VERVE FESTIVAL of POETRY & SPOKEN WORD Experience more poetry for your money with one of our FESTIVAL PASSES . £60/£45 (cons) FESTIVAL PASS £35/£26 (cons) SATURDAY PASS £20/£15 (cons) SUNDAY PASS £50/£35 (cons) ONLINE PASS FEBRUARY 13th - 16th 2025 FULL LINE-UP & EVENT PROGRAMME BELOW ALL EVENTS POETRY SPOKEN WORD WORKSHOPS YOUNG PEOPLE SPOKEN WORD VERVE X LOUD POETRY SLAM Birmingham Heat Thursday - 7pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets WORKSHOP LYRIC SHAME Susannah Dickey Friday - 3:30pm More Info Book Tickets POETRY FRIDAY NIGHT HEADLINE EVENT Dzifa Benson, Anthony Joseph, Richard Scott with host Helen Bowell Friday - 8:30pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets YOUNG PEOPLE POETRY SOCIETY YOUNG POETS OPEN MIC Saturday - 11:00am More Info Book Stream Book Tickets SPOKEN WORD POETRY PERFORMANCE LECTURE Susannah Dickey Saturday - 1pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets WORKSHOP THE SWERVE Ruth Padel Saturday - 3pm More Info Book Tickets SPOKEN WORD BIG GAY POETRY NIGHT Joelle Taylor, Kandace Siobhan Walker & Sanah Ahsan Saturday - 8pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets SPOKEN WORD OUR POETRY FESTIVAL COMPETITION EVENT Hannah Lowe Sunday - 11am More Info Book Stream Book Tickets POETRY LAUNCHING THE NEW CARTHAGINIANS Nick Makoha Sunday - 1pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets WORKSHOP WHICHING AND PITCHING The Emma Press Sunday 4pm More Info Book Tickets WORKSHOP SPEAKING THE SILENCES : language of the lacuna Scarlett Ward Friday - 1pm More Info Book Tickets WORKSHOP TURNING MOVEMENT INTO POETRY Dzifa Benson Friday - 4pm More Info Book Tickets WORKSHOP MAKING THE ORDINARY EXTRAORDINARY Laurie Bolger Saturday - 9:30am More Info Book Tickets WORKSHOP ANCESTRY, INTERTEXTUALITY & GHOSTS Richard Scott Saturday - 12:00pm More Info Book Tickets POETRY MAGMA MATTERS: Past, Present and Future Various Magma Regular and Specific Issue Editors Saturday - 2:30pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets SPOKEN WORD POETRY UNBOUND SPECIAL Imtiaz Dharker with Padraig O Tuama. Saturday - 4:30pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets WORKSHOP THE WALL AS THIN AS A WREN's BONE Carrie Etter Sunday - 9:30am More Info Book Tickets WORKSHOP VALENTINES HOT & COLD Anthony Vahni Capildeo Sunday - 12pm More Info Book Tickets POETRY SUNDAY HEADLINE EVENT Helen Calcutt, Carrie Etter, Ruth Padel, Padraig O Tuama Sunday 2:30pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets SPOKEN WORD VERVE CLOSING GALA WITH OPEN MIC Hosted by Sam J Grudgings Sunday 4:30pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets WORKSHOP YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A POEM – a playful revolution Ellora Sutton Friday - 1:30pm More Info Book Tickets POETRY THE PAMPHLET HOUR Laurie Bolger, Troy Cabida, Betty Doyle, Ellora Sutton Friday - 7pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets WORKSHOP THE SONNET: INSIDE & OUTSIDE FORM Anthony Joseph Saturday - 10:00am More Info Book Tickets WORKSHOP AFTER POEMS Theresa Lola Saturday - 12:30pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets WORKSHOP FINDING MARY: IRISH ANCESTRY Helen Calcutt Saturday - 2:30pm More Info Book Tickets POETRY SATURDAY NIGHT HEADLINE EVENT Theresa Lola, Victoria Kennefick, Anthony Vahni Capildeo with host Jo Bell Saturday - 6pm More Info Book Stream Book Tickets WORKSHOP YOU. YOU. YOU. The Lyric Address in Poetry Padraig O Tuama Sunday - 10am More Info Book Tickets WORKSHOP A FAMILY AFFAIR Victoria Kennefick Sunday - 12:30pm More Info Book Tickets WORKSHOP SOUNDSCAPE IN POETRY Aoife Lyall Sunday 2:30pm More Info Book Tickets

WORKSHOP VALENTINES HOT & COLD Anthony Vahni Capildeo LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Sunday - 12pm PRICE £24.50 / £18.50 Book Tickets Bring your roses and your thorns to this unashamed workshop. What is love? Still unsure? Love your pet? Love being alone? Unleash the language your heart speaks: queer joy or winter blues, tricksiness or comradeship, sweet and bitter foolishness Sometimes silence or stumbling words can be the most expressive, and just how can we love in dark times? We'll dip in and out of sad, glad, and in-between moods, inspired by ancient and modern material. You might find yourself writing a letter to St Valentine in prison, or changing the mottos on love heart candies. The creative prompts in this workshop will encourage you to rethink your definition of love, where to find it, and how to express it. ABOUT THE POET Anthony Vahni Capildeo FRSL is a Trinidadian Scottish writer of poetry and non-fiction. Currently Professor and Writer in Residence at the University of York, their site-specific word and visual art includes responses to Cornwall’s former capital, Launceston, as the Causley Trust Poet in Residence (2022) and to the Ubatuba granite of the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds (2023), as well as to Scottish, Irish, and Caribbean built and natural environments. Their numerous books and pamphlets, from No Traveller Returns (Salt, 2003), Person Animal Figure (Landfill, 2005) onwards, are distinguished by deliberate engagement with independent and small presses. Their work has been recognized with the Cholmondeley Award (Society of Authors) and the Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection. Their publications include Like a Tree, Walking (Carcanet, 2021) (Poetry Book Society Choice), and A Happiness (Intergraphia, 2022). Their interests include silence, translation theory, medieval reworkings, plurilingualism, collaborative work, and traditional masquerade. Recent commissions include research-based Windrush poems for Poet in the City and for the Royal Society of Literature. Capildeo served as a judge for the Jhalak Prize (2023).

< Back This imaginative poetry workshop invites writers to explore the landscapes, places, and people that call to them. Saturday - 2:30pm FINDING MARY: IRISH ANCESTRY Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, UK Drawing on Helen’s own poem, ‘Visiting Mary’, which details her Irish ancestry, we will identify and creatively excavate those, as-of-yet, unmet spaces and faces that we long to journey into and understand. Through the magic of language and the mind, writers will immerse themselves in this experience, and in parallel, observe the shape and terrain of their inner worlds, and why this soulful part of us seeks connection with these external spaces. Poets are encouraged to come lightly prepared with a few ideas around familial history, but this isn’t essential. ABOUT THE POET HELEN Calcutt is a choreographer, dance aritst, and award-winning poet. Her pamphlet ‘Somehow’ (Verve Poetry Press, 2020), was a PBS Winter Bulletin Pamphlet & Poetry School Book of the Year (2020). Her anthology ‘Eighty-Four’ (Verve Press, 2019), was a Saboteur Award shortlist, and a Poetry Wales Book of the Year, 2019. Her full-length collection ‘Feeling All the Kills’, a verse account of assault, and recovery, was published by Pavilion Poetry, April 2024. Her notable research into text-to-dance translation has been supported by Arts Council England, the Birmingham REP Theatre, and One Dance U.K. She has received awards from the Society of Authors, and her writing appears in the Guardian, the Huffington Post, Poetry Ireland, Poetry London, Poetry Wales, Wild Court, and MPT Magazine, amongst others. Helen was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Loughborough University for her outstanding contribution to the arts in 2023. She is currently creating and touring a dance adaptation of Max Porter’s ‘Grief Is the Thing with Feathers’ with her company Beyond Words. WORKSHOP £24.50 / £18.50 Saturday - 2:30pm Book Tickets

< Back Write a poem on a moment of change in your own or someone else’s life. Saturday - 3pm THE SWERVE Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, UK The point of this is to emerge with a poem about change which also embodies change. 1. Start out in sections or fragments and see how it goes. 2. Maybe look at other sequence /fragment poems like Wallace Stevens’ ‘Thirteen ways of looking at a Blackbird’ Warsan Shire’s ‘The House’ Robert Hass’s ‘Lines on Last Spring’ or (a really important poem of his, on his relations with his alcoholic mum as a child but also on love sex and evolution) Dragonflies Mating. These unfold in numbered sections, watch how they tell a story or stories, how the perspective might shift from one section to the next, how voice or speaker, length, shape or tone of each section vary. 3. Once you have a sequence of fragments, lay around with losing some, melding them together into one, reversing them... Maybe they done want to go into one - which is fine. ABOUT THE POET Ruth Padel is a writer of unusual range. She has close personal links to Greece, India, classical music, nature, wildlife conservation and science, but is first and foremost an award-winning poet. Her books include thirteen acclaimed poetry collections, two novels, and a wide sweep of non-fiction. She lives in London, is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and Zoological Society of London, and currently Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Magdalene College Cambridge. WORKSHOP £24.50 / £18.50 Saturday - 3pm Book Tickets

POETRY FRIDAY NIGHT HEADLINE EVENT Dzifa Benson, Anthony Joseph, Richard Scott with host Helen Bowell LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Friday - 8:30pm PRICE £10 / £8 Book Tickets Book Stream An Evening of Powerhouse Poetry: Unmissable Readings and Conversation. Our regular Friday evening poetry headline event features three incredible contemporary poets. Dzifa Benson will read from their long awaited debut full collection Monster (Bloodaxe, 2024) TS Eliot prize-winner Anthony Joseph debut's at VERVE with his recently released selected poems Prcious & Impossible (Bloomsbury, 2024). And Richard Scott appears to celebrate the February publication of his second full collection, That Broke into Shining Crystals (Faber, 2025) Hosting these three wonderful poets for readings and discussion is Helen Bowell, whose debut pamphlet, The Barman (Bad Betty, 2022), was a PBS Summer Pamphlet Choice.

VERVE FESTIVAL of POETRY & SPOKEN WORD Experience more poetry for your money with one of our FESTIVAL PASSES . £60/£45 (cons) FESTIVAL PASS £35/£26 (cons) SATURDAY PASS £20/£15 (cons) SUNDAY PASS £50/£35 (cons) ONLINE PASS FEBRUARY 13th - 16th 2025 FULL LINE-UP & EVENT PROGRAMME BELOW ALL EVENTS POETRY SPOKEN WORD WORKSHOPS YOUNG PEOPLE WORKSHOP SPEAKING THE SILENCES : language of the lacuna Scarlett Ward Friday - 1pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP TURNING MOVEMENT INTO POETRY Dzifa Benson Friday - 4pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP ANCESTRY, INTERTEXTUALITY & GHOSTS Richard Scott Saturday - 12:00pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP THE SWERVE Ruth Padel Saturday - 3pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP VALENTINES HOT & COLD Anthony Vahni Capildeo Sunday - 12pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP WHICHING AND PITCHING The Emma Press Sunday 4pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A POEM – a playful revolution Ellora Sutton Friday - 1:30pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP MAKING THE ORDINARY EXTRAORDINARY Laurie Bolger Saturday - 9:30am Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP AFTER POEMS Theresa Lola Saturday - 12:30pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP THE WALL AS THIN AS A WREN's BONE Carrie Etter Sunday - 9:30am Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP A FAMILY AFFAIR Victoria Kennefick Sunday - 12:30pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP LYRIC SHAME Susannah Dickey Friday - 3:30pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP THE SONNET: INSIDE & OUTSIDE FORM Anthony Joseph Saturday - 10:00am Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP FINDING MARY: IRISH ANCESTRY Helen Calcutt Saturday - 2:30pm Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP YOU. YOU. YOU. The Lyric Address in Poetry Padraig O Tuama Sunday - 10am Book Tickets More Info WORKSHOP SOUNDSCAPE IN POETRY Aoife Lyall Sunday 2:30pm Book Tickets More Info

SPOKEN WORD OUR POETRY FESTIVAL COMPETITION EVENT Hannah Lowe LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Sunday - 11am PRICE FREE Book Tickets Book Stream This year we received more submissions than every before. The Verve Competition on the Theme of Poets and Poetry opened for entries late in 2024, judged by the wonderful Hannah Lowe. We also opened to competition up to entries from 11-17 year olds. This FREE to attend event will feature all the winners and commended poets plus ten selected from our 11-17 entries. The poets will read their poems on our subject and help launch our annual festival anthology. The event will be hosted by Hannah herself and will be a fun and lively affair, featuring poets of all kinds and levels of experience. Always a festival highlight!

< Back Putting together your pamphlet for submission. Sunday 4pm WHICHING AND PITCHING Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, UK Thinking about collecting your poems into a first pamphlet? Bring your idea and join this demystifying workshop run by Birmingham publisher The Emma Press. In considering what editors are looking for in a pamphlet, we will see what we can learn from some of the best recent publications and get thinking about how to select and order your own poems. The session will explore the range of poetry publishers and consider how to pitch, how to talk about your work, and how to know your audiences. With plenty of time for questions and discussion on good practice and common pitfalls, you’ll leave with key footholds for you next steps on your publication journey. This workshop will be run by Emma Press editor James Trevelyan . WORKSHOP £24.50 / £18.50 Sunday 4pm Book Tickets

< Back Write poems that speak to the most formative relationship we will ever experience. Sunday - 12:30pm A FAMILY AFFAIR Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, UK In this generative poetry workshop we’ll explore and interrogate what family, and our subsequent attachment styles, might mean for us in our poems. How can we use this relationship to expand our understanding of communal and individual experiences? What unique and formative language did we learn from our family of origin that we can employ in our work? In this workshop we’ll read and study a wide range of poems from traditional and contemporary poets around this subject and write poems that speak to the most formative relationship we will ever experience. ABOUT THE POET Victoria Kennefick is a poet, writer and teacher from Shanagarry, Co. Cork now based in Co. Kerry. Her first collection, Eat or We Both Starve , was published by Carcanet Press in March 2021. It won the Seamus Heaney Prize for Best First Collection 2022 and The Dalkey Literary Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award 2022. It was also shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, The Costa Poetry Book Award, The Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and The Butler Literary Prize. It was a a Book of the Year in The Guardian , T he Irish Times , The Sunday Independent and The White Review , and was also selected as one of The Telegraph 's Best Poetry Books to Buy 2021. Her pamphlet, White Whale (Southword Editions, 2015), won the Munster Literature Centre Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition and the Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Poetry Review, PN Review, Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Poetry News, Prelude, Copper Nickel, The Irish Times, Ambit, bath magg, Banshee, Bad Lilies, PBLJ and elsewhere. She won the 2013 Red Line Book Festival Poetry Prize and many of her poems have also been anthologised and broadcast on national radio stations. WORKSHOP £24.50 / £18.50 Sunday - 12:30pm Book Tickets

VERVE Poetry & Spoken Word Festival 2025 – Poet Feedback Form Thank you for being part of VERVE Poetry & Spoken Word Festival 2025! Your talent, energy, and words help shape this festival into a space of creative excellence and community. We are committed to improving the festival each year, and your feedback is invaluable in helping us do so This short survey will take about 5-10 minutes to complete. It focuses on your experience as a performer, the quality of the events and venues, the sense of community and inclusivity, and the long-term impact of the festival on your creative practice. Your responses will help us understand what worked, what could be improved, and how we can continue to make VERVE a meaningful, inclusive, and artistically inspiring festival. Thank you for your time and for sharing your thoughts with us! (For poets/performers at the festival) Overall Experience How would you rate your overall experience at VERVE Poetry & Spoken Word Festival?* (1 = Poor, 5 = Excellent) What did you enjoy most about performing, participating, or hosting at VERVE? Event & Venue Quality How would you rate the quality of the event(s) you performed in? * (1 = Poor, 5 = Excellent) Further comments How would you rate the venue?* (1 = Poor, 5 = Excellent) Further comments Did you feel the venue was accessible and welcoming?* Yes No Somewhat Please elaborate. Community & Inclusivity How well did the festival foster a sense of community among poets and attendees?* 1 = Not at all, 5 = Extremely well) Further comments Did you feel the festival was inclusive and representative of diverse voices? * Yes No Somewhat Please elaborate How did the festival contribute to your sense of belonging in the poetry/spoken word community?* Creative & Cultural Impact Did performing at VERVE influence your creative practice?* Yes No Somewhat Please elaborate Has the festival inspired any new ideas, collaborations, or projects for you? * Yes No If yes, please provide insight. How do you think VERVE contributes to the wider literary/spoken word scene?* Feedback for Future Festivals What was your favourite event at the festival?* What did you dislike or think could be improved?* What would you like to see more of in future editions of VERVE? * (Types of events, themes, collaborations, etc.) Do you have any final thoughts or suggestions?* Next

VERVE FESTIVAL of POETRY & SPOKEN WORD Experience more poetry for your money with one of our FESTIVAL PASSES . £60/£45 (cons) FESTIVAL PASS £35/£26 (cons) SATURDAY PASS £20/£15 (cons) SUNDAY PASS £50/£35 (cons) ONLINE PASS FEBRUARY 13th - 16th 2025 FULL LINE-UP & EVENT PROGRAMME BELOW ALL EVENTS POETRY SPOKEN WORD WORKSHOPS YOUNG PEOPLE YOUNG PEOPLE POETRY SOCIETY YOUNG POETS OPEN MIC Saturday - 11:00am Book Tickets More Info Book Stream

INTRODUCING our VERVE for LIFE Membership WE ARE OFFERING FOR THE FIRST TIME A LIMITED NUMBER OF PAID MEMBERSHIPS ALLOWING VERVE SUPPORTERS TO BECOME MEMBERS FOR LIFE AND RECEIVE A WHOLE HOST OF BENEFITS. YOU BELONG HERE WE ARE OFFERING FOR THE FIRST TIME A LIMITED NUMBER OF PAID MEMBERSHIPS ALLOWING VERVE SUPPORTERS TO BECOME MEMBERS FOR LIFE AND RECEIVE A WHOLE HOST OF BENEFITS . COULD YOU BECOME A VALUED MEMBER OF VERVE FOR LIFE? 'Being at the Verve Poetry Festival feels like an instant buzz of energy. It comes from every direction: the vibrant diversity of the audiences, the imaginative programming, the connection with other poets at every stage in their careers. It is the poetry festival that Birmingham richly deserves'. - VERVE Patron Imtiaz Dharker Multi-award-winning poet, artist and filmmaker, recipient of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, former Chancellor of Newcastle University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, whose work has been studied on the UK national curriculum. JOIN NOW VERVE FOR LIFE allows a STRICTLY LIMITED number of people to purchase a LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP for a ONE OFF payment of £100. ONCE THEY ARE GONE THEY'RE GONE PAY FOR YOUR LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP This payment secures one membership of VERVE For Life After completing your payment, please fill out the form below This membership is limited to the first 100 applicants only. Thank you so much for deciding to be part of VERVE! VERVE FOR LIFE £100 OR READ ON FOR MORE INFO... WHAT's THE DEAL? Membership costs a one off payment of £100 and is FOR LIFE Members qualify for 10% OFF across all VERVE Poetry Activity FOR LIFE Includes 10% off VERVE Poetry Festival event tickets (in-person and online) and any other paid events we put on. 10% off Workshops including those delivered at the festival as well as our zoom workshop series. 10% off Competition Entrie s, including our annual Poem of the Festival competition and our (most) monthly Poem of the Month competitions 10% off Books from our physical bookshop at the festival or our year round website bookshop at vervepoetrybookshop.com OTHER PERKS INCLUDE a one week head-start to purchase unlimited tickets for our festival and workshops. Other special offers and exclusives on a regular basis. Twice years zoom members' meeting - ask us anything, get your views heard. AND probably best of all, you will get a numbered membership card and an exclusive metal VERVE pin-badge! WHAT's THE TIMELINE? Memberships will open for purchase on 1st December 2025 . Memberships will be strictly limited to 100 members They will remain open until that number has been reached and then they will close. Once closed, this offer will not be repeated in this form. Any future new membership activity is either likely to involve a smaller annual subscription or a more expensive one off fee. WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO? During these volatile times in the arts, we will use any money raised from this activity to strengthen our organisation and put us on a more sustainable footing. It will also enable us to continue funding our FREE community poetry projects . Open Door community poetry open mic. Free children's & young people's events at our annual festival The VERVE Collective. Providing paid opportunities for emerging poets and support for works in progress. 'VERVE Poetry Festival Stands at the beating heart of all that is poetry, and all that might be. Bibrant, alive, provactive and curious - we need more festivals like this.' - VERVE Patron Joelle Taylor Joelle Taylor is the T. S. Eliot Prize-winning poet, former UK Slam Champion, and founder of SLAMbassadors, whose work has electrified international stages and earned her an MBE for services to poetry. JOIN NOW PAY FOR YOUR LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP This payment secures one membership of VERVE For Life After completing your payment, please fill out the form below This membership is limited to the first 100 applicants only. Thank you so much for deciding to be part of VERVE! VERVE FOR LIFE £100 VERVE FOR LIFE MEMBERSHIP FORM First name(Required) Last name(Required) Email(Required) Receipt ID of PayPal Transaction(Required) Multi-line address Country/Region(Required) Address(Required) City(Required) Zip / Postal code(Required) Anything else you’d like us to know? Tick this box if you would NOT like to appear as a member on our website. Tick this box if you would NOT like to join our mailing list. Submit Remember: YOU BELONG HERE. We are nothing without you. We know you want to see, hear, read, write and learn more about exceptional POETRY. We know you seek community that is welcoming, caring, celebratory and supportive and that centres around POETRY. We know that you value ease and affordability of participation for all, including the young and marginalised. JOIN US AND BECOMING AN EVEN BIGGER PART OF THE VERVE PROJECT!! ___________________________________________________________________________