National Poetry Library

Our final Special Edition event of 2025 is Red Bean Poetry, next Wed 3 Dec 2025, 8pm

Prize-winning poets of Asian heritage, each with a close connection to the National Poetry Library (including two of our treasured Library Assistants), read from their latest work, exploring the meaning of art, art-making, pivotal memories and transformations in life.

Hosted by Jennifer Wong of Red Bean Poetry, the poets featured tonight are Troy Cabida, Erica Hesketh, Nina Mingya Powles and Eric Yip.

Please follow this link for more information and tickets:

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/special-edition-red-bean-poetry/

Our next Special Edition: Culture Matters takes place this coming Wed 26 Nov 2025, 8pm.

Dive into an event hosted by the working-class collective Culture Matters, featuring poetry readings from Amir Darwish, Fran Lock and Nick Moss.

Poets respond to themes such as the rising cost of living; the growth of poverty and inequality; conflicts at home and wars abroad; climate breakdown; crumbling public services; politics and Palestine. A central theme is the positive action working-class cultural workers can take in a fragmented world.

More details and tickets here:
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/special-edition-culture-matters/

This coming Saturday, 22 November 10am, come to the National Poetry Library and get creative in this workshop with the artist behind our poetry exhibition 'Try! Try! Try! Again!'.

This workshop is going to be all about experimental writing methods and unpredictable outcomes - participants with any and all levels of poetry/ writing experience are welcome!️

£12 + £3.50 online booking fee, concessions available

More info and tickets here:

Iris Colomb Workshop | Southbank Centre Get creative in this workshop with the artist behind our poetry exhibition Try! Try! Try! Again!, and revel in the unpredictability of poetic outcomes.

Our online showcases are back! On Wed 12 Nov, we'll be exploring the question: "Where to Next with Poetry?"

Join us online to meet poets who have been part of groups and collectives that have helped them hone their craft.

For the event, we’re joined by alumni from First Story’s Young Creatives Programme, and William Wyld and Luigi Coppola from the Southbank Centre’s New Poets Collective.

We'll also be joined by the organisers of the Young Poets Summit who will give an insight into their nationwide programme of mentoring, masterclasses and showcases for the next generation of poets.

Don't miss this opportunity to discover fresh new work by some amazing poets, as well as to consider how you might want to take your own work forward.

Free!
Online
7pm, Wed 12 Nov

More info and tickets here:

Online Showcase: Where to Next with Poetry? | Southbank Centre Looking for ways to develop your poetry? Join us online to meet poets who have been part of groups and collectives that have helped them hone their craft.

Our Special Edition this coming Wednesday 5 Nov 8pm is 'Alchemy - Changing Perspectives'.

The Alchemy Spoken Word Collective is a group of young artists from Lewisham and beyond who meet weekly at Goldsmiths, University of London to write and perform as an act of empowerment and transformation.

'Changing Perspectives' is an evening of live performance curated by the young artists themselves. It includes new material created in response to the National Poetry Library’s collections, under the guidance of Alchemy’s spoken word mentor Y.A. Poet, who is committed to creating and performing work that challenges the issue of underestimating talent from underrepresented communities.

More information and tickets here:

Special Edition: Alchemy – Changing Perspectives | Southbank Centre The Alchemy Spoken Word Collective is a group of young artists from Lewisham and beyond who meet weekly at Goldsmiths University to write and perform as an act of empowerment and transformation.

Our Poetry Day is tomorrow! This is an annual celebration of the National Poetry Library’s collections, with displays filled with gems from the library’s collections, curated by library staff.

In the spirit of exploring the library’s shelves, we’re sharing this wonderful poem by Simon Barraclough, who gave a special tour of the National Poetry Library back in May, and opened proceedings with this new poem.

You can find our Poetry Day in the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer from 11-5 on Sat 25th Oct and you can read Simon's poem in full on our website here:

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/venues/national-poetry-library/online-poems/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-library-after-wallace-stevens/

Next Saturday 25th Oct is our Poetry Day!

Our annual outing as part of the London Literature Festival sees us in the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer from 11am, where you'll find displays of rarities, hidden gems and new acquisitions from the largest public collection of modern poetry in the world, carefully curated by our wonderful library team. From reinvented classics through to poems made out of boxes, come and discover the riches of the library's collections!

From 1.30pm, there'll be poetry readings organised by the brilliant Poetic Unity, a Black-led charity that empowers children and young people to thrive through poetry-based education, employment, social justice and mental health support across the UK.

And throughout the day, the amazing poets Jessica Todd and Lily Blacksell will be leading a writing workshop based around the 'Poetry Fruit Machine', an addictive literary game created by Todd and Ella Frears and newly published by Rough Trade Books.

The whole day and all of its activities are totally free, simply drop in between 11am and 5pm and get involved!

Poetry Day! | Southbank Centre On the theme of spoken word, the National Poetry Library’s annual poetry day features readings and a workshop, and shows off the collection’s hidden gems.

We're sad to hear of the passing of Liverpool legend Brian Patten.

Brian came to perform for us two years ago as part of our 70th birthday celebrations. Alongside Roger McGough, Brian captivated the audience in the Purcell Room with his humour and lyric poetry.

The whole performance can be heard on our Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/nationalpoetrylibrary/national-poetry-library-at-70-celebration-part-12?utm_source=mobi&utm_campaign=social_sharing

We have over 70 publications which include Brian's work in the National Poetry Library collection where readers for generations to come can discover and revisit his work.

📸 Pete Woodhead

Congratulations to all the poets on this year's T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist! 🎉 We can't wait for the Shortlist Readings at Southbank Centre on Sun 18 Jan 2026 (in person at the Royal Festival Hall and also on live stream)!

Here are our ten wonderful shortlisted poets for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2025, and their shortlisted books! We are so thrilled to be able to celebrate these writers and share their work with you all.

Our shortlist in full:

‣ Gillian Allnutt - Lode (Bloodaxe Books)
‣ Isabelle Baafi - Chaotic Good (Faber & Faber)
‣ Catherine-Esther Cowie - Heirloom (Carcanet Press)
‣ Paul Farley - When it Rained for a Million Years (Picador Poetry)
‣ Vona Groarke - Infinity Pool (The Gallery Press)
‣ Sarah Howe - Foretokens (Chatto Poetry)
‣ Nick Makoha - The New Carthaginians (Penguin Books)
‣ Tom Paulin - Namanlagh (Faber & Faber)
‣ Natalie Shapero - Stay Dead (Out-Spoken Press)
‣ Karen Solie - Wellwater (Picador Poetry)

Find out more now: https://tseliot.com/prize/news/

This Wednesday evening, 24 Sep 2025 7pm, our Head Librarian Chris McCabe is taking over the ICA to launch his new poetry collection Hedonism in London!

This special evening will feature live readings from McCabe and a stellar lineup of contemporary poets, including Iain Sinclair, Erica Hesketh, Isobel Dixon, Karenjit Sandhu, Richard Scott, Sarah Crewe, Simon Barraclough, and Ziba Karbassi. Together, they explore the radical possibilities of language, pleasure and resistance in a post-Brexit world.

More details and tickets here 🎫⬇️

https://ica.art/talks/book-launch-hedonism-by-chris-mccabe

Open call for artists and poets to lead workshops at Southbank Centre's Creative Encounters! 🎨✍️🧶✂️🖌

Here at Southbank Centre we host a series of events on Wednesday evenings called Creative Encounters. Creative Encounters is a space for sharing the joys of artistic experiences and connecting with each other. Every fortnight, we fill the Southbank Centre’s Clore Ballroom with making and creativity (and a selection of books from the National Poetry Library!). These performances and workshops aim to help build connections between people who may be at risk of isolation, and help people in London feel less alone.

We have created an open call out for workshop artists who want to pitch us an idea!

We’re excited by a variety of workshops; crafts, spice blending, creative writing, calligraphy, collage poetry etc. Anything that means people have the opportunity to work and commune with another person, and ideally have something physical to take home with them or to make collaboratively in the space (or both).

The form to complete is here with further information:
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/creative-encounters-collaboration-call-out/

The deadline to apply is midnight on Sunday 7th September.

Can you help us find someone's lost poem?

A older poem possibly (late 19th/early 20th century?) that talks about how, only in a small number of generations, you can get right back in history - perhaps to Roman times. Possibly mentions ages in terms of 'three score years and ten'. Might mention walking in our ancestor's footsteps, but definitely talks about going back in time through the lives of our ancestors. There is an element of repetition in the poem - possibly in terms of the walking, as in "I walked in my father's footsteps" or "His father walked this track". The repetition might also be in terms of the counting of the years - "his father's father lived...." The enquirer is pretty sure there are some numbers involved!

Any leads appreciated.