I’m so excited to share a brand new project! Today we at I Am Loud released the first episode of Loud Poets: Happy Hour, our new poetry podcast. Bex Sherwood is producing the show and I’m hosting, plus Kevin Mclean and Mark Gallie are along for the ride taking part in the challenges.

What is Happy Hour, and why are we doing it? This year we were absolutely blown away by the engagement our NaPoWriMo project garnered (learn more about that in my blog post here and watch all the podcasts here). So many people watched the podcasts, took part in the challenges, and shared their new poetry with us. Particularly in this tough year (well, years!) it was heartening and inspiring to feel that community vibe around writing and sharing poetry.

So we figured, why stop in May? Similarly to our NaPaWriMo podcasts, Happy Hour is a show where we take on writing challenges, share tips, and chat about the creative process. Each episode lasts about an hour and the show comes out on alternating Sundays. Plus, every Thursday I’ll be sharing special mini-episodes with advice on writing to the challenges. It’s a digital writers group with some tipples and a whole lot of shenaniganry!

The best part? It’s all driven by you. The challenges we’ll be taking on will be submitted by our Patreon supporters: if you sign up for as little as £1/month you not only support our ongoing projects but you also get to set us zany, tricky prompts (and other fantastic perks)! Plus, every episode we’ll pick two challenges out of the Poetic Pint Glass of Poetic Challenges (I know, it’s very smoothly named) and everyone gets to vote on which challenge we tackle. We’d love to have you take part by proposing challenges, voting, and of course writing along with us!

The first episode has just been released. You can watch it via the YouTube link below or listen wherever you get your podcasts (just search ‘I Am Loud’ or ‘The Loudcast’).

Thanks so much for tuning in, and hope to see your challenges and poetry soon! —K