oct 4! Details below! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Historic ‘causes’ of #Autism

Listen to what @petitecreature1.bsky.social is saying here. Not just the bit about how good @iambapoet.com is for poets looking to bring their words vividly to life, but also to the really important part about auditions being open RIGHT NOW (and for only the next five days). iambapoet.com/audition

Damien & issue co-editor @rhonagreene.bsky.social, are bright lights, who bring beauty to the world w/their talent, their own works, & their generous, genuine support, lifting other artists. It's an honour and a thrill to have a #poem included! #poetry #prose #art #PoetryCommunity #WritingCommunity

Blown away by the latest wave of @iambapoet.com. Congratulations to all the poets and to @markantonyowen.com! If you like poems that are acoustic, breathed into being by the poet themselves - this is the project for you. Psst: The audition window is open atm, which it won't be again until 2027!

#NotJustPretty — we don’t platform women to show them. We publish them to hear them. Poetry. Art. Defiance. Read it: thebrokenspine.co.uk...#NotJustPretty @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social @jenwithwords.bsky.social @petitecreature1.bsky.social

Coming Soon from Lauren Johnson: Margaret Beaufort: Survivor, Rebel, Kingmaker www.amazon.co.uk/Margaret-Bea... @historylauren.bsky.social ‪ #Tudors #BookLaunch

Looks like this castle has seen better days - the neighbouring cove is named after another Margaret Of History, who landed here in 1462. Do you recognise the ruins? #MargaretBeaufort #WhereIsMargaret #History #MedievalWomen #WomensHistory #Warsoftheroses #books www.instagram.com/p/DOddiPwCAT...

#NotJustPretty — we don’t platform women to show them. We publish them to hear them. Poetry. Art. Defiance. Read it: thebrokenspine.co.uk...#NotJustPretty @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social @jenwithwords.bsky.social @petitecreature1.bsky.social

So this has been in the world 24 hours now, and I'm blown away by the range of voices and the skill on show. I've had some very kind words for my own efforts, which is - of course - lovely, but this really works best seen as a collective, collaborative project - curated with care and skill.

@iambapoet.com I’m very excited to be an iamb poet! And in wonderful company in wave 23. Thank you @markantonyowen.com for bringing me into the family!

Very honored to be an upcoming part of the featured artist line up for a new @thebrokenspine.co.uk series #NotJustPretty led by the wonderful @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social. Stay tuned for more updates and events soon!

This 3-zoom series really is something to celebrate. #WomenBringItHome #WomenSpeakUp #NotJustPretty thebrokenspine.co.uk/2025/09/14/n...

This is an amazing project by @thebrokenspine.co.uk @karenpgonzalez.bsky.social and I am excites to be a part of it. Women's voices - loud and proud. Come along in and hear us.

But sometimes in the hallway of the school we’d see the witch’s daughter without her mother, looking like any other kid, looking almost like us in her brilliant disguise … —Joan Murray

Don't miss this, poets – the new wave, AND your chance to appear in a future one. I have two years' worth of spaces to fill. Help a publisher out? 🥹😉

#Poets I am delighted to be running a workshop on redrafting based on my book below for SWWJ. Non members particularly welcome 2-3.30pm Saturday 20th September £10. Do come ✍️DM for details. 🙏 share #poetry #redrafting #craft #workshop #discussion #techniques @flyonthewallpress.bsky.social

Poets, this is your moment. Submit to #SelectedPoetry—free, unthemed, and open to all styles. Contributor directory inclusion for published poets. @katiejenkinspoet.bsky.social @vespertine4.bsky.social shorturl.at/W8jbo#SelectedPoetry—free,#SubmissionWindow

Janet Reedman’s histfic is set during WOTR @jpreedman.bsky.social

A lovely book, which I listened to a few weeks ago on Audible. The women in the Wars of the Roses were vital ... and often connected! @anneobrienauthor.bsky.social, myself, @rosannamcglone.bsky.social, Annie Garthwaite and @jarnopp.bsky.social are just a few working in this area. Who else?#Medieval

SUB CALL! We're open for Poetry & Art for Issue 7: The Urge. Sept 1 - 22. This time we wanna explore the feminine urge: to cave-dwell or home-make, towards tenderness or violence, giddiness or belligerence, nurturing or devouring... Details: buff.ly/cQNscai 🖤

We need more subs for The Urge from women! ALL women!

Third in the free writing series from @alanparrywriter.co.uk: 💥 Write memory like it’s still happening 💥 Ditch nostalgia 💥 Let the poem bruise Missed the first two? Shame + men with no redemption arcs. Start now: 👉

BTW. Last night, when Matt asked us all to name one poet we especially commended to the rest of the group, I mentioned Lucy Heuschen @petitecreature1.bsky.social Her excellent collection, Daughter of Fire, which focuses on Margaret of Anjou, is well worth a look