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Download an A5 flyer of upcoming 2025 events.

Tea at The Guildhall, Hadleigh with Rachael Boast

Sunday 7 September, 3-5pm

Rachael Boast

Photo: Jonathan D Boast

This year we have ‘Tea at the Guildhall’, Hadleigh* on Sunday 7th September 3-5pm with Rachael Boast.

Suffolk-based poet Rachael Boast will give a talk and reading on the theme of  ‘Timeslips’.

Rachael has four collections published by Picador (Sidereal 2011, Pilgrim’s Flower 2013, Void Studies 2016 and Hotel Raphael 2021). She edited the recently published Bloodaxe anthology Versus Versus – 100 poems by deaf, disabled and neurodivergent poets (2025).

Contributions of cakes or other edibles would be very welcome.

Date/Time: Sunday, 7th September 2025, 3-5pm

Venue: Guildroom, Hadleigh Guildhall, Market Place, Hadleigh, Suffolk, IP7 5DN

* Replaces our usual members-only event at The Priory, Nayland, which is undergoing renovations.

George Crabbe Poetry Competition 2025

The 2025 George Crabbe Poetry Competition closed on Friday, 13 June 2025.

The adjudicator is Elizabeth Cook.

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.

Tea at The Guildhall, Hadleigh with Rachael Boast

Sunday 7 September, 3-5pm

Rachael Boast

Photo: Jonathan D Boast

This year we have ‘Tea at the Guildhall’, Hadleigh* on Sunday 7th September 3-5pm with Rachael Boast.

Suffolk-based poet Rachael Boast will give a talk and reading on the theme of  ‘Timeslips’.

Rachael has four collections published by Picador (Sidereal 2011, Pilgrim’s Flower 2013, Void Studies 2016 and Hotel Raphael 2021). She edited the recently published Bloodaxe anthology Versus Versus – 100 poems by deaf, disabled and neurodivergent poets (2025).

Contributions of cakes or other edibles would be very welcome.

Date/Time: Sunday, 7th September 2025, 3-5pm

Venue: Guildroom, Hadleigh Guildhall, Market Place, Hadleigh, Suffolk, IP7 5DN

* Replaces our usual members-only event at The Priory, Nayland, which is undergoing renovations.

George Crabbe Poetry Competition 2025

The 2025 George Crabbe Poetry Competition closed on Friday, 13 June 2025.

The adjudicator is Elizabeth Cook.

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 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

Sun 07 Sep

Tea at The Guildhall, Hadleigh

Rachael Boast talk and reading on ‘Timeslips’

The Guildhall, Hadleigh,
IP7 5DN

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