John McCullough
@mrjohnmccullough.bsky.social
Poet. Winner of the Hawthornden Prize for Literature with Reckless Paper Birds. Forward & Costa-shortlisted. Working-class writer. Next book: Crowd Voltage (Bloodaxe, March 2026). He/him. 🏳️🌈
Pinned
Excited to say my fifth collection of poems, Crowd Voltage, will be published by @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social in March 2026. It's a high-energy book about class, crowds and community. This specially designed cover is by the brilliant queer artist, Villain.
This week @Waterstones are offering 25% discount on preorders for @BloodaxeBooks titles out in early 2026, including mine. Offer closes 17 October. Just go to waterstones.com, put 9781780377810 into the search box, click PREORDER and add code OCTOBER25 for the discount.
October 14, 2025 at 9:26 AM
This week @Waterstones are offering 25% discount on preorders for @BloodaxeBooks titles out in early 2026, including mine. Offer closes 17 October. Just go to waterstones.com, put 9781780377810 into the search box, click PREORDER and add code OCTOBER25 for the discount.
My online Advanced Poetry Workshops course returns in October. Each week I talk on the effects of techniques and we read contemporary pieces. We workshop students' poetry and there are exercises to help produce fresh, surprising poems. www.creativewritingprogramme.org.uk/advanced-poe...
Advanced Poetry Workshops — The CWP
www.creativewritingprogramme.org.uk
July 8, 2025 at 4:55 PM
My online Advanced Poetry Workshops course returns in October. Each week I talk on the effects of techniques and we read contemporary pieces. We workshop students' poetry and there are exercises to help produce fresh, surprising poems. www.creativewritingprogramme.org.uk/advanced-poe...
Been working on my next collection Crowd Voltage since 2021, aiming to find fresh ways to write about working-class and queer experiences that would draw on my energetic approach to imagery and phrase-making. Here are some of the writers I’ve gone back to most often…
June 27, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Been working on my next collection Crowd Voltage since 2021, aiming to find fresh ways to write about working-class and queer experiences that would draw on my energetic approach to imagery and phrase-making. Here are some of the writers I’ve gone back to most often…
Excited to say my fifth collection of poems, Crowd Voltage, will be published by @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social in March 2026. It's a high-energy book about class, crowds and community. This specially designed cover is by the brilliant queer artist, Villain.
June 25, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Excited to say my fifth collection of poems, Crowd Voltage, will be published by @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social in March 2026. It's a high-energy book about class, crowds and community. This specially designed cover is by the brilliant queer artist, Villain.
Kim Addonizio. This is the opening of a poem in her fantastic recent collection, Exit Opera (Norton, 2024). I’ve been a fan for a long time and for me this book and the last see her at the top of her game. So wildly imaginative and thoughtful, intimate and funny all at once.
June 2, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Kim Addonizio. This is the opening of a poem in her fantastic recent collection, Exit Opera (Norton, 2024). I’ve been a fan for a long time and for me this book and the last see her at the top of her game. So wildly imaginative and thoughtful, intimate and funny all at once.
Twenty years since my 2005 author photo. 🙂 Part of my boy band phase. Album includes the hit singles ‘Dreaming Barman’, ‘Ding! Dong! My PhD is Dead!’, ‘Puberty Won’t Leave’ and ‘Nobody, Nobody [Wants My First Book Yet]’.
May 30, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Twenty years since my 2005 author photo. 🙂 Part of my boy band phase. Album includes the hit singles ‘Dreaming Barman’, ‘Ding! Dong! My PhD is Dead!’, ‘Puberty Won’t Leave’ and ‘Nobody, Nobody [Wants My First Book Yet]’.
Reposted by John McCullough
@mrjohnmccullough.bsky.social I've Carried a Door on my Back for Ten Years is the perfect foundation for tonight's class on redrafting #TheProcessofPoetry #Cantwaittoshare
April 23, 2025 at 4:24 PM
@mrjohnmccullough.bsky.social I've Carried a Door on my Back for Ten Years is the perfect foundation for tonight's class on redrafting #TheProcessofPoetry #Cantwaittoshare
Reposted by John McCullough
A copy of #HerNameisAlice is winging its way to several politicians and members of the House of Lords who have been offered, and have accepted a copy.
April 10, 2025 at 11:17 AM
A copy of #HerNameisAlice is winging its way to several politicians and members of the House of Lords who have been offered, and have accepted a copy.
Reposted by John McCullough
John McCullough (@mrjohnmccullough.bsky.social), from Opening Line (@brokensleepbooks.bsky.social)
April 9, 2025 at 6:43 PM
John McCullough (@mrjohnmccullough.bsky.social), from Opening Line (@brokensleepbooks.bsky.social)
Reposted by John McCullough
The latest poem in our little sidewalk poetry box is @mrjohnmccullough.bsky.social’s Flamingo from 📖 Reckless Paper Birds 🦩
April 7, 2025 at 6:44 PM
The latest poem in our little sidewalk poetry box is @mrjohnmccullough.bsky.social’s Flamingo from 📖 Reckless Paper Birds 🦩
Reposted by John McCullough
Just seen this poem by John McCullough in Broken Sleep’s ‘Opening Line’. It has stopped my heart - it’s like it was written just for me!
April 2, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Just seen this poem by John McCullough in Broken Sleep’s ‘Opening Line’. It has stopped my heart - it’s like it was written just for me!
Springtime sadness from Tomas Tranströmer, translated from the Swedish by Robin Fulton in Collected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2006).
April 1, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Springtime sadness from Tomas Tranströmer, translated from the Swedish by Robin Fulton in Collected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2006).
Diane di Prima. From: Revolutionary Letters (City Lights, 1971).
March 31, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Diane di Prima. From: Revolutionary Letters (City Lights, 1971).
Robert Bly. From: Collected Poems (Norton, 2018).
March 28, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Robert Bly. From: Collected Poems (Norton, 2018).
Hey hey it's Frank O'Hara's birthday! 'Now I am quietly waiting for / the catastrophe of my personality / to seem beautiful again, / and interesting, and modern.' - 'Mayakovsky'. Me too - any second now. :) (Image: Frank with his cat, Muffins, photographed by Richard O. Moore.)
March 27, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Hey hey it's Frank O'Hara's birthday! 'Now I am quietly waiting for / the catastrophe of my personality / to seem beautiful again, / and interesting, and modern.' - 'Mayakovsky'. Me too - any second now. :) (Image: Frank with his cat, Muffins, photographed by Richard O. Moore.)
Poem about my first boyfriend that appeared in Poetry Wales in 2023.
March 18, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Poem about my first boyfriend that appeared in Poetry Wales in 2023.
James Crews. From: Telling My Father (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2017).
March 17, 2025 at 4:14 PM
James Crews. From: Telling My Father (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2017).
Emily Fragos. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 21, 2015, by the Academy of American Poets.
March 16, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Emily Fragos. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 21, 2015, by the Academy of American Poets.
Anne Carson. From: ‘The Life of Towns’ in Plainwater (Vintage, 1995).
March 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Anne Carson. From: ‘The Life of Towns’ in Plainwater (Vintage, 1995).
Molly Brodak (1980-2020). Her one full-length collection is A Little Middle of the Night (University of Iowa Press, 2010).
March 15, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Molly Brodak (1980-2020). Her one full-length collection is A Little Middle of the Night (University of Iowa Press, 2010).
Emily Dickinson, c. 1864.
March 14, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Emily Dickinson, c. 1864.
Reposted by John McCullough
I found a bunch of new D.A. Powell poems over at www.rejectedlit.com/issue-10/da-...
They're not half bad
They're not half bad
D.A. Powell — Rejected Lit Magazine
www.rejectedlit.com
March 8, 2025 at 11:55 PM
I found a bunch of new D.A. Powell poems over at www.rejectedlit.com/issue-10/da-...
They're not half bad
They're not half bad
Reposted by John McCullough
Both Atrium editors - @clairewalkerpoetry.bsky.social & @hollyannepoet.bsky.social - are reading this FREE event tomorrow for #internationalwomensday
It's not often you get both of us reading at the same event these says ao do come and say hello.
Lovely to be part of this great line up.
It's not often you get both of us reading at the same event these says ao do come and say hello.
Lovely to be part of this great line up.
March 7, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Both Atrium editors - @clairewalkerpoetry.bsky.social & @hollyannepoet.bsky.social - are reading this FREE event tomorrow for #internationalwomensday
It's not often you get both of us reading at the same event these says ao do come and say hello.
Lovely to be part of this great line up.
It's not often you get both of us reading at the same event these says ao do come and say hello.
Lovely to be part of this great line up.
"The greatest challenge, for me, is to try and express difficult thoughts in plain language. I prize clarity and simplicity. I like to present complicated or mysterious ideas in the simplest way possible ... Complexity, I think, often obscures fuzzy thinking." - Elizabeth Bishop
March 6, 2025 at 5:51 PM
"The greatest challenge, for me, is to try and express difficult thoughts in plain language. I prize clarity and simplicity. I like to present complicated or mysterious ideas in the simplest way possible ... Complexity, I think, often obscures fuzzy thinking." - Elizabeth Bishop