Writer Frank McMahon is celebrating a fantastic couple of weeks after appearing on ITV’s This Morning show as one of the winners of the national Poetry Together initiative. 

He performed his winning poem ‘Pomegranate’ in front of an audience of 500 in a live show at Manchester’s Aviva Studios. 

The event was compered by Gyles Brandreth, who originated the idea for the prize. 

Poetry Together is in its seventh year and is designed to bring young and old closer through the joys of poetry. Supported by Queen Camilla, it has seen over 1000 care homes and schools participate, from as far afield as Aberdeen, Bradford, Bristol, Blackpool, Caerphilly, Cambridge, Cornwall, Glasgow, Huddersfield, Hereford, Dover, Llandaff, Londonderry, Liverpool, Leicester, Portsmouth, Sussex, and dozens of other locations around the UK. Last year, schools in Greece, Romania, Dubai, the UAE, Nigeria, and the USA signed up 

The audience in Manchester was made up of teachers, students and grandparents and was followed by workshops and performances by some of Manchester’s finest poets, including Matt Goodfellow, Ruth Awolola, and Nicole May.  

Frank, who, as well as being a winner, has been working on the project with schools in Gloucestershire, said, “It was a day of great energy and creativity, a joy from start to finish.” 

If you would like to hear Frank read ‘Pomegranate,’ it will be broadcast on BBC Upload with Adam Crowther. It can be heard tonight (Thursday, November 27) on BBC Radio Gloucestershire & BBC Radio Wiltshire from 6pm, and again, on Saturday evening on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Wiltshire and BBC Radio Somerset between 6-8pm. You can listen on your radio or via the free BBC Sounds app. 

In other news, Frank also heard that his story ‘The Quay’ has been published in an anthology of novellas by Tim Saunders Publications, under the title of the Paul Cave Prize for literature. His entry made the top four. The anthology is available on Amazon on Kindle for £9.99 or in paperback for £25.00