I wrote two sonnets today, and yesterday I wrote a new poem and found the end of the one I wrote the day before. This follows a few weeks of nothing. It’s such relief to write again! How are you writing?

You can now buy tickets for an appealing new event - the Dobunni Festival, Stroud 16-17 Oct. Poets include @pascalepetit.bsky.social & @angelafrance.bsky.social . Here's a snatch of the 16th's events, incl @zoebrooks.bsky.social, Kate Potts & me. I'm staying for whole festival-hope to see you there!

My papier-maché sculpture, Gaia, in the Natural History Museum, London, in the 1990 ‘Rainforest Art’ exhibition. I exhibited it along with my two giant pitcher plants.

This week only Waterstones are offering 25% discount on preorders for Bloodaxe Books poetry books out in October. #WPreorder offer closes 24 July. Just go to www.waterstones.com, paste 9781780377964 into search box, click PREORDER and add code SUMMER26 for the discount.

The 2027 Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook is out! They have reprinted my essay, ‘Perseverance in Getting Poetry Published’, written for 2026 edition. It’s surreal – I spent decades scouring this bible for tips & insights. Happy 120 anniversary @writersandartists.bsky.social www.writersandartists.co.uk

A lovely surprise to find a review of Beast in the summer issue of @poetrylondon.bsky.social by Freya Jackson, you can read it online too with the link below here.

Bloodaxe Books@bloodaxebooks.bsky.social · last mo.

'a collection that is just as wild as the beasts that populate it, allowing the speaker to find a space for herself within the menagerie as ‘the curator of my own heaven’.’ – Freya Jackson, in @poetrylondon.bsky.social, on @pascalepetit.bsky.social's Beast. poetrylondon.co.uk/an-inheritan...

'a collection that is just as wild as the beasts that populate it, allowing the speaker to find a space for herself within the menagerie as ‘the curator of my own heaven’.’ – Freya Jackson, in @poetrylondon.bsky.social, on @pascalepetit.bsky.social's Beast. poetrylondon.co.uk/an-inheritan...

My copy of Resurgence & Ecologist has arrived, with a double page spread on 2 of my poems and an introduction to my poetry by poetry editors Rachel Marsh and Briony Hughes! It’s a superb issue ‘The inner work of liberation’ packed with fab features. You can order it online here www.resurgence.org

After a rejection, even a considered kind one, comes the will to improve & try again, the inevitable depression during which you must keep balance and faith – being a poet is a constant negotiation with equilibrium, keeping a core of self belief so one day the next good poem will come out of nowhere

Good news! A brilliant new festival at Stroud,Gloucestershire @dobunni.bsky.social I'm honoured to be headlining with @pascalepetit.bsky.social. Looking forward to hearing this galaxy of poets.The Early Bird ticket,now on sale,admits you to over 15 readings! See you in Oct.. SEARCH DOBUNNI TICKETS!

I’d love to have a patron, need funding to go to the Amazon for research for my next book. Haha any offers?

I've written six sonnet-shaped poems in four days, funny how they come after a period when I just couldn’t get anywhere and felt quite desperate. Now I am happy. Also helps to draw. Here is 'Canopy'

Congratulations to Wasafiri friend, @pascalepetit.bsky.social, who recently won the Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize for her poem, 'Night Canoe on Lake Sandoval'. Pascale is the first poet in the history of the Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize to have both won and been highly commended in the same year! 👏

sub(VERSE)ive: In Conversation with Pascale Petit

sub(VERSE)ive is an exclusive limited interview series from Wasafiri. Hosted by Prerana Kumar, these conversations showcase established and emerging contemporary poets who are releasing new…

buff.ly

Thank you to the Observer for publishing my new poem ‘Nettle Dress’ as The Sunday Poem on 31st May 2026, the poem will appear in my next collection so thank you for encouragement.Thank you @chris_riddell for the beautiful illustration and for including a fox!

I’m tutoring a weekend writing retreat with Cecilia Knapp for Raise the Bar in Bristol, November 13 – 15, bookings close tomorrow, Sunday 31st May! So be quick if you’d like to join us. We’ll be in a beautiful location near Bristol, in countryside www.rtbspokenword.com/nov-26-retre...

November '26 Post-Emerging Weekend Writing Retreat — Raise The Bar

Raise the Bar's post-emerging weekend writing retreat in November 2026.

rtbspokenword.com

My Pitcher Plants I, II, III and IV #mamaamazonica #mycanopydaughter #rainforestart #rainforests #pitcherplant

I'm part of this lovely evolving Art Sonnet chain. If you click here you can see the Tishani Doshi sonnet whose final line inspired mine, and up top the @pascalepetit.bsky.social poem drawn from my final line. Lots of women's bodies and transgression: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

new boots and pantisocracies

Art Sonnet Chain

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

The end of @pascalepetit.bsky.social’s sonnet pivots neatly from sleeping girl to restless birds: …A little girl will sleep in the cloud’s vapour. And, with the song of my tree self, I will guide the migrating birds back down to nest. They have been circling the skies for years, not daring to land.

We’re delighted to welcome @pascalepetit.bsky.social to the #ArtSonnetChain - she’s not only written a great sonnet but produced a fine related artwork. Read the Ice Tree Sonnet (and view the Ice Tree Canopy) here: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/05/16/a... #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

Art Sonnet Chain, 7: Pascale Petit

Ice Tree Sonnet Bring me water, bring me snow, bring me ice.I’m turning myself into a tree with icicle branches,my hands leaves like frost on night’s windows,my skin lace holier than a confirmation…

newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com

My Ice Tree Sonnet and Ice Tree Canopy art! For #ArtSonnetChain

Bill Herbert@billherbert.bsky.social · 3mo ago

We’re delighted to welcome @pascalepetit.bsky.social to the #ArtSonnetChain - she’s not only written a great sonnet but produced a fine related artwork. Read the Ice Tree Sonnet (and view the Ice Tree Canopy) here: newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2026/05/16/a... #NewBootsAndPantisocracies

One of our final #NaPoWriMo prompts comes from poet Pascale Petit. You can find Pascale's writing in many issues of The Poetry Review, where she features as both a poet and a critic. Members of The Poetry Society get full access to our digital archive of the Review - join us at the link in our bio.

Congratulations @pascalepetit.bsky.social winner of the 25-26 Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize!

Bloodaxe Books@bloodaxebooks.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Congratulations to @pascalepetit.bsky.social on winning the Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize for 'Night Canoe on Lake Sandoval', a poem evoking 'both mood and landscape with rare and refined sensibility'. In a historic first, she was also runner-up for the same award. www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?article...

Congratulations to @pascalepetit.bsky.social on winning the Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize for 'Night Canoe on Lake Sandoval', a poem evoking 'both mood and landscape with rare and refined sensibility'. In a historic first, she was also runner-up for the same award. www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?article...

Keats Shelley Poetry Prize announced. Congrats to winner @pascalepetit.bsky.social and thanks to judge @notjustdancing.bsky.social Here’s my runner up poem ‘Some Seasonal Adjustments’ keats-shelley.org/prize_entrie...

I won this year’s Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize for my poem ‘Night Canoe on Lake Sandoval’! Thank you Deryn one of the judges & for these pics of the prize ceremony

Deryn Rees-Jones@notjustdancing.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Congratulations to @pascalepetit.bsky.social winner of this year’s Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize for her poem ‘Night Canoe on Lake Sandoval’ keats-shelley.org/prizes/keats... #keats #poetry #shelley #KSMA

Invisibility: instead of thinking, no one’s interested in my poetry, I remember that delicious time of quietly cooking up a book which no one has yet read. I am working on a collection in the dark, there is solace in this. No one has noticed yet, because it’s too early.

Another one for your diaries: will be at @lyrafest.com on Sunday 26 April, in the fine company of Romalyn Ante, Katrina Naomi, Chris Emery, and Natalie Linh Bolderston. It'd be fab to see you, come through: www.headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/wat...

Wonder and Wanderers: A Poetic Journey at Watershed

Date: Sunday 26th April 2026 Venue: Watershed (W3) Time: 15:30 - 17:00 Tickets: £5 / £3 / FREE Booking Link: TBA ✅ Live Streamed (book a ‘Live Stream Ticket’ at checkout) ✅ All Lyra Fest venues ...

headfirstbristol.co.uk

Thank you to Michael Simms for publishing my poem ‘Black Jaguar with Quai Saint Bernard’ on Vox Populi. This poem was my first published in Poetry magazine, in 2014, and is in my 6th collection Fauverie. Aramis was in the Fauverie then and only 2 years old. voxpopulisphere.com?fbclid=IwVER...

Poems can take time to materialise. I felt there wasn’t hope for a poem I wrote 2 years ago, responding to a sculpture in Lausanne Art Brut collection, trying to capture how it made me feel. But two evenings ago it suddenly expanded into one I’m happy with. I had a fresh angle. Never give up hope

Bad Betty Live photos from last Friday night, my Nottingham reading from Beast, photo credits to Jade Pharoah. Huge thanks to Jake & Amy at Bad Betty Press and host Bridie Squires, all performers were 🔥