Ben Wilkinson
@benwilko85.bsky.social
Writer, poet, “refreshingly honest” critic, tutor. Poems: Way More Than Luck (2018), Same Difference (Seren Books 2022). Criticism: Don Paterson (LUP 2021). Writing has appeared in Guardian, New Statesman, Spectator, TLS, etc. Lifelong Red. Likes a jog.
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Ben Wilkinson
@benwilko85.bsky.social
· Nov 14
Ben Wilkinson - Seren
Ben Wilkinson was born in the English Midlands and now lives in Sheffield, Yorkshire. His poems, criticism and journalism regularly appear in national publications including The Guardian, The Poetry R...
www.serenbooks.com
This seems a much healthier place than Musk’s disinformation hellhole, so here goes. I’m a writer, poet, critic, and lecturer whose poems, essays, and reviews have regularly appeared in the majors. Sagittarius, lifelong Liverpool FC fan, enjoys a jog. More here: www.serenbooks.com/seren-author...
“Another reason I chose to share my experience with long COVID was that I wanted to scare the shit out of people who weren’t taking it seriously. Think you’re too healthy or fit to end up like me?”
Seems I found my new running crew: The Always Tired Club.
www.8020endurance.com/dying-to-run...
Seems I found my new running crew: The Always Tired Club.
www.8020endurance.com/dying-to-run...
Dying to Run, Episode 4: "The Always Tired Club" | 80/20 Endurance
Matt Fitzgerald has been a runner for almost his entire life, but his running days ended abruptly in 2020 when he developed long COVID, a post-viral chronic
www.8020endurance.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:31 AM
“Another reason I chose to share my experience with long COVID was that I wanted to scare the shit out of people who weren’t taking it seriously. Think you’re too healthy or fit to end up like me?”
Seems I found my new running crew: The Always Tired Club.
www.8020endurance.com/dying-to-run...
Seems I found my new running crew: The Always Tired Club.
www.8020endurance.com/dying-to-run...
Only waking up to this now as I’ve spent a chunk of 2024/25 under a rock, but what happened to the Next Generation Poets 2024, i.e. the fourth instalment in the PBS/Poetry Society’s promotional celebration of 20 new voices predicted to dominate British verse in the coming decade?
November 11, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Only waking up to this now as I’ve spent a chunk of 2024/25 under a rock, but what happened to the Next Generation Poets 2024, i.e. the fourth instalment in the PBS/Poetry Society’s promotional celebration of 20 new voices predicted to dominate British verse in the coming decade?
Reposted by Ben Wilkinson
The politics of despair have engulfed Britain. But Zack Polanski is offering a way out | Owen Jones
The politics of despair have engulfed Britain. But Zack Polanski is offering a way out | Owen Jones
The leader of the Greens wants to focus on battles that unite – such as taxing wealth – without yielding an inch on minority rights, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones
www.theguardian.com
October 22, 2025 at 9:30 AM
The politics of despair have engulfed Britain. But Zack Polanski is offering a way out | Owen Jones
Reposted by Ben Wilkinson
October 18, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Football is like life: we meet with both triumph and disaster. True character is about treating both the same, with class and dignity.
This new-look team will be special. Patience. Some folks need to check themselves, remember who we are, and who our boys lost over the summer.
This new-look team will be special. Patience. Some folks need to check themselves, remember who we are, and who our boys lost over the summer.
October 19, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Football is like life: we meet with both triumph and disaster. True character is about treating both the same, with class and dignity.
This new-look team will be special. Patience. Some folks need to check themselves, remember who we are, and who our boys lost over the summer.
This new-look team will be special. Patience. Some folks need to check themselves, remember who we are, and who our boys lost over the summer.
You know we’re through the looking glass here in the UK when the radical right wing has ties to and defends Putin’s Russia, but tries to accuse the left of ‘communism’ for proposing such moderate conservative views as taxing billionaires and dismantling the rentier economy.
October 15, 2025 at 12:31 PM
You know we’re through the looking glass here in the UK when the radical right wing has ties to and defends Putin’s Russia, but tries to accuse the left of ‘communism’ for proposing such moderate conservative views as taxing billionaires and dismantling the rentier economy.
This #WorldMentalHealthDay, a poem that metaphorises one of the many guises in which depression might manifest itself.
‘The Bull’ features in my second collection of poems, 𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 (Seren Books, 2022).
#MentalHealthMatters
‘The Bull’ features in my second collection of poems, 𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 (Seren Books, 2022).
#MentalHealthMatters
October 10, 2025 at 10:54 AM
This #WorldMentalHealthDay, a poem that metaphorises one of the many guises in which depression might manifest itself.
‘The Bull’ features in my second collection of poems, 𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 (Seren Books, 2022).
#MentalHealthMatters
‘The Bull’ features in my second collection of poems, 𝑆𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 (Seren Books, 2022).
#MentalHealthMatters
‘“Keeping It Together: How Not to Get So Burned Out That You Walk Out in the Middle of Class” will now be a slideshow presented in the haunted auditorium by Jim “Flip” Philips, head coach of the varsity TP team.’
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
The Faculty Mental Health Fair Has Been Postponed Again
Dear Faculty:
Due to concerns expressed by the students, parents, and staff, you are invited to attend a mandatory emergency mental health fair in ...
www.mcsweeneys.net
October 9, 2025 at 7:01 AM
‘“Keeping It Together: How Not to Get So Burned Out That You Walk Out in the Middle of Class” will now be a slideshow presented in the haunted auditorium by Jim “Flip” Philips, head coach of the varsity TP team.’
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the...
Alan Carr just casually giving Toad of Toad Hall disguised as a washerwoman, escaping gaol in the Wind in the Willows. O Traitors, you’ve only gone and done it again.
#CelebrityTraitors
#CelebrityTraitors
October 9, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Alan Carr just casually giving Toad of Toad Hall disguised as a washerwoman, escaping gaol in the Wind in the Willows. O Traitors, you’ve only gone and done it again.
#CelebrityTraitors
#CelebrityTraitors
Why does the Conservative Party hate Shakespeare, the Romantics, the Brontës, and all the world-renowned richness of British literary culture?
Students who study English gain a whole raft of life skills: verbal and written communication; creative and critical thinking.
Students who study English gain a whole raft of life skills: verbal and written communication; creative and critical thinking.
October 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Why does the Conservative Party hate Shakespeare, the Romantics, the Brontës, and all the world-renowned richness of British literary culture?
Students who study English gain a whole raft of life skills: verbal and written communication; creative and critical thinking.
Students who study English gain a whole raft of life skills: verbal and written communication; creative and critical thinking.
Totally behind everything Gary Neville says about using flags as a symbol of division and hate, and the need for unity and solidarity.
I’m from an ordinary background, state schooled, and have worked hard all my life. What’s stood in my way has always been been privilege and greed, never diversity.
I’m from an ordinary background, state schooled, and have worked hard all my life. What’s stood in my way has always been been privilege and greed, never diversity.
October 8, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Totally behind everything Gary Neville says about using flags as a symbol of division and hate, and the need for unity and solidarity.
I’m from an ordinary background, state schooled, and have worked hard all my life. What’s stood in my way has always been been privilege and greed, never diversity.
I’m from an ordinary background, state schooled, and have worked hard all my life. What’s stood in my way has always been been privilege and greed, never diversity.
Reposted by Ben Wilkinson
“Keeping It Together: How Not to Get So Burned Out That You Walk Out in the Middle of Class” will now be a slideshow presented in the haunted auditorium by Jim “Flip” Philips, head coach of the varsity TP team.
The Faculty Mental Health Fair Has Been Postponed Again
Dear Faculty: Due to concerns expressed by the students, parents, and staff, you are invited to attend a mandatory emergency mental health fair in ...
buff.ly
October 6, 2025 at 5:20 PM
“Keeping It Together: How Not to Get So Burned Out That You Walk Out in the Middle of Class” will now be a slideshow presented in the haunted auditorium by Jim “Flip” Philips, head coach of the varsity TP team.
Reposted by Ben Wilkinson
Well said, Gary Neville! 👏
October 5, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Well said, Gary Neville! 👏
Reposted by Ben Wilkinson
Literary prizes are a cheap distraction from the true purpose of reading great books, which is making people who haven't read them feel bad about themselves
October 6, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Literary prizes are a cheap distraction from the true purpose of reading great books, which is making people who haven't read them feel bad about themselves
Always reassuring when a prize shortlist consists of an appealing mix of established as well as newer voices (the latter poets with one to three collections, by any sensible definition). A new collection by Tom Paulin! I’ve some books to buy and reading to catch up with.
We are thrilled to be able to reveal this year's T.S. Eliot Prize shortlist!
Our judges have chosen ten books "of great range, suggestiveness and power; from Entebbe to Manitoba... there is something here for everyone."
Find out more now: tseliot.com/prize/news/
Our judges have chosen ten books "of great range, suggestiveness and power; from Entebbe to Manitoba... there is something here for everyone."
Find out more now: tseliot.com/prize/news/
October 6, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Always reassuring when a prize shortlist consists of an appealing mix of established as well as newer voices (the latter poets with one to three collections, by any sensible definition). A new collection by Tom Paulin! I’ve some books to buy and reading to catch up with.
The fact that the first AI actor is an archetypally attractive young woman who cannot and will not object to any cinematic scenario she is placed within says everything about the forces driving these ‘innovations’.
October 3, 2025 at 2:35 PM
The fact that the first AI actor is an archetypally attractive young woman who cannot and will not object to any cinematic scenario she is placed within says everything about the forces driving these ‘innovations’.
Reposted by Ben Wilkinson
A walk from Leeds to Goole, via the River Aire, the Aire and Calder Navigation, the Knottingley and Goole Canal, the New Junction Canal and the Dutch River, 6.45am to 9.52pm Friday 26 September.
An improvised, illustrated thread of indeterminate length, part reflection, part reconstruction. 1/
An improvised, illustrated thread of indeterminate length, part reflection, part reconstruction. 1/
September 30, 2025 at 6:25 AM
A walk from Leeds to Goole, via the River Aire, the Aire and Calder Navigation, the Knottingley and Goole Canal, the New Junction Canal and the Dutch River, 6.45am to 9.52pm Friday 26 September.
An improvised, illustrated thread of indeterminate length, part reflection, part reconstruction. 1/
An improvised, illustrated thread of indeterminate length, part reflection, part reconstruction. 1/
If you’ve flu-like symptoms at the moment, test for Covid. My year-long experience of long Covid has been utter hell; my advice to anyone is to rest up as much as you need before your body makes that decision for you, and do not gaslight yourself into trying to push through it.
October 3, 2025 at 8:20 AM
If you’ve flu-like symptoms at the moment, test for Covid. My year-long experience of long Covid has been utter hell; my advice to anyone is to rest up as much as you need before your body makes that decision for you, and do not gaslight yourself into trying to push through it.
‘“I am a genius of a writer”, Plath had written to her mother. “I am writing the best poems of my life; they will make my name.” She gathered up the neat typescript in a black spring-binder, discovered on her desk after her suicide just months later.’
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
Lioness of God
“Well, I have finished a 2nd book of poems in this last month”, Sylvia Plath wrote home to her mother on November, 1962, “30 new poems.” Her first volume, The Colossus, had appeared two years before a...
www.the-tls.com
October 2, 2025 at 6:24 PM
‘“I am a genius of a writer”, Plath had written to her mother. “I am writing the best poems of my life; they will make my name.” She gathered up the neat typescript in a black spring-binder, discovered on her desk after her suicide just months later.’
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
www.the-tls.com/literature/p...
Ah, National Poetry Day. A worthy endeavour and well meaning, but it does tend to conjure poetry as a charity case, poets running after you imploring ‘come back! It doesn’t have to rhyme!’ When all’s said and done, I’m with Frank O’Hara: ‘if you don’t need poetry, bully for you.’
October 2, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Ah, National Poetry Day. A worthy endeavour and well meaning, but it does tend to conjure poetry as a charity case, poets running after you imploring ‘come back! It doesn’t have to rhyme!’ When all’s said and done, I’m with Frank O’Hara: ‘if you don’t need poetry, bully for you.’
Ah yes, Tony Blair: a political figure famed for his grinning diplomacy, and not at all for war crimes in horrific Anglo-American pseudo-religious crusades. Trump says he’s a good guy, the best. I’m reminded of this furiously perfect sonnet by Don Paterson, which conjures Blair in Stalinist mode.
September 30, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Ah yes, Tony Blair: a political figure famed for his grinning diplomacy, and not at all for war crimes in horrific Anglo-American pseudo-religious crusades. Trump says he’s a good guy, the best. I’m reminded of this furiously perfect sonnet by Don Paterson, which conjures Blair in Stalinist mode.
As for many poets uneasy in their class consciousness, Tony Harrison’s brilliant controversial long poem V. (1985) blew me away when I first read it. But his short lyrics were sharp, wise, and deeply moving, too, cut from lived life. Saddened to hear the great man has passed. RIP.
September 27, 2025 at 11:43 AM
As for many poets uneasy in their class consciousness, Tony Harrison’s brilliant controversial long poem V. (1985) blew me away when I first read it. But his short lyrics were sharp, wise, and deeply moving, too, cut from lived life. Saddened to hear the great man has passed. RIP.
One of the defining errors of our age is the insidious notion that all opinions are equal and valid. They’re not. Undermining corroborated expertise in a dubious overextension of alleged ‘democratic’ values, we end up with a political leader spreading dangerous medical misinformation.
September 26, 2025 at 9:23 AM
One of the defining errors of our age is the insidious notion that all opinions are equal and valid. They’re not. Undermining corroborated expertise in a dubious overextension of alleged ‘democratic’ values, we end up with a political leader spreading dangerous medical misinformation.
Put it on the banned list with shards, gossamer, and petrichor. Immediately.
September 22, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Put it on the banned list with shards, gossamer, and petrichor. Immediately.
Reposted by Ben Wilkinson
My letter to @theguardian.com about the spiralling use of AI by undergraduates to write their essays, and how students are simply taking their cues from a world losing touch with the irreplaceable value of human creativity and critical thinking.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Students’ use of AI spells death knell for critical thinking | Letters
Letters: Prof Andrew Moran and Dr Ben Wilkinson on the ramifications of the explosion in university essays being written with artificial intelligence
www.theguardian.com
March 3, 2025 at 10:17 AM
My letter to @theguardian.com about the spiralling use of AI by undergraduates to write their essays, and how students are simply taking their cues from a world losing touch with the irreplaceable value of human creativity and critical thinking.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...