Poetry in Glasgow (PIG) was created by the poet Annie Runkel in early 2025. After a hiatus of several years, Annie was eager to get more involved in the “poetry scene” in Glasgow and Central Scotland. But she found the lack of a unified resource for poets and poetry lovers in the area exhausting. To keep up to date on events and opportunities, it was basically necessary to follow dozens of social media accounts on different sites. This heavy reliance on social media seemed like a bad idea. With so many social media platforms revealing highly questionable practices in their approach to data security and mis/disinformation, it seemed vital to try and establish a new, independent resource that was outside the reach of the big tech companies. PIG is this resource.

PIG aims to offer anyone interested in poetry an easy way to find out about local events and publishing opportunities, and to share resources and recommendations. It is a tool for and by the community. Let’s build it together!

Regular Updates

PIG publishes regular, fortnightly updates on all the poetic goings-on in Glasgow and beyond. Included are events such as regular open mic nights and writing or reading groups as well as special poetry readings and workshops. We also aim to report on submission windows for poetry publications or competitions in Scotland (and beyond). In the future, we might also highlight new publications from local poets or interesting projects. Users can sign up to receive the updates directly to their inbox via our newsletter. You can find the sign-up form at the bottom of this page.

Although I am weary of many social media sites. PIG uses Bluesky, Substack and Instagram to flag when a new update is published. PIG is intended to give people an easy way to keep up with that’s going on and many people are still using the sites. So this will hopefully be a compromise that works for everyone.

The PIG Database: Events and Opportunities

At the core of the PIG website is its events calendar and opportunities page. These are usually updated several times a week and give visitors a quick overview of upcoming events and current opportunities for publications and other creative work.

Events

The events you find on PIG are focused on Greater Glasgow (with the odd addition of events in Paisley or other close-by towns). We also feature the occasional online events from across the UK. Most events we list are free to attend or charge a small fee at the door. We generally don't include things like creative writing courses or other educational events in the calendar unless they are free of charge. You can however find links to some organisations offering poetry-related training and education in the resources section of the website.

Opportunities

The list of opportunities you find on PIG is always going to be just a small slice of the totality of all the calls for submissions, residencies, commissions and prize competitions for poets that are open at any given time. There are simply too many and the PIG team is small. Under these circumstances, we try to focus particularly on opportunities by publishers and organisations in Scotland and the North. We also decided not to include any opportunity that requires payment for entry/submission. This is why you will find only very few prize competitions featured on PIG.

Resources and More

The website also offer visitors a repository of poetry resources such as libraries, organisations and publishers. We hope this section of the website will continue to grow as more people discover PIG and share their own knowledge and recommendations.

Get in Touch

We need you! Tell us about your own events or opportunities. Let us know about cool resources or exciting new publications. You can reach out via social media or email via hello@poetry-in-glasgow.art.