Welcome to this month’s special edition of Poetic Voices, featuring several of the members of Write Here, Right Now poetry writing group.

Write Here, Right Now holds a special place in my heart. Thanks to the group, my work has improved vastly over the past year and a bit. It’s even more gratifying to see members flourish in their own writing projects.

The group meets on Thursday evenings every 6 weeks or so via zoom and is formatted to help poets on their WiPs or spark new ideas through prompts and feedback. A challenging and thoughtful prompt is given at the start of the session followed by time to work on WIP with the creative part of the brain already engaged followed by time for poets to read pieces and gain constructive feedback from the the group. We also have a WhatsApp community where members can share more.

If you’d like to know more, reach out on Social Media.

This is the first takeover featuring several members who are sharing a poem, recommending a poet to read and offering some writing advice.

This month I am proud to share the voices of;

GP Hyde
Jenevieve Carlyn
Leia Butler
Merril D. Smith
Penny Dedman
Andrew Williamson

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GP Hyde was born on the Wirral and now lives in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, UK. He studied fine art at Goldsmith’s College and at the Royal Academy Schools. He has worked in theatres, art centres and community arts as a performer, writer and production manager for 14 years before working as a lecturer and senior manager in creative arts for 25 years.

His fiction has been extensively published by Pure Slush. His poetry has been published by Broken Spine, Black Bough Press, Underbelly Press, Hedgehog Press, voidspacezine, the Dark Poets, Bent Key, Lincs & Ink, Underbelly, the Starbeck Orion and Full House Literary.

He has been nominated for a Best of the Net award and longlisted for the Bath Novella-in-Flash award. His radio drama ‘Michael and John go to England’ was longlisted for the BBC’s Alfred Bradley Prize.

Links:
Phil has published a pamphlet A Gracious Month, available Amazon at A Gracious Month: Amazon.co.uk: Hyde, G.P.: 9798715707567: Books

He reviews books at (3) GP Hyde’s Book Reviews | Substack

Social Media:
@gphydeauthor

Writing Advice:

It’s all about application – apply backside to chair and fingers to keyboard.

Poetry Recommendation:

John Hollander’s Rhyme’s Reason, a guide to English verse – Yale University Press Fourth Edition 2014

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Jenevieve Carlyn is a poet and historical writer in New England. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Examined Life, Parabola, River Heron’s “Poems, for Now,” Sage Magazine from Yale’s School of the Environment, The Madrid Review, Relief, and elsewhere, including the anthology In the Garden: Community Storytelling on Food, Ecology, & Place (Torrey House Press).

She won the 2023 Thomas Merton Prize in Poetry of the Sacred and the Connecticut Poet Laureate Award for Eco-Poetry, was a finalist for Palette Poetry’s 2025 Love & Eros Prize, was shortlisted in the Artemesia Arts Contest, and highly commended in Mist & Mountain’s Competition on the 2025 theme of Peace.

Links:
website: jenevievecarlyn.com

Social Media:
Bluesky: @coastalpoet
Substack: @coastalpoet
IG: @coastal_poet

Writing Advice:

Whether on the page or in everyday life, let yourself move between silence and self-expression. They both have something to offer.

Poetry Recommendation:

An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo. When my mind feels distracted or I am lost in abstraction, the immediacy of Joy Harjo’s poetry brings me back to sensory engagement. Words come alive again.

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Leia Butler is a writer and creator from London. Her poetry can be found in Streetcake Magazine, Permeable Barrier, Atrium, Aswirl, Fawn Press, The Unwhispered Legacy Anthology, and After Poetry.

She has poetry collections published with Broken Sleep Books, Stanchion, and Steel Incisors.

She is the editor of Full House Literary.

Links:
website: https://leiabutler.com/

Writing Advice:

It’s always worth experimenting and playing around with your language, form, and spacing. Even if you have a few different variations, you might discover something special! 

Poetry Recommendation: One of the first poets I read was Nikki Dudley, who is an amazing champion for experimental and bold writing. Her poetry is incredible and has forever shaped the way I write. 

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Merril D. Smith is a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominated poet. Her second collection, Held Inside the Folds of Time (Jane’s Studio Press) was published in 2025.

Her first full-length poetry collection, River Ghosts (Nightingale & Sparrow Press) was Black Bough Poetry’s December 2022 Book of the Month. 

 She writes from southern New Jersey.

Links:
website: merrildsmith.org
Held Inside the Folds of Time: https://a.co/d/01WJhVTA
Merril’s Publisher https://www.janecornwell.co.uk/janesstudiopress-poetry

Social Media:
Bluesky: @merrildsmith.bsky.social;
IG: mdsmithnj

Writing Advice:

I think it’s very important to read widely and to interact with other poets/writers to see how they approach topics, forms, syntax, vocabulary, and space on a page simply to open your own mind to possibilities.

Poetry Recommendation:

 I can’t speak for everyone, but I return again and again to Sarah Connor’s work. I wrote the book blurb for her Always Fire, her final book, published by Sidhe Press.  ” . . .the poems sneak up on you, gently grazing your skin and grasping your heart.”

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Penny Dedman lives in Edmonton Green with 2 cats 3 Masdevallias and 6 Pungas.

Poems published: Broken Spine’s ‘Glow’ anthology 2025, Urban Tree Festival poetry 2022, Fresher Publishing’s ‘Waves of Change’ and ‘Glean and Graft’ 2021. Artemesia shortlisted 2023, Bridport longlisted 2021 and ’22. … and there’s something coming which I can’t mention yet!

Links: 
https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/product/glow-cityatnight/

Social Media
Bluesky: @spanishtom.bsky.social
IG: @pennydedman
Substack currently under construction!

Writing Advice:

Even poems have internal logic.

Poetry Recommendation:

Bex Hainsworth – in particular  ‘Walrussey’. (published by Black Cat poetry press)

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Andrew Williamson’s writing crosses emotional geographies, drawing on relationships, coastlines, landscapes and cities.

From Aotearoa New Zealand and based in the Isle of Skye, he has published three collections, the latest, Through Salt-Heavy Seas, in 2025. His work has appeared in journals and anthologies in Aotearoa, the UK and the US.

Links:
Projects: https://urbanbadgercollective.com  

Social Media:
Bluesky: @andywilliamson.com
IG: @drandywilliamson

Writing Advice:

Don’t be afraid to delete your favourite word/line/stanza.

Poetry Recommendation:

People should be reading Glenn Colquhoun (https://www.glenncolquhoun.net)

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Thanks for reading, another takeover is coming in early 2027!