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Poetry and Memoir: Blake Morrison and Sinéad Morrissey
Join readings and discussion at Poetry Cafe on 26 May

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[post_content] => [caption id="attachment_332273" align="aligncenter" width="495"]<img class="wp-image-332273" src="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Morrison-Morrissey-composite-1200x800.jpg" alt="Headshots of poet Blake Morrison against an out-of-focus backdrop of a bookshelf and headshot of poet Sinéad Morrissey against an out-of-focus backdrop of a brick wall" width="495" height="330" /> <em>Blake Morrison and Sinéad Morrissey (cr Clare Bowes)</em>[/caption]

The Poetry Society presents an evening of readings and discussion exploring poetry and memoir with award-winning writers Blake Morrison and Sinéad Morrissey, revealing how different ways of truth-telling play out between the two forms.

Sinéad Morrissey will read from her new memoir, <em>Among Communists</em> (Carcanet), which charts the personal and political earthquakes of her family during the Troubles, set against the distinctive cultural milieu of Belfast Communism; and will intersperse this with a selection of poems in which she’s approached the same events but from different angles. Blake Morrison’s new poetry collection <em>Afterburn</em> (Chatto & Windus) offers moving scenes from his own life and the lives of others, including a sequence about his sister who he has also written about in his recent memoir <em>Two Sisters</em>. In psychology, 'afterburn' refers to the time before a past event is assimilated – an idea that resonates through his poems about memory and our attempts to articulate, shape or contain it. Morrison will also discuss ideas shared in his new book <em>On Memoir: An A-Z of Life Writing</em> (Borough, 2026).

Discussion chaired by Poetry Society Director Judith Palmer.
<p class="x_xmsonormal"><span data-olk-copy-source="MessageBody">Born in Skipton, Yorkshire, <b>Blake Morrison </b>is the author of bestselling memoir, <i>And When Did You Last See Your Father? </i>(1993, winner of the J.R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography and the <i>Esquire </i>Award for Non- Fiction), and memoirs of his mother, <i>Things My Mother Never Told Me (2002), </i>and his sisters,<i> Two Sisters (2023)</i>. His work of narrative non-fiction, <i>As If</i><em> (1997)</em> is about the murder of toddler James Bulger in Liverpool. His poetry collections include <i>Dark Glasses (1984)</i>, which won the Dylan Thomas and Somerset Maugham prizes, <i>Pendle Witches</i>, which was illustrated by Paula Rego, <i>Shingle Street (2015) </i>and <i>Afterburn </i>(2026). His exploration of life writing, <i>On Memoir: An A-Z of Life Writing</i> is just published (2026). He is also a novelist, critic, journalist and librettist. He lives in South London.</span></p>
<p class="x_xmsonormal"><b>Sinéad Morrissey</b> was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. She has published six collections with Carcanet as well as a selected poems,<i> Found Architecture </i>(2020). Her awards include First Prize in the UK National Poetry Competition (2007), the <i>Irish Times</i> Award (2009, 2013) and the T S Eliot Prize for her collection <i>Parallax</i>, in 2013. Her collection, <i>On Balance</i> (2017), was awarded the Forward Prize and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. Her memoir, <i>Among Communists, </i>has just been published by Carcanet and a new poetry collection, <i>In All Our Clothes, </i>is forthcoming in 2027. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.</p>
<strong>Please note that this event is intended for an adult audience and the poems read may contain challenging language and/or imagery that some readers might find distressing.</strong>
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[post_content] => <strong>This is a free, hour-long poetry writing workshop for 14-25 year olds.</strong>

In this workshop, Europeana's Dr Beth Daley will guide you through prompts to inspire your entry to Getting Curious Challenge on Young Poets Network, run in partnership with <a href="https://www.europeana.eu/en">Europeana</a>. You don't need any previous experience to take part!

After the workshop, we encourage you to keep editing your work and submit it to the challenge, which is free and <strong>open to enter until Sunday 14 June.</strong>

This workshop will be recorded & copies of the recording will be available after the workshop has taken place. Email queries to <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.

Anyone aged 14-25 is welcome to join, regardless of how much experience they might have with poetry.

<img class="size-full wp-image-329806 alignleft" src="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/BethDaleyHeadshot-2.jpg" alt="" width="148" height="148" /><strong>Dr Beth Daley</strong> is a novelist, cultural and creative writer and Europeana's Editorial Adviser. She works on engaging a broad range of audiences in Europeana’s work and content. She has a PhD in Creative Writing, runs a range of writing workshops and her first novel <em>Blood and Water</em> is published by Hic Dragones in Manchester. A self-confessed story addict, Beth has led various initiatives in digital storytelling with Europeana, including acting as new writing mentor in Europeana’s Digital Storytelling Festival Online Creative Residency.
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[post_content] => Readings from Colin Herd, Claire Reynolds, Nicky Melville and Vik Shirley to celebrate the launch of Colin Herd’s new collection Aquafaba, out this year from Spam Press and Nicky Melville's Get Tae, published by Blue Diode. The readings will start promptly at 6.15pm and the event will end at 8pm.
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[H2] Poetry and Memoir: Blake Morrison and Sinéad Morrissey
The Poetry Society presents an evening of readings and discussion…

[H2] Getting curious: Online workshop with Young Poets Network and Europeana
This is a free, hour-long poetry writing workshop for 14-25…

[H2] Double Book Launch: Colin Herd’s Aquafaba and Nicky Melville’s Get Tae
Readings from Colin Herd, Claire Reynolds, Nicky Melville and Vik…

View more...

[H2] Getting curious: Online workshop with Young Poets Network and Europeana
This is a free, hour-long poetry writing workshop for 14-25…

[H2] Online Writing Workshop: The Singing of Things with Claudine Toutoungi
“Say it! No ideas but in things…” -William Carlos Williams…

Feedback on Your Poetry
Develop your writing with a one-to-one feedback session with an established poet

Young Poets Takeover on Saturday 23 May
14-25? Join us at The Poetry Café in London

[IMG: Graphic for the Foyle Young Poets Award, with the text]
Foyle Young Poets Award 2026 – open for entries!
Send your poems by 31 July 2026

[H2] Featured Poem

This poem is a winner of Ecotones and Meeting Places: An Ecopoetry Writing Challenge
on Young Poets Network in 2026, which was set and judged by poet Alycia Pirmohamed and run in partnership with Rotherham-based green engineering firm AESSEAL.

More poetry »

At some point, you will realisethat for far too long you’ve been writing aout landscapes foreign to you. The hate you feel for your body is yours. Not everything is fated & beautiful. The mangled limbs of workers in salt flats, & still you read Rilke in a warm saltwater bath. For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we can still barely endure. Driving through the salt marsh, the sun setting, so red: a violence in the sky. Vines of deep pink bougainvillea, their forms strange like octopus legs. Windmills, & the late light razing the tops of wheat. But soon, a flight away from this landscape. So far up above, how small the workers seem. The land becoming symbol again. & meanwhile, the sea water rushing out, leaving behind crystalline formations of salt that we call sculpture.

The Poetry Society was founded in 1909 to promote “a more general recognition and appreciation of poetry”.  Since then, it has grown into one of Britain’s most dynamic arts organisations, representing British poetry both nationally and internationally.  Today it has more than 5,000 members worldwide and publishes The Poetry Review.
With innovative education and commissioning programmes and a packed calendar of performances, readings and competitions, The Poetry Society champions poetry for all ages.
More about the Poetry Society…

The Poetry Society was founded in 1909 to promote “a more general recognition and appreciation of poetry”. Since then, it has grown into one of Britain’s most dynamic arts organisations, representing British poetry both nationally and internationally. Today it has more than 5,000 members worldwide and publishes the UK’s leading poetry magazine, The Poetry Review, which has been published since 1912.
With innovative education and commissioning programmes and a packed calendar of performances, readings and competitions, The Poetry Society champions poetry for all ages. As well as the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, The Poetry Society runs the National Poetry Competition, one of the world’s longest-running and most prestigious prizes for an individual poem. The Poetry Society also ran the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry – the prize founded and supported by Carol Ann Duffy during her 10 year tenure as Poet Laureate.
“The Poetry Society is the heart and hands of poetry in the UK – a centre which pours out energy to all parts of the poetry-body, and a dexterous set of operations which arrange and organise poetry’s various manifestations. It has a long distinguished history, and has never been so vital, or so vitalizing as it is now.” Sir Andrew Motion
A charitable organisation, we provide support, information and merchandise for specialists and the general public. We engage with and support diverse poetry audiences.
Through events, publications, The Poetry Café, promotions and prizes we ensure the highest artistic quality; we create a central position for poetry in the arts and continue to build new avenues to promote poets and poetry in Britain today.
Our education work provides development opportunities for poets, teachers, pupils, and emerging writers, creating a central position for poetry in education through our advocacy and links with national arts and government initiatives.
Find out more about how The Poetry Society champions poetry by exploring our Projects, Education and Competitions pages.
[H6] The Poetry Society is a registered charity no. 303334

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13 events found.

[H3]
May 2026

Sun
24

A one-to-one feedback session with an established poet offers a relaxed but in-depth analysis of up to 150 lines of your poetry. It’s a unique opportunity to identify strategies for further developing your writing, discuss problems you may be experiencing and look at strategies for taking your work forward. There will be plenty of time […]

Get Tickets
£10.00 – £84.00

Sun
24

[IMG: Workshop Recording]

This event is for the recording of this workshop. The recording will be available to watch until 23:59 on 27/05/2026. Please note that this is not an automated system. If you purchase a ticket before the workshop takes place, the link to watch the recording will be sent to you via email within two working […]

Get Tickets
£12.00 – £19.00
14 tickets left

Tue
26

[IMG: Image of Blake Morrison and Sinead Morrissey]

Blake Morrison and Sinéad Morrissey (cr Clare Bowes) The Poetry Society presents an evening of readings and discussion exploring poetry and memoir with award-winning writers Blake Morrison and Sinéad Morrissey, revealing how different ways of truth-telling play out between the two forms. Sinéad Morrissey will read from her new memoir, Among Communists (Carcanet), which charts the personal and […]

Get Tickets
£6.00 – £8.00
4 tickets left

Fri
29

This is a free, hour-long poetry writing workshop for 14-25 year olds. In this workshop, Europeana's Dr Beth Daley will guide you through prompts to inspire your entry to Getting Curious Challenge on Young Poets Network, run in partnership with Europeana. You don't need any previous experience to take part! After the workshop, we encourage […]

RSVP Now
Free

[H3]
June 2026

Fri
5

Readings from Colin Herd, Claire Reynolds, Nicky Melville and Vik Shirley to celebrate the launch of Colin Herd’s new collection Aquafaba, out this year from Spam Press and Nicky Melville's Get Tae, published by Blue Diode. The readings will start promptly at 6.15pm and the event will end at 8pm.

Fri
12

A duo recital and presentation of Classical Ottoman Court music. Constantly evolving since the 13th century, the Turkish Makam has become one of the worlds’ great music traditions. With Istanbul as its centre, folk, religious and classical music forms of the city and nearby regions create an elaborate tapestry of sound colours. The Turkish makam […]

Fri
19

Join Steph Ellen Feeney for the launch of her debut poetry collection, in conversation with Rachel Long. Out with Broken Sleep Books, Small Change is a radiant, unflinching collection that distils the seismic transformations of new motherhood into a sequence of poems both intimate and expansive. We’ll chat about it all -- desire, desperation, defiance, […]

Thu
25

“Say it! No ideas but in things…” -William Carlos Williams Join The Poetry Society for a workshop with Claudine Toutoungi exploring how the abstract and material come together in a poem and how the job of the poet is to find the song behind the 'thing'. Guided by Claudine, you will discover, read and explore […]

Get Tickets
£17.00 – £27.00
13 tickets left

[H3]
July 2026

Sat
4

The Poetry Society introduces three exciting new poets all recently published in Poetry Review magazine. Rashed Aqrabawi (pictured) is a London-based poet born in Amman. He won the 2024 BOMB poetry prize and his debut pamphlet is Christ, Mountain Road (pub Blown Rose). Olive Franklin’s debut pamphlet Dyke Juvenilia won the Poetry London Pamphlet Prize […]

Sat
4

Whether it’s via tattoos, trees or the totemic quality of cats, McCarthy Woolf pulls us into the processes of gentrification and class division with an immediacy that makes them impossible to ignore. A moving, critical and highly intuitive epic weaving together poetry, documentary and lyric essay, Unsafe is an interrogation of what it means to […]

Sat
4

A night celebrating one of the continent’s most considerable poetic nations, Romania. Romanian poets, both residing and writing in the UK and those visiting from Romania, will present brand new literary poetry and performance collaborations, all created for this event! Supported by the brilliant Romanian Cultural Institute, this will be a remarkable night of readings […]

Tue
7

Join us to celebrate the launch of the summer issue of Poetry London, one of the UK’s most prominent poetry magazines. Hear extended readings from contributors to the spring issue, including Fiona Benson, Andrew Jamison, and the winners of the 2026 Eric Gregory Award..

Thu
9

“An intimate evening of story, healing, courage, and elegant connection in Covent Garden.” Join Elisa Card in London for her Book Signing, “Becoming Me It Took 5 Sons Tour 2026,” an uplifting event celebrating resilience, motherhood, healing, self-leadership, and life purpose. An inspiring evening for women and men to rise, reconnect with your light, and […]

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The eclecticism of our work means that our projects bring us to canalsides, supermarkets, football and former battlefields as well as schools and arts venues. They range from ongoing programmes of events to one-off commissions of new work – for adults and children and everyone in between. Find out more about our recent projects here.

[H2] Poetry Writing Workshops

[H2] Feedback Services

[H2] Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair

[H2] National Poetry Day

[IMG: Cynthia Miller, Qurratul]
[H2] Malaysia-UK Poetry Exchange

[IMG: Swirly blue, green, grey and white lines with a blue cloud bottom right and a dark blue human bottom left. There is a stylised version of the Cuty Bridge Foundation logo in black and blue. Writing across a green striped reads]
[H2] City Bridge Poet in Residence

[H2] Poetry for Peace

[H2] Poetry and the Environment

[H2] Poetry to watch

[H2] Poetry and podcasts to listen to

[H2] #NaPoWriMo

[H2] Poetry Mixtape

[H2] Commercial Partnerships

[IMG: Poems on the Underground posters]
[H2] Poems on the Underground

[H2] The Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree

[IMG: Artwork by Eric Gaskell]
[H2] Canal Laureate

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[H2] Poet Laureate FAQs

[IMG: Jan Wagner gives The Poetry Society Annual Lecture in 2017]
[H2] The Poetry Society Annual Lecture

[H2] EUNIC

[H2] Unwritten

[IMG: Detail of the knitted poem]
[H2] Past projects