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 Shame has always had the potential to shape the lyric tradition, to produce poems more ambitious and daring for their uncertainty of self. Friday - 3:30pm LYRIC SHAME Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, UK “My hunch is that there’s something about working in poetry (above all in lyric writing) which is inherently bound up with shame. Indeed, shame may act as a driving ‘motor’ of lyric.” Denise Riley Over the course of the 20th century, lyric poetry underwent a kind of crisis of identity, sparked by the American academy’s incremental disdain for what were termed ‘epiphany poems’. As a consequence of this scathing diagnosis, much lyric poetry became more self-aware, more self-critical, more ashamed of itself. That said, for those poets who have spent their careers writing on the fringes, shame was not a new feature, for shame has always had the potential to shape the lyric tradition, to produce poems more ambitious and daring for their uncertainty of self. At a historical moment in which we have much to feel ashamed of, it is vital that poetry reflect the messy contradictions of existence. In this workshop, writers will read and discuss some of the poems most emblematic of the lyric shame movement, including work by Sylvia Plath, Claudia Rankine, Maggie Nelson, and Robert Hass. There will also be writing exercises designed to harness negative affect in ways that can render the resulting poems more powerful. WORKSHOP £24.50 / £18.50 Friday - 3:30pm Book Tickets

WORKSHOP SPEAKING THE SILENCES : language of the lacuna Scarlett Ward LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Friday - 1pm PRICE £16 / £12 Book Tickets In this workshop the unsaid takes form and silence speaks volumes. We will draw inspiration from the unspoken narratives that shape our lives, and write around the lacunas we have learned to carry. What secrets do we haul, whose voices are missing, and what effects does it have on our identities when large cavities form in our histories? ABOUT THE POET Scarlett Ward is the Staffordshire poet laureate 2024-2026. Her debut collection ‘Ache’ was released by Verve Press in 2019, and she went on to be a finalist for the women’s poets prize by the Rebecca Swift foundation. As well as performing at Derby Literature Festival and Verve Festival, her poetry can be found in Nine Arches, 21 poems and Broken Sleep anthologies.

WORKSHOP FINDING MARY: IRISH ANCESTRY Helen Calcutt LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Saturday - 2:30pm PRICE £24.50 / £18.50 Book Tickets This imaginative poetry workshop invites writers to explore the landscapes, places, and people that call to them. 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 MAKING THE ORDINARY EXTRAORDINARY Laurie Bolger LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Saturday - 9:30am PRICE £24.50 / £18.50 Book Tickets Bring your writing home & write the ordinary extraordinarily 🪑✨ ✍️ During this session we'll be looking at writing inspired by The Everyday. This is a chance to work in a close & relaxed group & mix up your writing with some lovely prompts & surprises. Perfect YOU time to get cosy & open those notebooks. All levels welcome! 🏡🥄 🍽 ABOUT THE POET Laurie Bolger is an acclaimed English poet, stand-up and presenter based in London. She was shortlisted for Young Poet Laureate of London in 2014 and won the 2023 International Book & Pamphlet Competition judged by Hannah Lowe. Bolger tours her writing, including her debut pamphlet collection 'Makeover, Spin and Box Rooms', and has performed at prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Old Vic Theatre, and St Paul's Cathedral.

WORKSHOP THE SONNET: INSIDE & OUTSIDE FORM Anthony Joseph LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Saturday - 10:00am PRICE £24.50 / £18.50 Book Tickets Part of the sonnet’s resilience lies in its somewhat metaphysical debt to structures found universally in nature and human experience. Taking this as a starting point, this workshop explores the ways in which poets can find a personal affinity with the sonnet. Through reading and group exercises poets will uncover ways in which the rigidity of the sonnet can also be intimate, resonating with their individual voices. Everyone welcome to this inspiring workshop from a TS Eliot Prize-winning poet. ABOUT THE POET Dr Anthony Joseph F.R.S.L. is an award winning Trinidad-born poet, novelist, academic and musician. He is the author of five poetry collections and three novels. His 2018 novel Kitch: A Fictional Biography of a Calypso Icon was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Fiction. His most recent fiction publication is the experimental novel The Frequency of Magic . In 2019, he was awarded a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship. As a musician, he has released eight critically acclaimed albums, and in 2020 received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Composers Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Kings College, London. His 2022 collection Sonnets for Albert won the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry 2022 and the OCM BOCAS Prize for Caribbean Poetry.

WORKSHOP LYRIC SHAME Susannah Dickey LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Friday - 3:30pm PRICE £24.50 / £18.50 Book Tickets Shame has always had the potential to shape the lyric tradition, to produce poems more ambitious and daring for their uncertainty of self. “My hunch is that there’s something about working in poetry (above all in lyric writing) which is inherently bound up with shame. Indeed, shame may act as a driving ‘motor’ of lyric.” Denise Riley Over the course of the 20th century, lyric poetry underwent a kind of crisis of identity, sparked by the American academy’s incremental disdain for what were termed ‘epiphany poems’. As a consequence of this scathing diagnosis, much lyric poetry became more self-aware, more self-critical, more ashamed of itself. That said, for those poets who have spent their careers writing on the fringes, shame was not a new feature, for shame has always had the potential to shape the lyric tradition, to produce poems more ambitious and daring for their uncertainty of self. At a historical moment in which we have much to feel ashamed of, it is vital that poetry reflect the messy contradictions of existence. In this workshop, writers will read and discuss some of the poems most emblematic of the lyric shame movement, including work by Sylvia Plath, Claudia Rankine, Maggie Nelson, and Robert Hass. There will also be writing exercises designed to harness negative affect in ways that can render the resulting poems more powerful.

WORKSHOP WHICHING AND PITCHING The Emma Press LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Sunday 4pm PRICE £24.50 / £18.50 Book Tickets Putting together your pamphlet for submission. 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 .

< Back This ambitious and experimental workshop channels choreographer and dance theorist Rudolf Laban’s techniques. Friday - 4pm TURNING MOVEMENT INTO POETRY Hippodrome Theatre, Hurst Street, Birmingham, UK According to Laban, human beings move not only from place to place but also from mood to mood so his ideas can apply to the composition of embodied poetry as much as they can to choreographed movement. Laban also encouraged physical, emotional, sensual and intellectual integration which, in the workshop, will translate as poetic rhythms that can be understood and experienced by the body in motion. To this end, participants will be led through a process of writing poetry inspired by Laban’s mapping system of purposeful movement in order to write impactful poetry. ABOUT THE POET Dzifa Benson, who was born in London to Ghanaian parents and grew up in Ghana, Nigeria and Togo and is now based in London, is an award-winning artist in multiple media . Literature is her primary mode for making things but she also uses art, science, technology, the body and ritual to tell stories. She explores all this through poetry, prose, theatre, libretto, performance, curation, video, installation, immersive technologies, essays, criticism and teaching. She embraces collaboration and participation at the heart of what she does and is really interested in research-led, site-specific work that subverts the use of existing spaces. Before all this, she worked as a parliamentary assistant for a member of parliament for seven years. WORKSHOP £24.50 / £18.50 Friday - 4pm Book Tickets

SPOKEN WORD VERVE CLOSING GALA WITH OPEN MIC Hosted by Sam J Grudgings LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Sunday 4:30pm PRICE £8 / £6 Book Tickets Book Stream WE KNOW how to host a lively, fun and uplifting OPEN MIC event at VERVE! What better way to wrap up the festival that to give everyone a shot at gracing the VERVE stage and letting us hear their best poem? Hosted by Sam J Grudgings, the loudest most nurturing host around and with two massively brilliant feature poets in rising poetry star Courtney Conrad and lively Derby poet Jamie Thrasivoulou, you know this will be an event to remember that just might get you through the year until we're back in Feburary 2026!

POETRY LAUNCHING THE NEW CARTHAGINIANS Nick Makoha LOCATION BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME ABOUT THE EVENT TIME Sunday - 1pm PRICE £8 / £6 Book Tickets Book Stream We are thrilled to have exclusive early copies of this wonderful new title. One of the most exciting publications of 2025 will be Nick Makoha's The New Carthaginians (Penguin, Feb 28th 2025). We are thrilled to have exclusive early copies of this wonderful new title and to feature an extended reading from Nick along with a short interview to discover more about this wonderful book! The interview will be conduncted by Isabelle Baafi whose own debut full collection, Chaotic Good, comes out from Faber this year! Concerned throughout with flight and falling, the sample and the loop, The New Carthaginians is a poetry collection of staggering originality: a work by an author at the height of his powers, in which the familiar Western canons of art, history and philosophy are prised apart and reassembled in a new configuration. ‘In this book, Nick Makoha has found an otherworldly, visionary voice and diction that arrest you from the first page and never let you go.’ Jason Allen-Paisant. Don't miss this thrilling and unique event.

We love to hear from poets of all genres. Join our poetry community via our newsletter for Online Poetry Workshops, annual Poetry Festival Line-Up, and poetry development opportunities. HELLO Contact Us See below for more information on volunteering, press, and sponsorship. If you have a proposal for the festival, get in touch via the form below. PRESS ENQUIRIES Get in touch with Stuart, our festival director for any press or media enquiries. We are happy to collaborate and are always looking to build relationships with content creators, editors, zines, publications, newsletters and independent writers. Mail PRESS ENQUIRIES mail@vervepoetryfestival.com VOLUNTEER WITH US Every year, Verve recruits a tightly knit group of volunteers who help us run the show. The opportunity is for absolutely everyone, whether you have volunteering experience or not; whether you spend 18/24 hours a day reading poetry or have only read one poem on the back of a napkin in cafe! It’s a great opportunity if you are looking to build a career in the arts, make new friends or explore something new. Mail VOLUNTEERING hayley@vervepoetryfestival.com REACH OUT First Name Last Name Email Message Send Thanks for submitting! JOIN OUR MAILING LIST