The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society in 1912. Its first president was Lady
Margaret Sackville
Lady Margaret Sackville (24 December 1881 – 18 April 1963) was an English poet and children's author.
Born at 60 Grosvenor Street, Mayfair, Sackville was the youngest child of Reginald Windsor Sackville, 7th Earl De La Warr. She was a second ...
.
From its current premises in
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...
, London, The Poetry Society publishes ''
The Poetry Review
''The Poetry Review'' is the magazine of The Poetry Society, edited by the poet Wayne Holloway-Smith. Founded in 1912, shortly after the establishment of the Society, previous editors have included poets Muriel Spark, Adrian Henri, Andrew Motio ...
'', a poetry magazine. Established in 1912, its current editor is the poet
Wayne Holloway-Smith
Wayne Holloway-Smith is a British poet. He was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, and currently lives in London.
Holloway-Smith's first poetry publication was the pamphlet ''Beloved, in case you've been wondering'', published by Donut Press in 2011. H ...
, who succeeded
Emily Berry
Emily Berry (born 1981) is an English poet and writer.
Early life
Berry was born and raised in London and studied English literature at Leeds University, and Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College. As of 2017, she was completing a ...
in 2023. Berry herself succeeded
Maurice Riordan in 2017.
Fiona Sampson was the magazine's editor from 2005 to 2012.
Awards
The society organises several competitions, including the British
National Poetry Competition
The National Poetry Competition is an annual poetry prize established in 1978 in the United Kingdom. It is run by UK-based The Poetry Society and accepts entries from all over the world, with over 10,000 poems being submitted to the competition ...
, the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award,
Foyle Young Poets
The Poetry Society. The , The Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry and the Geoffrey Dearmer Award. The society also ran the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize
The Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize was awarded by the Poetry Society of London for a collection of poetry. It is named after Alice Hunt Bartlett who was the American editor of the society's ''Poetry Review'' from 1923 to 1949. The prize was establishe ...
from 1986 to 1997.
References
External links
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