RSF Welcomes Degna Stone Amid Crowdfunder Success

Aki Schilz News

Smiling headshot of woman sitting back in a chair, holding a microphone

The Rebecca Swift Foundation is delighted to announce the appointment of Degna Stone as its new project manager, in an exciting week for the charity as we wrap a vital crowdfunding campaign, Empowering Women Poets, exceeding our original target of £10,000. Stone joins the Foundation as the successor to Kirsten Luckins, who has been with the charity since the start …

In Search of Spring: Can Poetry Change the World? by Vanessa Kisuule

Degna Stone Library, Sustain

I’m often asked about the Purpose of Poetry. Usually, I’m armed with a scattering of stock answers, duty bound to extoll its virtues. I have a vested interest, of course; an irrational desire to account for my professional choices. But in times like these, its a question I’m taking more seriously. A pandemic. A war. A volatile government. Bills that …

Beyond Submissions by Naush Sabah

Degna Stone Graft, Sustain, The Knowledge

I found myself in conversation with another editor recently and realised that despite being a published poet herself, she didn’t send work out to magazines. I asked why. ‘Well, apart from the one I edit, none of them are any good.’ We both laughed at this and I managed to not indignantly exclaim Hold on, what about PBLJ?! It was …

Women Poets’ Prize 2022 launches with a new festival in partnership with the National Centre for Writing

Degna Stone News

Writers and artists including Helen Mort, Victoria Adukwei Bulley and Sophie Herxheimer lead programme of workshops and performances, with the 2022 winners announced live at Dragon Hall in Norwich New festival looks to prioritise accessibility and hybridity, ensuring remote attendees equally catered for Submissions now open for the third prize year, judged by Penelope Shuttle, Nikita Gill and Abi Palmer …

A dream cut out of the air by Joelle Taylor

Degna Stone Library, Sustain, The Knowledge

close up of a medal embossed with stars and the word 'winner'

There is no way to succeed in poetry. There is no way to fail. There is only poetry. Everything else is noise off-stage. The prize is the piece of writing you just found hidden in the air. The prize is indistinct. The prize is each other. The prize is the conversation, is being included, is having your thoughts carefully weighed. …

Be where the people are by Jemilea Wisdom-Baako

Degna Stone Graft, Library

Brightly coloured dynamic illustration of tower blocks with vines and hearts growing between them

I step into boardrooms unsure of myself, the lanyard around my neck has a cute photo I took at the reception desk with my name; and title – Founder of Writerz and Scribez CIC. What does it mean to create something, to take it out of your mind and imagination and turn it into a living, breathing thing? My arts …

Academia / Odyssey / Lyric Essay by Jane Burn

Degna Stone Library, The Knowledge

A small sailboat sets off into a dreamlike horizon. faintly orange-lit clouds and the Milky Way perfectly reflected in the still waters

Courage is multiplex. Part of courage is admitting what you do / do not know; courage is vulnerability before that which you greatly desire; courage is offering your underbelly to anomaly’s mercy. Courage is scrambling those acclivitous hills – each summit equating where you deserve / where you have fought to be. Academia is negotiation of cryptic terrain. The walls …

Page and Stage and the Spaces Between by Harry Josephine Giles

Degna Stone Craft, Library

A microphone on a stand waiting for someone to speak into it

A poem doesn’t exist, for me, until I’ve felt it in my mouth. They often begin with a catch of sound, an earworm that bothers me until I give it space to wriggle about on the page. Sometimes I’ll find myself trying out lines as I cycle along, the polyrhythmic framework of pedals and breath giving shape to the poem. …