THE BLURB:

VERVACEOUS isn’t a word, but it should be. What better way to describe the poetry, the feel, the community that has sprung up over the last ten years in Birmingham UK around VERVE Poetry Festival?

Celebrating 10 years of roof-shaking spoken word sets, readings and workshops by award-winning poets, boundary-pushing poetry/theatre performances, lively children’s events, competitions and open mics in a welcoming, open-hearted and celebratory environment – this anthology contains brand new poems and old favourites from poets who’ve held us and enthralled us at the festival in the last decade. And what a fine list of poets they make – a veritable who’s who of contemporary UK poetry with the odd international poet thrown in for good measure.

VERVACEOUS isn’t a word. But what else could you call this era defining anthology of astonishing contemporary poetry!? Celebrate with us! Dive in! This book, like our festival, has something for everyone!

Full list of poets included so far (A-Z): Amy Acre – Sanah Ahsan - Rachael Allen – Deborah Alma - Moniza Alvi - Anthony Anaxagorou – Romalyn Ante – Sophia Argyris - Neil Astley – Isabelle Baafi – Debmalya Bandyopadhyay – Khairani Barokka - Elaine Beckett – Fiona Benson - Caroline Bird - Hera Lindsay Bird – Leo Boix – Laurie Bolger - Helen Bowell – Alison Brackenbury - Anthony Vahni Capildeo - Roberto Salvador Cenciarelli - Mary Jean Chan – Chen Chen – Tim Tim Cheng - Kayo Chingonye – Jack Cooper - Hannah Copley - Fred D’Aguiar – Rishi Dastidar - Imtiaz Dharker – Tishani Doshi - Sasha Dugdale – Ian Duhig – Lily Dyu - Jonathan Edwards - Carrie Etter – Kit Fan – Louise Fazackerley - Linda France - Toria Garbutt - Jay Gao – Elizabeth Gibson - Rebecca Goss – Will Harris - Roma Havers - Alice Hiller - Anthony Joseph – Gayathiri Kamalakanthan - Jaspreet Kaur - Lisa Kelly - Luke Kennard – Sean Wai Keung – Prerana Kumar - Vanessa Lampert - Gregory Leadbetter – Mukahang Limbu - Theresa Lola – Rachel Long – Marjorie Lotfi – Hannah Lowe – Rona Luo - Nick Makoha – Rachel Mann - Roy McFarlane - Andrew McMillan – Cynthia Miller - Kim Moore – Helen Mort - Daljit Nagra – Katrina Naomi - Padraig O Tuama – Ruth Padel - Alvin Pang – Sandeep Parmar - Pascale Petit – Heather Phillipson – Kathy Pimlott – Helen Quah - Vidyan Ravinthiran – Deryn Rees-Jones – Ruby Robinson – Jacqueline Saphra - Denise Saul – Richard Scott - Hannah Silva – Phoebe Stuckes – Ellora Sutton – Bradley Taylor - Joelle Taylor – Jennifer Lee Tsai – Natalie Whittaker - Jennifer Wong – Gregory Woods - Karen McCarthy Woolf – Luke Wright – Jane Yeh – Eric Yip

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Pub: 03/10/2026, Hardback, 240 pages, 150 poems, 216 x 138mm