me banging on about Woodman, Plath and spirit photography … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Great piece from Lesley Harrison on Inger Christensen and writing under the shadow of the Bomb … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Niall C on winkles, animism, and a frequent topic of conversation round here – Jack Gilbert. substack.com/@northseapoe...

Repost, now with added silence. Occurred to me belatedly that some folk did not read ‘great’ as ‘elder statespersons of international standing’ as per the author’s intentions, but ‘dead good’. I think we can still all agree there are plenty of those. open.substack.com/pub/northseapo…

“A poetry of self-conscious listening, of placing sound carefully. Like the plover, here I am, sitting on this stone, testing out sounds and patterns in order to record how it is to be here in this now.” —Lesley Harrison, “Do Birds Sing?”, in @pnreview.bsky.social www.pnreview.co.uk/archive/do-b...

Just posted a thing on misreadings, facepalms, iron, milk and spiders, and my most brutal encounter with Robert Frost yet … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Wonderful piece by Karen Solie on Fanny Howe, over at the northseapoets place … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

There’s still time to join me in some rather strange poetic territory this saturday morning … www.northseapoets.com/events/the-r...

There’s still time to join me in some rather strange poetic territory this saturday morning … www.northseapoets.com/events/the-r...

escape the dreadful heat & embrace your inner sleet - only a couple of places left on John Glenday’s guide to poetic weather next week: www.northseapoets.com/events/a-wea...

Lisa Brockwell on Elizabeth Bishop, Robinson Crusoe and the perversity of nostalgia, over at the northseapoets place … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Glenday on paying attention and reading Nick Laird’s Up Late - over at the northseapoets place … substack.com/@northseapoe...

A frisky otter in the Donmouth getting there ahead of itself shines bright and brilliant as the shade of Diogo Jota. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Niall C at the northseapoets place today on touch, grit and island funerals … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Is it practically impossible to be an honest poet-critic today? A new essay of mine on the decline of reviewing culture, the rise of the poetry prizes, artistic standards and integrity. Over at the @northseapoets.bsky.social Substack: northseapoets.substack.com/p/winners-an...

Landscape. Death. Bishop. Ghosts. Plath. Artists. Heaney: “Writing With” begins in September. Details at www.northseapoets.com/events/north...

North Sea Poets’ autumn course is now live – places are limited! The theme this time is ‘Writing With …’ – we’ll each focus on a subject or author, and explore what we can learn from them. Everything from ghosts and landscape to Heaney and Plath … www.northseapoets.com/courses-1

Important new essay on the death of poetry criticism from Ben Wilkinson - a new guest post up on the north sea poets substack. A must-read: open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

lovely piece from Niall Campbell on the peat libraries of his Hebridean youth. now up at the northseapoets substack … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

If you’re quick - there may still be time to join us this weekend at Stones Barn in Cumbria (ar 15 miles from carlisle) for our annual read-in. We sit round a table, I bring in a bunch of great poems by great poets to discuss, and we have a grand old time. forgottenlands.org/local-events

Part two of a ramble about Palgrave, Tennyson and anthologising up now at the northseapoets posty place. Includes all the dirt on Oscar Williams. You know you want to know open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Just posted part one of an essay on the joy and agony of anthologies, over at the northseapoets substack – on the origins of the form, the genius of Frances Palgrave and why there will never be a book called Cheese Dreams: an Anthology of Dairy-Themed Verse substack.com/@northseapoe...

This documentary about painter Bridget Riley is brilliant. She reminds us what a privilege it is to be alive. A total legend. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

I don’t write much on this subject and don’t intend to start, but some of you may know that - while my politics are small ‘s’, small ‘c’ and raging centrist - I’m a longstanding supporter of Scottish independence. I believe Scotland is a country 1/4

Kathleen Jamie on the northseapoets substack, writing on something we don’t like writing about … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Have posted a slightly bonkers class on the northseapoets site, looking at a very under-identified and -explored kind of parallel metaphor. Bit of a ‘try this one weird trick’, I admit, but it can work to make things both more coherent and a lot stranger. www.northseapoets.com/events/the-r...

I want a fog house! Damn – when I think of all these abandoned outdoors lavvies in Scotland that would have made ideal one-person writing hides … Lesley Harrison on the northseapoets substack: open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Niall Campbell writing on poetry, silence and the living detail over at the northseapoets substack: substack.com/@northseapoe...

Are you a poet interested in getting published? Don't miss this event with @niallpoetry.bsky.social Getting Ready for Publication: Getting the Pamphlet Right 📆 9th May ⏰ 11am-12:30pm 🎟️ £30/£20 Book your place: buff.ly/R8AhrJC #NorthSeaPoets #PoetryWorkshop #PoetrySky

Hi folks - still tripping over your own feet? last chance to book in for what I hope will be a fun one on friday - clocks, parrots, chet baker and more alternate stress than you can shake a stick at www.northseapoets.com/events/two-d...

wheesht: John Glenday muses on Harpo Marx, Harpocrates and silence over at the northseapoets substack … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Belter of a piece now up at the northseapoets substack – Karen Solie on CD Wright, beeches and the martyrs of Strathkinness substack.com/@northseapoe...

Good piece from Pat. I share his fears. Tho I suspect that to ‘win’, AI doesn’t need to develop AGI, only the selfishness of a virus. Its astonishing manipulation of us cd easily be driven by that alone. The thought that it’s all joined-up motor reflex is far scarier than if it were consciousness.

June’s a way off, but if you want to get in there early – I’ve posted a class at northseapoets I thought might be fun. Basically a whistlestop tour of some of my favourite ‘stuck poet’ resources www.northseapoets.com/events/how-t...

Part two of the ‘Oh God What Have We Done’ AI & literature essay now up over at the northseapoets substack. I feel we’re not panicking quite enough yet. open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Just posted a p1 of a longish two-parter on AI and the future of literature on the northseapoets substack. TL;DR: it’s time to start panicking. But good may come of it. open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

if anyone in edinburgh fancies some JAZZ I’m playing with Graeme Stephen at the Scottish Arts Club this friday. apparently having just been informed of the death of a close relative www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/don-paters...

Glenday on Frost’s underlining eyebrows at the northseapoets substack … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Lesley Harrison on WS Graham, Rabelais and the Northeast passage, on the northseapoets substack. I tend to think of Malcom Mooney’s Land as a whiteout counterpart to the black shadow of Ted Hughes’ Crow (also 1970) tho MML now seems the more widely influential … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

new classes going up at the northseapoets.com site so get along there and sign up … And lots more to say on matters AI asp, but here’s a thoughtful intervention from K Jamie: open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

ach. few can write music like KT.

Just posted a not *entirely serious thing on poetry and public health messaging over at the northseapoets substack open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Just flagging the inaugural NorthSeaPoets Poetry Fundamentals course here … It’s selling somewhat faster than we’d anticipated - so don’t leave booking until the last minute, as places are limited on this one. www.northseapoets.com/events/poetr...

Disgusting beyond words. May have turn America off for a while www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Lisa Brockwell writing on wee book that blew my mind first time I read it … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Niall Campbell on singing to small audiences … get yourself to the North Sea Poets substack open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

we’re going to have to talk sensibly and honestly about the ramifications of this very soon. for literature, for publishing, for the assessment of talent, for the creative writing degree. Anyway - first time I’ve read any AI fiction or poetry and thought: Oh. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Lesley Harrison’s lovely notice of Colin Bramwell’s fine Fower Pessoas over at open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

cracking new piece by Kathleen Jamie up in the North Sea Poets substack. Get along and subscribe … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...