The relationship between organised human life and the rest of nature is more strained by the day. How can we use folk horror as a lens to interrogate and write about nature in revolt, about beastliness, about alternate ecologies? How can we draw on mythic and folkloric literary traditions to explore the bounds of the human, the shape of the climate crisis, and the strange experience of embodiment? How can the folk horror imaginary enrich our writing? Send us your folk horror poems in answer! Eleanor Penny follows her excellent Poetry London workshop on this topic with an invitation to enter your poems into this one-off competition in support of tell it slant bookshop in this spooky season, with the kind hosting of the Poetry Translation Centre. “Your eyes are dark as holly / Of sycamore your horns / Your bones are made of elder branch, Your teeth are made of thorns.” Charles Causley, Green Man in the Garden “one damp steak/ hung outside from the porch/ whistling in the streaked and furious night” Rebecca Tamás, A spell for sex "The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass / And silent was the flock in woolly fold" John Keats, St Agnes Eve “But now I wonder: better to be the egg or scaled/ mandible? The small hand or the flies, bottle black/ and green, spilling their bile onto whatever’s left” Donika Kelly, A Dead Thing That, in Dying, Feeds the Living “All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!” William Shakespeare, The Tempest “Dead Papa Toothwort wakes from his standing nap an acre wide and scrapes off dream dregs of bitumen glistening thick with liquid globs of litter.” Max Porter, Lanny
Prize: £100, plus publication in the first issue of Circuit - the new tell it slant zine.
Length: Maximum of 40 lines (including title and stanza breaks).
Theme: Folk horror.
Eligibility: Open to writers over 18 based anywhere in the world.
Entry Fee: £5 each for up to three poems.
Format: One poem per document ONLY (up to three files may be submitted). Must be original, unpublished poetry, written primarily in English, submitted online via Submittable.
Judge's biography
Eleanor Penny is a writer, journalist, broadcaster and teacher. Her writing has been featured in the New Statesman, the Independent, In These Times Magazine. Prizes for her work include a London Writers Award, a TS Eliot Emerging Writers Fellowship, the Verve Poetry Festival Prize and the Poetry London Prize. She’s the author of Mercy, published by Flipped Eye, and a three-time Barbican Young Poet. She’s a co-founder of live literature project Bedtime Stories for the End of the World, and of independent media production company Planet B Productions. She’s on the editorial team at The Ecologist magazine, and she teaches creative writing with organisations including City Lit, the Poetry School and Goldsmiths University of London.
The PTC is looking for a deaf or disabled poet or translator to run an online workshop in February 2027 as part of the London Writers Centre’s Access to Literature project.
We are seeking proposals from d/Deaf or disabled poets or translators for an online workshop on a topic of your choice in line with the PTC’s mission to celebrate poetry in translation and multilingual creativity. Workshop proposals looking at translating poetry, multilingual poetry and diaspora poetries will all be considered.
The Poetry Translation Centre is the only UK organisation dedicated to translating and promoting contemporary poetry from Africa, Asia and Latin America. We believe that the act of translating and sharing poetry breaks down barriers and offers a way to explore diverse heritages and identities with respect.
The Access to Literature initiative is a collaborative project led by the London Writers Centre and CRIPtic Arts, designed to identify and remove barriers faced by d/Deaf and disabled writers, creative producers, and audience members in the literature and publishing sectors.
Application Details
- The successful applicant will be paid £600 to develop and deliver a 2-hour online workshop in late February 2027.
- The deadline for applications will be midnight on Sunday 10th of January..
- Please apply with a CV and a 300-word proposal
- Alternatively, you can apply with two short, three- to five-minute videos: one detailing your experience to date and the other outlining your proposal for an online workshop,
- We are happy to receive Accessibility Riders from applicants at any time in the process, either as part of your application or later after the selection process has taken place.
- The workshop will be recorded to allow participants to access it later.
- The successful candidate must prepare all workshop materials for Friday January 15th so that they can be accessed by workshop participants once they book their place.
- Any poet or translator who identifies as deaf or disabled under the Equality Act 2010 is welcome to apply. The Equality Act 2010 defines disability as a condition ‘having a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on one’s ability to do normal daily activities’
- There is a reasonable adjustments budget in addition to the fee.
- If you have any questions about this open call, please contact Bern Roche Farrelly, Head of Programmes at the Poetry Translation Centre at bern@poetrytranslation.org.
Timeline
- Applications Open - Thursday, November 12th
- Applications Close - Sunday, January 10th at midnight
- Successful candidate contacted - Monday, January 18th
- Workshop announced online - Monday, February 1st
- Workshop materials finalised - Monday 15th of February
- Workshop delivered - Sometime between Monday 22nd and Sunday 28th of February
Access
- You can download this call for submissions in large-print and dyslexia friendly formats.
Access to Literature is run by CRIPtic Arts and London Writers Centre in partnership with the Poetry Translation Centre, New Writing South, Apples & Snakes and the National Centre for Writing. It aims to co-create a toolkit for change so disabled writers don’t have to fight for space at the table. It is supported through public funding by Arts Council England.