"The Women Poets' Network is an amazing space for empowerment, a special place to be heard and to listen to others."
"This is the best forum I know, for women poets... The meetings are a safe space to explore issues as well as to share our poetry, in a safe environment. It's friendly and supportive and I love it. I'm very glad I found the Rebecca Swift Foundation."
Women Poets' Network members
The Rebecca Swift Foundation is a registered charity whose aim is to uplift and support UK-based women poets to reach their full potential. We do this through our core programmes:
The Women Poets' Network was set up with support from Arts Council England and currently has over 1,000 members. It is the only directory of its kind with a national reach, and we are proud to have directly supported the professional and holistic development of our community. We advocate for women poets' unique needs and running an evergreen series of events, workshops and in person interventions to help them thrive, and to build lasting relationships with each other and with organisations, producers and commissioners to bring their work into the world.
The Women Poets' Prize was a free-to-enter prize which ran in 2018, 2020 and 2022, receiving over 2,000 entries from women poets across the UK and supporting three winners with cash stipends, resilience coaching, book publishing insights and mentoring. The Prize is on hiatus as we actively seek sponsorship to cover its administration and to keep it free to enter. We thank all of our previous donors and industry partners for their vital support, which made the Prize possible.
In 2022 we ran the first Women Poets' Festival, in partnership with the National Centre for Writing, and in 2025 we launched our Creative Associates programme to build in person regional networks in Newcastle upon Tyne, Wolverhampton and London.