This is a hardship fund for poets in the UK. We’re just getting started but we thought something like this was long overdue and much needed, as we know how skint nearly everyone is after a decade of punitive austerity, a brutally mismanaged pandemic and the relentless cruelty of the benefits system. So this is a simple way of getting a bit of money quickly to poets who need it. Give when you can and ask when you can’t.
We’re looking for and relying on donations before we can start distributing money at the beginning of February, so anyone with the means who can donate, either in the form of a one-off donation or in a monthly standing order, please do so as soon as possible.
If you’d like to donate, we’re using PayPal donations for the time being – the link to give in either monthly or one-off donations is:
https://tinyurl.com/poetshardshipfund
To begin with, until we know how many donations we’ve got coming in, the fund can only provide one-off payments, though we hope to be able to offer monthly payments soon. From February 1st 2021, if you are a poet in need of support please email us at poetshardshipfunduk@gmail.com with how much you need and your PayPal details, and we’ll try to get the money over to you within a week’s window depending on our resources at the time. Distribution will happen on a first-come-first-served basis.
Everything we’re sent will be strictly confidential, and there’ll be no explaining, form-filling or anything like that required: this is solidarity, not charity, not benefits. The money doesn’t have to be for a project or a book or whatever. You’re a poet if you write poems. That’s it.
Please share this around to anyone you think might need it or to anyone who you think might be able to donate, and email us at poetshardshipfunduk@gmail.com if you have any questions.
THE POETS' HARDSHIP FUND 