The Poems: Forty Years of The North

A selection of the best poems of the last forty years, gathered from The North, the UK’s most entertaining and inspirational poetry magazine.

The North, as Louis MacNeice remarked, begins inside, and it has discovered and championed some of our finest poets, including three Poets Laureate, at least one American laureate and a Scottish Makar.  The North is not geographical but a state of mind and surprisingly international. Moreover it is ‘Excellent’ as Carol Ann Duffy noted in the Guardian.  

And in this anthology it has gathered truly remarkable poems, poems that have enriched our reading and shaped and inspired our writing across four decades.

The Poems includes stand-out work by:

Simon Armitage • Liz Berry • Caroline Bird • Hera Lindsay Bird

Eavan Boland • James Caruth • Jane Clarke • David Constantine

Stanley Cook • Meg Cox • Paula Cunningham • Michael Donaghy

Maura Dooley • Ella Duffy • U A Fanthorpe • Paul Farley

Lavinia Greenlaw • John Harvey • Holly Hopkins • Mimi Khalvati

Safia Khan • Jenny King • Michael Laskey • Hannah Lowe

Ian McMillan • Kim Moore • Helen Mort

and over fifty other outstanding poets

Published December 2025.