A note from our founder,
Stuart Bartholomew.
We may be down but we’re most definitely not out.
Having to cancel our annual Birmingham city centre poetry festival for the first time since 2017 due to funding issues has been painful and difficult. But the support of our friends and supporters has been both heart-warming and energising.
None more so than from Amy and the team at Ledbury who have saved our year by offering us a day at their brilliant festival! We are grateful beyond words.
With one eye on the marginalised among us and another on the unique timbre of our bustling and cacophonous home city, we dearly hope you will enjoy what we have to offer.
We can’t wait to welcome you!
VIEW THE FULL LEDBURY PROGRAMME: ledburypoetry.org.uk/home/whats-on/
Ledbury Poetry Festival, Burgage Hall, Ledbury. Herefordshire, HR8 1DS.
Sunday 28th June 2026.
EVENT PROGRAMME.
OPEN DOOR OPEN MIC.
11.30 - 1pm.
FOR FOUR YEARS VERVE Poetry Festival have been holding monthly open mic nights in The Jewellery Quarter which provide a platform for both fledgling and dab hand poets to perform their work in a supportive environment.
This year VERVE Open Door is landing at Ledbury! This is the chance for you to grace the festival stage with your very own poems, or simply come and enjoy the fun!
With regular host Rick Sanders AKA Willis the Poet.
PAMPHLET HOUR with AV Bridgewood, Ilisha Thiru Percell and Zain Rishi with host Zakariye.
1.30 - 2.30pm.
OUR SEMI REGULAR pamphlet focussed event brings three stellar pamphleteers from some of our favourite indie poetry presses together to chat about this glorious format and read some of their poetry!
AV Bridgwood will read from Snack (Ignition Press, 2025), Ilisha Thiru Purcell from What She Said (VERVE Poetry Press, 2025), and Zain Rishi from Noon (Emma Press, 2026).
HoneyBEE & MEAT:
A bespoke special by Elle Dillon-Reams.
3pm - 4pm.
For one hour only, multi-award-winning poet and performer Elle Dillon-Reams brings something entirely new to Ledbury - a bespoke collision of her two critically acclaimed solo shows, HoneyBEE and MEAT, woven together with brand new spoken word pieces created exclusively for this festival.
This is an hour of spoken word that lives at the crossroads of the lyric and the visceral. Theatre that knows how to wound and how to hold. Words with teeth and tenderness - queer, unflinching, and full of hard-won joy and rebellious hope.
QUEER POETRY HEADLINE EVENT: Leo Biox, Keith Jarrett, and Peter Scalpello, with host Joelle Taylor.
4:30 - 6pm.
OUR FIRST EVER Queer headline event features three incredible poets, all giants in their way on the contemporary UK poetry scene. We’re thrilled to have Leo Boix with us reading from his brilliant recent collection, Southernmost: Sonnets (Chatto, 2025). Joining Leo are Keith Jarrett and Peter Scalpello.
This is incredibly Keith's first time at a VERVE event. His most recent publication, Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied (Bad Betty, 2026) is a Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation. Peter joins us to celebrate publication of his wonderful second full collection, Mirrorstage (Cipher Press, 2026).
DICE SLAM: Devised by Bohdan Piasecki.
6.30 - 8pm.
IN OUR 'DICE SLAM' our 'competitors' - Elle Dillon-Reams, Keith Jarrett, Zain Rishi and Zakariye - will give it their best slam shot, however the 'judges' - a secret selection of Birmingham poetry stalwarts - will need to adapt their comments to scores provided by the roll of a dice, good, bad or ugly. Join us for what will be a lively, vastly contentious and ultimately fun poetry slam with a difference!
