Mother Nurture by Iain McGrath
In making your family soup, you treated thin skins with kid gloves, tempering acerbic onions, softening brittle carrots, before leavening us with sliced leek and an affection of lentils.
Meeting Iain McGrath, Winner of Hysteria 2025 Poetry Category
This month, I’d like to share an interview with Iain McGrath, this year’s winner of the Hysteria Writing Competition – Poetry category. His entry, Mother Nurture, was published in the Hysteria 11 anthology and will be available to read on the website later this year. As part of his prize, Iain will publish a seasonal…
A woman who does not believe in spells by Annette Iles Hysteria 2023 poetry category winner
Annette Iles is the winner of the poetry category in the 2023 Hysteria Writing Competition with her poem ‘A Woman Who Does Not Believe In Spells’. You can read the winning story below as you listen to the recording. It is published, along with the other winners and finalists from each category in the Hysteria…
Girl in a Cathedral, Heather Cook Hysteria 2022 poetry winner
Heather Cook is the winner of the Poetry category in the 2022 Hysteria Writing Competition. You can find her poem, along with the other finalists from each category in the Hysteria 9 anthology.
Short, shorter, brief
I was wandering around the web looking for inspiration for this week’s writing prompt whilst thinking about a video I’d seen yesterday of a musician who had challenged several creators to do a mashup of Beethoven’s 5th. And I wondered if something similar could be applied to poetry.
A New Hope by Tracy Davidson, Hysteria 2021 category winner
Tracy Davidson is the winner of the Poetry category in the 2021 Hysteria Writing Competition. You can find her poem, along with the other finalists from each category in the Hysteria 8 anthology.
Trying my hand at poetry
I can’t remember the last time I wrote a poem, most probably it was during creative writing at school. And I have to hold my hand up and admit that, rather like modern art, I don’t ‘get’ a lot of poetry unless it’s absolutely obvious what the message is.
The Poets Meeting by AM Cash Hysteria poetry category winner 2020
Encircled, engrossed, of human mixology Debated, a lifetime of stripped back sociology Crossways to pathways, in beating humour Sadness outpoured, sketches of other lives
On Sonnets – Hysteria poetry prompt for June
I’ve been thinking about sonnets this month and trying to write some myself. They’re not too difficult, in theory, as you have a defined rhyme scheme and a metrical pattern to follow.
Re-introducing Hysteria with Eithne Cullen
Spring next year will see the return of the Hysteria Writing Competition, and I already have the Poet in Resident in place. Eithne Cullen, has been both entrant and judge in previous years and to celebrate the return of the competition she created a nicely rounded, simple explanation of the writing process for both writer…
