News 2025
2025 News
MAY
Sunday 18th of May
After a sellout in February, I’m very pleased to be repeating my ekphrastic poetry workshop, ‘Beyond the Frame’. Once again, this workshop is being delivered through The Writing Well, a brilliant writers’ resource founded and run by Kate Oldfield. More information can be found here, and please do investigate the rest of the website too, as it’s a treasure trove of resources and support:
https://the-writing-well.com/bookings/p/ekphrasticpoetry-2
I am participating in not one, but two Zoom readings on Sunday 11th of May! Firstly, I will be reading my poem ‘The groundbreaking women of Kew’ at the online launch of the new, ‘Soil’ themed, edition of The Alchemy Spoon – alongside some other wonderful poets published in this issue. Secondly, I will be giving a longer reading as a guest at the online launch of a new anthology of nature-writing, The Language of the Land. Supported by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, this beautifully-produced book is co-edited by my good friend Sue Burge, and I’m very happy to contribute to its launch celebrations.
Both events start at 7pm, so I will be reading early on for The Alchemy Spoon, and joining the launch of The Language of the Land a little later on. Both events are free to attend. The information to register for the launch of The Alchemy Spoon can be found at the link below, while anyone wishing to support the launch for The Language of the Land will find booking details in the graphic.
APRIL
I’m very pleased to share news of two publications this month. Firstly, my poem ‘Sycamore’s Prayer’ has been published by Atrium Poetry. Inspired partly by the felling of the much-loved tree at Sycamore Gap, and partly by my admiration for the sycamore that grows just beyond my own garden, I wanted to explore the vulnerability of trees, and their resilience too. I’m grateful to editors Claire Walker and Holly Magill for giving my poem such a lovely platform. ‘Sycamore’s Prayer’ can be read at the following link, and I encourage readers to explore more of the work at this excellent poetry website as well:
https://atriumpoetry.com/2025/04/11/sycamores-prayer-sarah-doyle/
Secondly this month, and also responding to aspects of the ‘grown world’, my poem ‘The groundbreaking women of Kew’ has been published in the ‘Soil’-themed latest edition of The Alchemy Spoon poetry magazine. My poem celebrates the first female gardeners employed at Kew Gardens in the late 19th Century; a fascinating subject for poetry. Always well-produced, and including colour images in addition to intelligent poetry, the magazine contains work from lots of other great poets, and can be purchased via this link:
https://www.clayhangerpress.co.uk/store/p61/The_Alchemy_Spoon_Issue_15.html#/
MARCH
Due to popular demand, I am rerunning my five-week email poetry course again this month. If there is sufficient take-up, I may well run it again later in 2025 as well, so please feel free to get in touch (via my Contact page) if that’s of interest. In the meantime, it’s been a source of joy and great pride to see poets publishing work inspired by or begun in various workshops of mine (from one-offs to my five-week course). Here are some examples:
‘A dunnock’s prayer’ by Corinna Board:
https://carmenerror.com/?page_id=422
‘A Jar of Starfish’ by Claire Walker:
https://inksweatandtears.co.uk/claire-walker-2/
‘Red Hills with Flowers’ by Corinna Board
https://www.afterpoetry.com/poem/feb-28-2025-corinna-board
‘prayer of the suckling pig’ by Cindy Botha:
https://inksweatandtears.co.uk/on-the-second-day-of-christmas-we-bring-you/
FEBRUARY
Sunday 9th of February
I am excited to be rerunning my ekphrastic poetry workshop, ‘Beyond the Frame’ – this time for The Writing Well, an inspiring writers’ resource founded and run by Kate Oldfield. More information can be found here:
https://the-writing-well.com/workshops
One of the highlights of my poetry year is co-judging the Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Prize with PRS Chair (and my great friend) Serena Trowbridge. Once again, we read lots of wonderful poems and had rewardingly difficult decisions to make. Ultimately, though, we are delighted with our final five winners, listed here. Enormous congratulations to all!
https://www.pre-raphaelitesociety.org/copy-of-competitions
JANUARY 2025
Published towards the end of 2024, I have enjoyed reading the latest edition of Under the Radar magazine, which includes my poem, ‘And the wind rose’. Co-edited by Jane Commane and Caleb Parkin, this issue features work exploring the theme of ‘Sound’. A wind rose is a graphic representation of typical wind conditions recorded over time at a specific location, and my poem is part of a larger meteorological collection that I’m working on. ‘And the wind rose’ uses the sounds made by winds as a metaphor for our own utterances and expression:
And the wind rose
I pucker my lips to form their names, divide
myself into quadrants, divide again: four, eight,
sixteen. I am air gathered, a bloom of breath
blustering my lungs to bellows, summoning
cardinals in the spinning language of weather.
[…]
If you’d like to read the rest of my poem – and lots of other brilliant work besides – then Under the Radar can be purchased at this link:
https://ninearchespress.com/magazine
Completing a seasonal quartet, it was a great pleasure to record some gorgeous wintery Pre-Raphaelite poetry for the Pre-Raphaelite Society’s podcast. Whether you’re wallowing in DG Rossetti’s winter-bitten wold, or swooning among Swinburne's sonorous fruitless furrows, please do have a listen here:
https://www.pre-raphaelitesociety.org/podcast/episode/918614a8/poetry-readings-for-winter