The Poetry Society

Media Room

Welcome to the Poetry Society's Media Room. Please use the links below to view a selection of recent press releases.

2012 Press Releases

• SLAMbassador Chris Preddie receives OBE

News: 8 February 2012

The Arts Council has recently released the funding which it has been withholding from the Society since last summer in recognition of the progress the Society has made since then. The Society was judged to have met a number of conditions which had been set for it, including demonstrating good governance following the election of its new board in September 2011. 

Stephen Irwin, Chair of the Board of Trustees, said: "This very welcome news signals the beginning of a new period in the life of the Poetry Society. We have a wide-ranging and ambitious programme of work for 2012 which we look forward to delivering for the benefit of people of all ages up and down the country."

Two new Trustees, Jon Sayers and Neil Reeder, have this week joined the Board of the Poetry Society. They replace Polly Clark and Edward Mackay, who stepped down from the Board just before Christmas.

The changes in Board membership and the excellent news from ACE will be featured in the next edition of our members' newsletter Poetry News, published in March.

Sir Stephen said: “The Poetry Society is very grateful to Polly and Edward for their hard work during a difficult period. They will be missed. We look forward to working with the new Trustees in the months ahead.”

News: 23 December 2011

A statement from the Board of Trustees:

During the summer of 2011, there was a good deal of publicity about the affairs of the Poetry Society in the mainstream media, on blogs and in the social media. Much of this was inaccurate and some of it was hurtful to staff, including both Judith Palmer and Fiona Sampson. The Board of the Poetry Society elected in September has reviewed these events, as part of the process of taking up the reins of the organisation. 

The Board recognises that distress was caused to, and reputational damage may have been suffered by, those involved. Undoubtedly this created a good deal of personal strain. Unfortunately, problems of governance were reported wrongly as a purely personal dispute. The Board regrets the misleading aspect of much of what was written.

The Board looks forward to continuing to work with both Judith Palmer as Director and Fiona Sampson as the Editor of Poetry Review.

Shanta Acharya, Martin Alexander, Robert Hutchison (Deputy Chair), Sir Stephen Irwin (Chair), Kona Macphee, Heather Neill, Paul Ranford, Michael Schmidt, Laurie Smith, Dr Stephen Wilson.

Photographs

If you are interested in obtaining images relating to any of these press releases, please contact us. We will be happy to email them if available.

Past Press Releases

If you would like to see older press releases, please browse our Press Release Archive.