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. 🏳️🌈
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.
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]’.
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.
My next online gig is this Monday 10th March for Café Writers when I’m their featured poet but, most importantly, joined by the winners of their competition for which I was the judge, including Esther Morgan, Laura McKee & Lesley Sharpe. Live on Zoom, details in the link - mailchi.mp/a52fe36e796b...
March 6, 2025 at 9:55 AM
My next online gig is this Monday 10th March for Café Writers when I’m their featured poet but, most importantly, joined by the winners of their competition for which I was the judge, including Esther Morgan, Laura McKee & Lesley Sharpe. Live on Zoom, details in the link - mailchi.mp/a52fe36e796b...
Jane Hirshfield. This poem is from The Asking: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2024).
March 3, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Jane Hirshfield. This poem is from The Asking: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2024).
Recent poem of mine.
March 1, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Recent poem of mine.
William Stafford. This is from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf, 1998).
February 28, 2025 at 5:17 PM
William Stafford. This is from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf, 1998).
One of my recent poems. 🙂
February 27, 2025 at 3:18 PM
One of my recent poems. 🙂
Nicky Beer. First published in Poetry magazine, December, 2008.
February 27, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Nicky Beer. First published in Poetry magazine, December, 2008.
Writing exercise from the wonderful Stephen Dunn in The Practice of Poetry, ed.s Robin Behn and Chase Twichell (William Morrow, 2013).
February 27, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Writing exercise from the wonderful Stephen Dunn in The Practice of Poetry, ed.s Robin Behn and Chase Twichell (William Morrow, 2013).
Esther Morgan. From: Grace (Bloodaxe, 2011), a fantastic collection I’ve been teaching on today.
February 25, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Esther Morgan. From: Grace (Bloodaxe, 2011), a fantastic collection I’ve been teaching on today.
I love the direction Christian Wiman has taken his writing in during the last decade. This is so different to the formal poems he’s associated with. First published in Poetry, January 2020.
February 23, 2025 at 9:53 PM
I love the direction Christian Wiman has taken his writing in during the last decade. This is so different to the formal poems he’s associated with. First published in Poetry, January 2020.
Hey hey - I now have a Wikipedia article about me. 🙂
February 21, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Hey hey - I now have a Wikipedia article about me. 🙂