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Posts by Helen Mort

Sheaf Poetry flyer for event at La Biblioteka, Leah's Yard, Sheffield on Sat 25 April 2026, illustrated with photos of Molly Naylor, Helen Mort and Suzannah Evans

Sheaf Poetry flyer for event at La Biblioteka, Leah's Yard, Sheffield on Sat 25 April 2026, illustrated with photos of Molly Naylor, Helen Mort and Suzannah Evans

As part of Sheffield Indie Book Fest, Sheaf Poetry is proud to present a spring reading by three poets: @helenmort.bsky.social, @suzannahevans.bsky.social, and Molly Naylor.

Saturday 25 April (6pm-8pm)
La Biblioteka, Leah's Yard, Sheffield S1 4HP
Tickets:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/three-shef...

3 weeks ago 15 9 0 2
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Delivery Robot, maimed outside LIDL A Friday poem

New poem for Substack. It’s about delivery robots being beaten up. I make most of my content on Substack free but hugely appreciate paid subscribers where people are able to donate. Thank you to everyone who reads! open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

4 days ago 3 1 0 0
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The heart cannot be automatic On lighthouses

On lighthouses: open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

3 weeks ago 8 2 0 0
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Artworks - The Last Sweeping Beams - BBC Sounds Helen Mort explores the allure of the lighthouse as their sweeping beams are modernised.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

You know you have half an hour to spare... go listen to @helenmort.bsky.social exploring how light is housed.
It's lyrical and you can feel how the coast hugs its slender guardians.

4 weeks ago 8 2 2 1

Oh thanks Dan. Your description is pure poetry!

3 weeks ago 1 1 1 0
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I’m hosting this in conversation event with brilliant Mai Serhan tomorrow at 11am, registration via the link: rise.mmu.ac.uk/activity/i-c...

1 month ago 3 1 0 0
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Unclassified - Helen Mort's Listening Chair - BBC Sounds Elizabeth Alker invites poet Helen Mort to pick a track that transports her

It was wonderful to do this ‘listening chair’ for Elizabeth Alker recently and talk about John Grant but - more importantly - this episode of Unclassified features musical gorgeousness from Sheffield…. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

2 months ago 10 2 1 0
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Poems that make things happen Online poetry workshops designed to make you think, bring you joy, make you a better reader and writer AND fit in with your busy schedule.

I’m doing some short & sweet online poetry workshops over the coming weeks, first ones are this Friday. Would be lovely to have your company if anyone would like to join! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poems-that...

2 months ago 5 2 1 0
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Poems that make things happen Online poetry workshops designed to make you think, bring you joy, make you a better reader and writer AND fit in with your busy schedule.

Online poetry workshops with Helen Mort? Yes please!

Poems that make things happen. One off or book the whole series - 1 hour sessions of creativity.
@helenmort.bsky.social
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poems-that...

2 months ago 6 5 0 0
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Come for the whales, stay for the poetry I'm letting you inside my notebook

In a masterclass on Sunday, someone asked if I would consider sharing my drafting process. So I had a go! open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

2 months ago 6 1 0 1
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In Disko Bay 'The kids were busy getting on with things, / Playing the games that count for everything.'

open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

3 months ago 6 2 0 0
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It's impossible to capture all the events of 2025 from CPW in one image, but here's a snap shot of some of the brilliant things our members have been involved with this year. Including @helenmort.bsky.social Andrew Michael Hurley, Nikolai Duffy, Rachel Lichtenstein & Jean Sprackland.

3 months ago 5 2 0 0
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My Christmas jumper is ON. My silly festive writing prompt is free for all to access on Substack! open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

4 months ago 6 1 1 0
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A joy to interview Martin Parr yesterday at @mcrlitfest.bsky.social

6 months ago 5 1 0 0
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Rachel Bower is an award-winning author and poet from Bradford. Her debut novel, It Comes from the River, and third poetry collection, Bee, have both been published in 2025.

Tomorrow night in Sheffield I’ll be reading a new commissioned poem for Jane Austen (and women who write!). Please join us: offtheshelf.org.uk/events/a-hou...

6 months ago 14 6 0 0
RIP Tony Harrison – a piece on metre and voice in his poetry With the sad news of the passing of Tony Harrison, who as a working class poet had a great impact on me during my formative years of writing in the 1980s, I went back to a piece I was commissioned to write for an OUP collection of essays on his writing - both poetic and dramatic - in 1997. The book, …

RIP Tony Harrison – a piece on metre and voice in his poetry

With the sad news of the passing of Tony Harrison, who as a working class poet had a great impact on me during my formative years of writing in the 1980s, I went back to a piece I was commissioned to write for an OUP collection of essays…

6 months ago 5 1 0 0
Book Ends - Poetry Archive Baked the day she suddenly dropped dead we chew it slowly that last apple pie. Shocked into sleeplessness you’re scared of bed. We never could talk much, and now don’t try. You’re like book ends, the ...

I was a fourteen year-old public schoolboy when our English teacher introduced us to 'The School of Eloquence' sequence. It blew the cobwebs off poetry for us, broadening its range and power and shocking our comfortable political assumptions. There was no one like him.

RIP Tony Harrison

6 months ago 22 7 1 0
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Turn like a leaf On becoming 40

On turning 40, the influence of Tony Harrison and some stuff about leaves. Oh, and a poem from my next collection. open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

6 months ago 4 1 0 1

can we not all have composter syndrome instead. a desire to mulch.

6 months ago 79 19 1 1
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WriteBack: An Evening of Writers Off Duty | British Library Join us for the much-anticipated return of this exploratory events series which invites writers to speak on topics of their own choosing. Whether it's rese

On Thursday @britishlibrary.bsky.social @helenmort.bsky.social hosts @writeback.bsky.social with Eliza Clark, whose horror-adjacent novels include the pitch black comedy sensation Boy Parts; renowned author and educator Musa Okwonga, and celebrated novelist Olivia Sudjic
events.bl.uk/events/write...

6 months ago 0 2 0 0
Centre for Place Writing Pop Up Day A day of talks, readings, and discussions exploring how writing about place connects to today's big issues, from climate change to migration

Tomorrow - a free Centre for Place Writing pop up event at Manchester Met. Please come and join us! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/centre-for...

7 months ago 2 0 0 1
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A Saturday poem How charming - to exist where nothing seeks / to kill us

A new poem about being ‘safe’. open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

8 months ago 7 2 0 0

Thank you very much indeed Adam!

8 months ago 1 0 0 0
Man holding a copy of ‘Dad vs. Dad’ by Helen Mort

Man holding a copy of ‘Dad vs. Dad’ by Helen Mort

‘so we have a man… protect / him against / life his / life’

@helenmort.bsky.social’s ‘Dad vs. Dad’ is a work slim enough to finish over a lunch-break, but like shards of glass (indeed, like history) these poems and collages will stick deep in you. @vervepoetrypress.bsky.social have given us magic.

9 months ago 5 2 0 0
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Annie Dillard, Melissa Febos, Audre Lorde, poetry & weasels. helenmort.substack.com/p/ecstatic-d...

8 months ago 3 0 2 0
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Dreaming of Dead People | And Other Stories In the ‘middle of life’ Lavinia reviews her frustrations, her solitariness, the grief and the rapture, her seeming companions in a pageant presided over, as it were, by the masks of Owl, for winter, a...

Been enjoying an early read of this brilliant book published by @andotherstories.bsky.social - www.andotherstories.org/dreaming-of-...

9 months ago 7 2 1 0
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'We were too good at that game' Secret audience, silence & John Berger on surveillance

What have John Berger, Erving Goffman, an invented actor, an imaginary Fringe show and my ridiculous glasses got in common? Only one way to find out. 😂

open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

9 months ago 2 1 0 0
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'When you've set the world on fire / there will still be herons' Another peek inside my notebook

Herons. 🐦 (why is there no heron emoji?!)…I make most of my Substack free but regularly post unpublished, poems stories and other things-with-wings for paid subscribers. Thank you to anyone who reads on either plan for the support! open.substack.com/pub/helenmor...

9 months ago 11 2 1 0
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'Into the tunnels of error like a rat terrier' On being wrong

On wrongness, wrong-as-a-place, poetry and wrong, Bill Matthews and tattoos. helenmort.substack.com/p/into-the-t...

9 months ago 7 1 3 0
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'Into the tunnels of error like a rat terrier' On being wrong

On wrongness and wrong-as-a-place and Bill Matthews and Charles Simic and tattoos; helenmort.substack.com/p/into-the-t...

9 months ago 4 0 0 1