Whether you’re new to poetry writing, want to explore the form or are aiming for a first collection, discover from established, published writers and multi award winners about how to take the next step.

Daljit presents Poetry Extra on BBC Radio 4 Extra and is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University. The Guardian calls his poetry ‘an espresso shot of thought.’

He did not discover poetry until his late teens and took A Levels at evening classes before studying English at university.

Daljit’s four poetry collections (Faber & Faber) won the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem and Best First Book, the South Bank Show Decibel Award, the Cholmondeley Award and were shortlisted for the Costa Prize and TS Eliot Prize.

A former Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, Daljit was also a Bridport Prize judge in 2018.

After working in theatre most of her life, Amanda left acting in 2021 when she was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma. In 2023, as a way to work creatively with illness, she began writing poetry. That same year, one of her first poems Patient and Daughter Appear Closely Bonded won The Bridport Prize, selected by judge Roger Robinson.

Subsequent poems are published or forthcoming in Rattle, Broadsided, LONESOME, Book XI, DMQ Review, Bombay Gin, Tendrils, Metphrastics and Dead End.

Amanda's debut collection No Obvious Distress is due with John Murray Originals in July 2025.

Alyson has a PhD in Creative Writing (Poetry) from The University of Edinburgh and was Highly Commended in The Forward Prizes for Poetry for her poem Prayer w/o Punctuation which also featured in The Forward Book of Poetry 2025.

Alyson is co-winner of the 2022 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award for Scottish-based poets under 30. She has also been shortlisted for the 2022 Rebecca Swift Foundation Women Poets’ Prize and the 2023 Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. She was runner up in The Bridport Prize in 2023.

Run by international creative writing competition The Bridport Prize. Previous winners include Kate Atkinson and Kit de Waal. Discover more at www.bridportprize.org.uk

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Pump up your poetry!