Poetry Centre

• Catweazle - a warm, welcoming open-mic night often involving poetry and story telling, held at East Oxford Community Centre every Thursday night. Over 20 years old now!
• No Reading Alone - a night of poetry and spoken word held once every few months around Oxford, hosted by the local writers group Oxwords.
• Hammer and Tongue - a night of performance poetry, with headlining acts and a poetry slam, held at various venues around Oxford.
• George’s Jamboree - a night of live music, comedy and performance poetry held on the first Monday of the month at the Jam Factory.
• Hear the word - a regular night (that’s been going for 10 years now) for the performance of poetry, writing and songs open to all local writers, held at The Gardeners Arms, Plantation Road, Jericho.
• Short Stories Aloud – short, often original creative work, read or performed by actors.

• North Wall Arts Centre - a theatre and exhibition space which occasionally features performance poetry and storytelling.
  
• The Story Museum – a treasure trove of creativity, tucked away in central Oxford, devoted to children’s fiction. Hosts with regular literary events, including author lectures.
• Modern Art Oxford - the Basement Gigs at this venue often include nights of performance poetry, multimodal literary performances, storytelling and more.
• Blackwells - the Broad Street branch of this bookselling chain occasionally includes evenings of live performance poetry and spoken word within its literary event schedule.
• Pegasus Theatre – a lively theatre on Magdalen Road hosting a variety of plays.
• The Duke’s Cut - a pub in central Oxford hosting poetry nights featuring the work of the Oxford University Poetry Society. You can find more details of Oxford (University) Poetry Society’s activities here.
• Burton Taylor Studio – a small theatre near Gloucester Green offering innovative new plays.

• Blackwells – a few different kinds of reading groups run regularly at Blackwells on Broad Street.
• Short Stories Reading Group – short stories reading group at Joe Perks.

• Oxwords Oxford
• Jericho Poets
• Oxford Creative Writers
• Freehand - a writers’ group that meets monthly in Oxford.
• Stanza 2 - a poetry writing group made up of members of the Poetry Society. 
  
• Back Room Poets
• Oxford Poetry Society - the Oxford University poetry society, which runs frequent events and readings with local and internationally-renowned poets. The society can also be found on Facebook.

• Oxfringe
• The Oxford Literary Festival
• MCS Arts Festival

• The Inklings – a group of writers, led by Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, who met and shared their work at various places in Oxford, not least the pub The Eagle and Child.
• ‘Alice day’ – a day of events to celebrate Lewis Carroll‘s Alice!
• The Bodleian Library – one of Europe’s oldest and most beautiful libraries.

The following publishers all generously contribute poems to this year’s weekly poem initiative:

• Arc Publications : from Todmorden in Lancashire, Arc publishes contemporary poetry from the UK and abroad, specialising in poetry in translation. Arc has been publishing for forty years.
• Anvil Press : publishing since 1968 and based in Greenwich, London, Anvil mainly publishes contemporary English poetry, with some Irish and American work, as well as work in translation.
• BOA Editions Ltd : BOA Editions, from Rochester, New York, has been publishing since 1976, and publishes both American poetry and poetry in translation.
• CB editions : began work in 2007, and has since published four titles a year in both poetry and fiction. The poetry has won the Aldeburgh Prize, received PBS recommendations, and various shortlistings for other prizes.
• Enitharmon Press : established in 1967, Enitharmon is based in London.
• Penned in the Margins : founded in 2004, Penned in the Margins is an independent publisher and live literature producer specialising in poetry and based in East London.Visit the Penned in the Margins website to sign up to the mailing list.
• Seren Books : ('Seren' means 'star' in Welsh) based in Bridgend, South Wales. Originally conceived by Cary Archard and Dannie Abse as an offshoot of Poetry Wales magazine in the latter's garage in Ogmore-by-Sea in the early 80s, under Managing Editor Mick Felton the press has gone from strength to strength and has published a wide range of titles including fiction, art books, and poetry.
• Shearsman Books : founded first in 1981 as a magazine, Shearsman now publishes new poetry from Britain and the USA, but also work in translation.
• Worple Press : founded by Peter and Amanda Carpenter in 1997, the press has published a wide range of authors, including Poetry Book Society Recommended Translations. 

• Bloodaxe Books : founded in 1978, and located in Highgreen, Northumberland, Bloodaxe publishes poetry from all over the world.
• Copper Canyon Press : based in Port Townsend, Washington, and publishing poetry exclusively since 1972, Copper Canyon’s list contains work by well-known and emerging writers.
• Egg Box Publishing : operating out of Norwich, Norfolk, Egg Box aims to publish new and establishing writers.
• Oversteps Books : founded in 1992 by the poet and translator, Anne Born, the press has been run since 2008 by the poet and lecturer Alwyn Marriage. It publishes a wide range of established and new poets.
• Salt Publishing : started as a magazine in Australia in 1990, Salt began to publish books in the UK in 1999, and today publishes more than 80 books a year including poetry, biography, essays and literary criticism from authors worldwide.
• Two Rivers Press : founded in Reading in 1994 by Peter Hay, Two Rivers focuses on local poets and often explores and celebrates local history and environment.

Do visit our list of local poetry societies, groups, and organised readings.

• Oxford University Poetry Society : a society run by students at Oxford University which hosts weekly readings during term-time and organizes an annual poetry reading competition, Poetry Out Loud. Non-Oxford people are very welcome to become members and/or attend readings.
• The Poetry Society : the Society’s aims are to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry. Its programme of events includes readings, lectures and discussions.
• The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry : based at Queen’s University, Belfast, the Centre is ‘a dynamic and vibrant focal point in Ireland for the writing, criticism and appreciation of modern literature.’
• Poet in the City : a charity set up to develop new audiences for poetry and organize and host poetry events.
• The Poetry Book Society : an organisation devoted to developing and maintaining a readership for poetry in the UK.

• The Poetry Archive : an online collection of recordings of poets reading their work (audio).
• BBC Poetry Out Loud : poets performing their own work - plus scroll down for a link to interviews with poets (audio).
• Favorite Poem Project : an American site with footage of people talking about and reading their favourite poems (video).
• Poets.org (part of the Academy of American Poets) : an archive of over 700 poetry readings, lectures, and symposia (audio).
• PENNsound : an ongoing project committed to producing new audio recordings and preserving existing audio archives (audio).
  
• The Poem : dedicated to furthering contemporary British and Irish poetry; provides access to texts of poems.

• The Poetry House : an excellent resource providing access to a comprehensive set of poetry-related materials.
• The Poetry Library’s poetry magazines archive : a searchable archive of UK-published poetry journals - especially good for contemporary poetry.
• Voices and Visions : free documentaries about American poets.
• Intute : a free online service designed to find the best resources on the web for study and research. Although it closed in July 2011, there is still an archive of useful material.
  

Here at the Poetry Centre we’re not in a position to provide feedback on poems you’ve written, or to offer advice about getting them published - but we can recommend the following sites:

• Frequently asked questions about getting poetry published, answered by The Poetry Society.
• The Poetry School : an organisation which focuses on teaching the reading and the writing of poetry to adults; the tutors are well-known published poets.
• Guardian Poetry Workshops : monthly workshops, each hosted by a different published poet who sets an exercise, chooses the most interesting responses, and offers an appraisal of them.