Out-Spoken Press names winners of its inaugural Emerging Poets Development Scheme 

Out-Spoken Press and project partners Spread the Word and New Writing North have named Elizabeth Pywell, Ian Irwin and Cat Turhan winners of their inaugural Emerging Poets Development Scheme.

Launched last December, the programme offers three mentorship places. the first, for Pywell, goes to a writer living in the north of England and was selected in conjunction with the Northern Writers’ Awards by Helen Mort and publisher and T S Eliot Prize-shortlisted poet Anthony Anaxagorou. 

The remaining two writers from the rest of the UK, Irwin and Turhan, were selected by Forward Prize-winning poet Mona Arshi, and Anaxagorou.

All three mentees will be offered a range of support including regular one-to-one craft mentoring sessions, facilitation of critical feedback group formation, craft workshops, and sessions on professional development and navigating the industry, aimed at readying work for publication and creating a meaningful practical opportunity to open up access to the sector.

Founder and managing editor of Out-Spoken Press Anthony Anaxagorou said: “I’m thrilled to be working with these three incredible poets whose work seems to be pushing form and thought while also being totally invested in language.”

Out-Spoken Press is a London-based independent publisher of poetry and critical writing, founded with the aim of challenging a lack of diversity in publishing. It  was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Small Publisher of the Year in 2020, 2021 and 2022.