Welcome to Suffolk Poetry Society

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Download an A5 flyer of upcoming 2025 events.

George Crabbe Poetry Competition 2025

The adjudicator was Elizabeth Cook.

  • 1st – Wild Man of Orford – Lizzi Thistlethwayte
  • 2nd – The Watchers – Fran Reader
  • 3rd – The Mathematical Mind of the Lady of Walsingham – Pam Job

Click here for the full list of winning poems.

The awards ceremony will be Saturday, 18 October 2025, 3pm.


Photo: Peter Everard Smith

Elizabeth Cook has written poetry, fiction, and libretti and was the editor of the Oxford Authors John Keats. Her fiction includes Achilles, which won a Fringe First when performed in Edinburgh, and Lux. She was librettist for Francis Grier’s The Passion of Jesus of Nazareth, commissioned by BBC Radio 3, and has published two full collections of poetry, Bowl, and When I Kiss the Sky as well as a pamphlet, The Sound of the Rain. She has written critical essays and reviews and has taught in universities, prisons, and a Franciscan friary. She was St Edmundsbury Cathedral’s first Writer in Residence, has been a Hawthornden Fellow and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Queen Mary University. Poetry is at the heart of her work, and she recommends reading aloud and learning poems by heart to create an inner store for rainy days.

President: George Szirtes

SPS President George Szirtes receives

The King’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2024

The King has approved the award of His Majesty’s Gold Medal for Poetry for the year 2024 to George Szirtes.

Click here for the official announcement.

History of the Festival of Suffolk Poetry

A pictorial history of poets performing through the years.

George Crabbe Poetry Competition 2025

The adjudicator was Elizabeth Cook.

  • 1st – Wild Man of Orford – Lizzi Thistlethwayte
  • 2nd – The Watchers – Fran Reader
  • 3rd – The Mathematical Mind of the Lady of Walsingham – Pam Job

The awards ceremony will be Saturday, 18 October 2025, 3pm. Tickets here.

Photo: Peter Everard Smith

President: George Szirtes

SPS President George Szirtes receives

The King’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2024

The King has approved the award of His Majesty’s Gold Medal for Poetry for the year 2024 to George Szirtes.

Click here for the official announcement.

History of the Festival of Suffolk Poetry

A gallery of poets performing through the years.


Turning Japanese

Download or read online Dr Tim Gardiner’s guide to short-form Japanese poetry.

Ripples Poems: Selections by Elizabeth Cook

Ripples is a regular online magazine for SPS members.

Ripples was born when we were locked-down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The best of poems from members were published in the magazine.

In celebration of this and also the 70th anniversary of SPS, 70 of the best poems from the more than 200 that were published in Ripples have been selected here.

Elizabeth Cook


2025 Dates for Your Diary

Fri 13 Jun

George Crabbe Poetry Competition closed

Adjudicator:
Elizabeth Cook

Sat 18 Oct 3pm

Crabbe Competition Awards Ceremony

Elizabeth Cook presents the prizes and gives a reading
Includes afternoon tea




Eye Bowls Club
Brome Avenue, Eye,
IP23 7HW

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