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 – Katie Ailes - Yousef Alawi - Rachael Allen – Deborah Alma - Moniza Alvi - Anthony Anaxagorou – Romalyn Ante – Raymond Antrobus - Sophia Argyris – Mona Arshi - Neil Astley – Isabelle Baafi – Casey Bailey - Debmalya Bandyopadhyay – Khairani Barokka - Elaine Beckett – Jo Bell - Dzifa Benson - Fiona Benson – Liz Berry - Caroline Bird - Hera Lindsay Bird – Leo Boix – Natalie Linh Bolderston - Laurie Bolger - Helen Bowell – Alison Brackenbury – Nia Broomhall - Judy Brown – Jane Burn - Hannah Burrows - Troy Cabida – Helen Calcutt - Anthony Vahni Capildeo - Roberto Salvador Cenciarelli – Sumita Chakraborty - Mary Jean Chan – Chen Chen – Tim Tim Cheng - Kayo Chingonye – Jenna Clake - Courtney Conrad - Jack Cooper - Hannah Copley - Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana - Fred D’Aguiar – Rishi Dastidar – Olga Dermott-Bond - Imtiaz Dharker – Susannah Dickey – Elle Dillon-Reams - Tishani Doshi – Betty Doyle - Ella Duffy - Sasha Dugdale – Ian Duhig – Lily Dyu - Jonathan Edwards – P. A. Erskine - Giovanni Esposito - Carrie Etter – Kit Fan – Louise Fazackerley - Linda France - Suzannah Evans Furnass - Jay Gao - Toria Garbutt – Jasmine Gardosi - Elizabeth Gibson - Rebecca Goss – Will Harris - Roma Havers – Maz Hedgehog - Gustav Parker Hibbett - Alice Hiller – Sarah Howe – Ian Humphreys - Anthony Joseph – Gayathiri Kamalakanthan - Jaspreet Kaur - Lisa Kelly - Luke Kennard – Victoria Kennefick - Sean Wai Keung – Suhaiymah Manzour-Khan - Prerana Kumar - Vanessa Lampert - Wendelin Law - Gregory Leadbetter – Mukahang Limbu - Theresa Lola – Rachel Long – Marjorie Lotfi – Hannah Lowe – Rona Luo – Aoife Lyall - Nick Makoha – Rachel Mann - Roy McFarlane - Andrew McMillan – Cynthia Miller - Kim Moore – Helen Mort - Daljit Nagra – Katrina Naomi – Golnoosh Nour - Padraig O Tuama – Ruth Padel - Alvin Pang – Astra Papachristodoulou - Sandeep Parmar - Pascale Petit – Heather Phillipson – Muneera Pilgrim - Kathy Pimlott – Alycia Pirmohamed - Nina Mingya Powles – Ilisha Thiru Purcell – Emma Purshouse - Helen Quah – Shivanee Ramlochan - Vidyan Ravinthiran – Yvonne Reddick - Deryn Rees-Jones – Ruby Robinson – Jacqueline Saphra - Denise Saul – Peter Scalpello - Richard Scott – Nicole Sealey - Hannah Silva – Phoebe Stuckes – Hannah Sullivan - Ellora Sutton – Bradley Taylor - Joelle Taylor – Jessica Traynor - Jennifer Lee Tsai – Kostya Tsolakis – Max Wallis - Rupinder Kaur Waraich - Julia Webb - Natalie Whittaker – Rushika Wick - Antosh Wojcik - Jennifer Wong – Gregory Woods - Karen McCarthy Woolf – Luke Wright – Jane Yeh – Eric Yip – Fathima Zahra

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