< 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

< Back ‘The houses are haunted’, writes Wallace Stevens and maybe, by this, he means poetry. Saturday - 12:00pm ANCESTRY, INTERTEXTUALITY & GHOSTS Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, UK Join Richard Scott for this workshop in which we'll consider our poetic ancestors and how they might inspire -- through intertextuality, idea and form -- our writing now. We'll be doing writing exercises and discussing poems together as we become, in the words of Lucie Brock-Broido, ‘a freak of letters crossing down a rare / Path bleak with poplars’. ABOUT THE POET Richard Scott was born in London in 1981. His first book Soho (Faber & Faber, 2018), was a Gay’s the Word book of the year and shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot prize. His second poetry collection, That Broke into Shining Crystals , is forthcoming from Faber & Faber in February 2025. Richard is a lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London where he also runs a poetry reading group, and he teaches poetry at the Faber Academy. His poetry has been translated into German and French. WORKSHOP £24.50 / £18.50 Saturday - 12:00pm Book Tickets

SPOKEN WORD POETRY UNBOUND SPECIAL Imtiaz Dharker with Padraig O Tuama. LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Saturday - 4:30pm PRICE £8 / £6 Book Tickets Book Stream Poetry Unbound is an immersive exploration of a single poem, hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Short and unhurried, Poetry Unbound is an immersive exploration of a single poem, hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama. Pádraig Ó Tuama greets you at the doorways of brilliant poems and walks you through — each one has wisdom to offer and questions to ask you. Imtiaz Dharker is a recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry and her most recent collection, Shadow Reader. was published to great acclaim by Bloodaxe in 2024. Padraig O Tuama's new collection is out in January 2025 and he hosts the celebrated podcast, Poetry Unbound, in which he reads and explores some of his favourite poems. What better than to bring these two together to discuss Imtiaz's poems and talk about her poetic journey to this point? And celebrate the work of one of the nation's favourite poets. Read about POETRY UNBOUND here.

SPOKEN WORD BIG GAY POETRY NIGHT Joelle Taylor, Kandace Siobhan Walker & Sanah Ahsan LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Saturday - 8pm PRICE £10 / £8 Book Tickets Book Stream Don your fishnets, stick your lippy on and get out your gayest poems for a celebration of all things queer poetry. Hosted by your favourite (and biggest) gays on the Birmingham poetry scene Bradley Taylor and M L Walsh. Featuring headline performances from Joelle Taylor, Kandace Siobhan Walker and Sanah Ahsan - as well as an open mic – this will be an evening that showcases some of the very best and most influential voices in poetry today.

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.

WORKSHOP YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A POEM – a playful revolution Ellora Sutton LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Friday - 1:30pm PRICE £16 / £12 Book Tickets What is poetry if not the revolutionary moment of language? It is liberated language, language recovering its richness” – Situationist International “Poetry means taking control of the language of your life.” – June Jordan Often, we have no control over the language of our lives. The forms we have to fill, the emails we have to send, the music being played in the supermarket, the names of the roads we follow, the adverts we walk or scroll or flick past. In this workshop , we’ll take back control of the language we live by, exploring the Situationist technique of détournement to liberate language and release the unruly poetic potential in everything from reality TV to coding, online advertising to poetry submission guidelines. We’ll look at pieces by poets including Astra Papachristodoulou, Hala Alyan, and Chris McCabe as we set out on the playful work of taking back control. A NOTE ABOUT THE POET FROM THE POET I’m Ellora Sutton, my pronouns are she/her, and I am a poet living in the wilds of North East Hampshire. I have been the Poet-in-Residence at both Jane Austen’s House and Petersfield Museum, and I am currently the poetry reviewer for Mslexia . I am researching a PhD in English at Northeastern University London, using poetry to assess the impact of gender bias in urban planning on the lived experiences of those who inhabit the city. I have been published online and in print by The Poetry Review , Popshot , Poetry News , fourteen poems , The North, Oxford Poetry, Under the Radar , bath magg, and The Interpreter’s House , amongst others. I have won the Mslexia Poetry Competition, the Artlyst Art to Poetry Award, the Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Competition, and several Young Poets Network challenges. I have been highly commended in the Keats-Shelley Prize, commended in the Winchester Poetry Prize, longlisted for the National Poetry Competition, and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.

< Back Bring your roses and your thorns to this unashamed workshop. Sunday - 12pm VALENTINES HOT & COLD Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, UK 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). WORKSHOP £24.50 / £18.50 Sunday - 12pm Book Tickets

< Back What is poetry if not the revolutionary moment of language? Friday - 1:30pm YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A POEM – a playful revolution Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, UK It is liberated language, language recovering its richness” – Situationist International “Poetry means taking control of the language of your life.” – June Jordan Often, we have no control over the language of our lives. The forms we have to fill, the emails we have to send, the music being played in the supermarket, the names of the roads we follow, the adverts we walk or scroll or flick past. In this workshop , we’ll take back control of the language we live by, exploring the Situationist technique of détournement to liberate language and release the unruly poetic potential in everything from reality TV to coding, online advertising to poetry submission guidelines. We’ll look at pieces by poets including Astra Papachristodoulou, Hala Alyan, and Chris McCabe as we set out on the playful work of taking back control. A NOTE ABOUT THE POET FROM THE POET I’m Ellora Sutton, my pronouns are she/her, and I am a poet living in the wilds of North East Hampshire. I have been the Poet-in-Residence at both Jane Austen’s House and Petersfield Museum, and I am currently the poetry reviewer for Mslexia . I am researching a PhD in English at Northeastern University London, using poetry to assess the impact of gender bias in urban planning on the lived experiences of those who inhabit the city. I have been published online and in print by The Poetry Review , Popshot , Poetry News , fourteen poems , The North, Oxford Poetry, Under the Radar , bath magg, and The Interpreter’s House , amongst others. I have won the Mslexia Poetry Competition, the Artlyst Art to Poetry Award, the Pre-Raphaelite Society Poetry Competition, and several Young Poets Network challenges. I have been highly commended in the Keats-Shelley Prize, commended in the Winchester Poetry Prize, longlisted for the National Poetry Competition, and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. WORKSHOP £16 / £12 Friday - 1:30pm Book Tickets

WORKSHOP ANCESTRY, INTERTEXTUALITY & GHOSTS Richard Scott LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Saturday - 12:00pm PRICE £24.50 / £18.50 Book Tickets ‘The houses are haunted’, writes Wallace Stevens and maybe, by this, he means poetry. Join Richard Scott for this workshop in which we'll consider our poetic ancestors and how they might inspire -- through intertextuality, idea and form -- our writing now. We'll be doing writing exercises and discussing poems together as we become, in the words of Lucie Brock-Broido, ‘a freak of letters crossing down a rare / Path bleak with poplars’. ABOUT THE POET Richard Scott was born in London in 1981. His first book Soho (Faber & Faber, 2018), was a Gay’s the Word book of the year and shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot prize. His second poetry collection, That Broke into Shining Crystals , is forthcoming from Faber & Faber in February 2025. Richard is a lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London where he also runs a poetry reading group, and he teaches poetry at the Faber Academy. His poetry has been translated into German and French.

WORKSHOP AFTER POEMS Theresa Lola LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Saturday - 12:30pm PRICE £24.50 / £18.50 Book Tickets Book Stream Developing strategies for responding to other poems, and going from inspiration to innovation. As T.S. Eliot says 'No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone’. We are in many ways always responding to what we take in. After poems are more intentional in their acknowledgement of the source. We’ll discuss, read, and write together. ABOUT THE POET Theresa Lola is an award winning poet, writer, and brand consultant. She was featured in the ‘Forces for Change’ issue of British Vogue as a next generation talent. In 2022 her poem Equilibrium from her first poetry collection was added to OCR’s GCSE English Literature syllabus. Her second poetry collection is Ceremony for the Nameless (Penguin Press, 2024). In 2018 Lola was awarded the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and the following year was the Young People’s Laureate for London. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing from University of Oxford, earning a distinction. Her writing has been commissioned for campaigns and projects by Aesop, National Gallery, Selfridges, Royal Festival Hall, and more. Fashion designer Osman Yousefzada selected her as his co-writer for his London Fashion Week film. Lola has led poetry workshops across schools, projects, and organisations, including for Dulwich Picture Gallery, The Poetry School, and Outspoken. She has read her work across the UK and internationally in Brazil, Singapore, Romania, and more.

SPOKEN WORD POETRY PERFORMANCE LECTURE Susannah Dickey LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Saturday - 1pm PRICE £8 / £6 Book Tickets Book Stream Why Not You? In this year’s Poetry Performance Lecture, we join Susannah Dickey in an innovative exploration of the challenges to romantic intimacy posed by the climate crisis. In this new performance piece, set on the island of Hydra, where cars are banned, stray cats outnumber the population, and forest fires encroach, we will be forced to approach language differently – subjugating the ‘I’-centric quality of historic lyric to include the non-human, as both subject and collaborative force. In creating this ecopoetics of intimacy, the shame of romantic egotism becomes a generative space for thinking collectively about the earth and our place within it. This is a performance in which the speaker wants desperately to communicate love in a different way, using the art form best suited to interrogating language, interrogating selfhood: poetry. The Verve Performance-Lecture (a stylised form of teaching-as-performance, originating from contemporary art practice), invites a poet to create a new piece of work fusing academic discourse with poetry and spoken word on a subject of their choosing. Brought to you in association with the Poetry School.

POETRY SUNDAY HEADLINE EVENT Helen Calcutt, Carrie Etter, Ruth Padel, Padraig O Tuama LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Sunday 2:30pm PRICE £10/£8 Book Tickets Book Stream Our final headline event of the weekend brings not three but four wonderful poets together to read and talk about their work. Birmingham's very own Helen Calcutt will read from her break out collection, Feeling All The Kills (Pavilion, 2024). Carrie Etter will read from her fifth full collection, Grief's Alphabet (Seren, 2024). Poetry royalty, Ruth Padel's most recent collection, Girl (Chatto, 2024) is a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Joining them, host of Poetry Unbound Padraig O Tuama will read from his brand new collection, Kitchen Hymns (Cheerio, 2025). This amazing line-up, a real treat, will be hosted for us by Jonathan Davidson from Writing West Midlands and founder of Birmingham Literature Festival.