Poetry Centre

Director(s): Dr Niall Munro

Contact: niall.munro@brookes.ac.uk +44 (0) 1865 483433

About us

The Poetry Centre, which is based within the School of Education, Humanities and Languages at Oxford Brookes University, was launched in 1998, and hosts an exciting annual programme of events, which include conferences and research seminars, workshops (including a special workshop for military veterans), exhibitions, poetry readings, and community projects. The Centre also acts as a base for the extensive research being done into poetry in the school.

The Centre runs an annual International Poetry Competition which has two categories for entries: Open and English as an Additional Language. The competition usually runs from May until September and you can find more details on the competition page.

In 2017, the Poetry Centre established ignitionpress, a poetry pamphlet press with an international outlook which publishes original, arresting poetry from emerging poets, and established poets working on interim or special projects.

ignitionpress pamphlets

Selection of ignition press pamphlets

Related courses

Research impact

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Based in the School of Education, Humanities and Languages, the Poetry Centre has a highly active research culture. A number of academics within the school listed below work on poetry (in addition to other kinds of writing), and their work spans the ages: from the 1500s to the present day. Visit each researchers individual page to learn about the rest of their work and interests.

In REF2021 (the national assessment of research across the country), the Poetry Centre was submitted as a case study to demonstrate the impact that academic work can have on public life. You can read more about this work (exploring war poetry and the commemoration of war) elsewhere on the Oxford Brookes website.

Other colleagues associated with the Centre also contributed case studies. Read about Professor Simon Kvesis work about bringing the work of the working class poet John Clare to different audiences, and the project associated with the research of Professor Alex Goody and Dr Eric White that allows marginalised young people the chance to express themselves through technology and art.

Leadership

Niall Munro

Dr Niall Munro

Senior Lecturer in American Literature & Director of the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre

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Membership

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Projects

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Weekly Poem

The Weekly Poem initiative sends a free contemporary poem, published by an independent press, to your inbox every week! Click on the links to the right to sign up or to look through past Weekly Poems – running all the way back to 2007.

The presses participating in the initiative during the 2021–22 academic year are: Candlestick Press, Nine Arches Press, Bloodaxe Books, Bad Betty Press, tall-lighthouse, ignitionpress, and Seren Books.

We hope you will enjoy reading the poems and that you will be encouraged to support these presses by visiting their websites, signing up to their mailing lists, and buying their books.

Podcasts

The Poetry Centre Podcast focuses on the work of one poet or features discussion about poetry with poets and academics. Scroll to the bottom of this page and click on the link for the audio you would like to hear, or click on the Apple Podcasts link on the right in order to subscribe to the podcast series. You can also find us via other podcast providers like Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Literary Oxford

The city of Oxford is a hive of literary activity, with a long history of fostering some of the worlds most famous creative minds.

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