VERVE 2022 LINE-UP
16th – 20th February 2022
In-person Tickets & Passes
Online-Only Tickets & Pass
FESTIVAL PASS
The best value way to get the most out of Verve Poetry Festival
access to all events except workshops
access to all livestreamed events
access to recordings of non-streamed events
DAY PASSES
Passes for Saturday & Sunday
access to all events on that day
access to all livestreamed events on that day
access to recordings of all non-streamed events
ONLINE PASS
Access to our whole Digital Festival
access to all livestreamed events
access to recordings of all non-streamed events
Want to look back on previous years? Check out our Line-up Archive here.
Download the VERVE 2022 Programme PDF
February 2022
Feb
16
16
February
2022
VERVE Birmingham Schools Slam Final: Hosted by Spoz Poet and Feat. Former Birmingham Poet Laureate Roy McFarlane
Patrick Studio,
7:00pm – 9:00pm Opening #VERVE2022 is our first Birmingham Schools Slam Final! We invited twelve local Primary Schools to bring a team of their best poets to this exciting new […]
£5.00
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Feb
17
17
February
2022
Dancing to Music You Hate – and other poets and poems, hosted by Jasmine Gardosi
Patrick Studio,
7:30pm – 10:00pm Poetry. Beatbox. Celtic dubstep. Dancing To Music you Hate is Jasmine Gardosi’s debut show about gender identity, coming to terms with queerness, and finding the words. Prepare […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2022
Scarlett Ward Workshop: Space & space – the infinity of a blank page
Workshop Room 1,
1:00pm – 3:00pm How can we as poets approach the examination of ‘Space,’ as in the galactic, and ‘space’ which occupies the small gaps or silences in between the spoken […]
£12.50 – £16.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2022
Jasmine Gardosi Workshop: ‘Performing your poetry with Jasmine Gardosi’
Workshop Room 1,
3:30pm – 5:30pm Jasmine will take you through a variety of exercises to help you bring out the best in your poems through performance. No two poets perform the same, […]
£12.50 – £16.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2022
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan Workshop: Writing as Resistance
Workshop Room 2,
4:00pm – 6:00pm In this time of worldwide violence, oppression, capitalism, racism, misogyny, militarism and more, resistance feels urgent and necessary, but it can also be difficult and overwhelming to […]
£12.50 – £16.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2022
FRIDAY NIGHT HEADLINE EVENT: Nina Mingya Powles, Jack Underwood, Phoebe Stuckes
Patrick Studio,
6:30pm – 8:00pm Our regular Friday evening poetry headline event features three incredible contemporary UK poets. Nina Mingya Powles’ debut collection, Magnolia (Nine Arches Press, 2019) was shortlisted for the […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
18
18
February
2022
Pen-Ting VERVE Special feat: Suhaiymah Manzoor Khan & Otis Mensah and hosted by The Repeat Beat Poet.
Patrick Studio,
8:30pm – 10:30pm The UK’s freshest hip hop & poetry night is coming to Birmingham and featuring Suhaiymah Manzoor Khan & Otis Mensah! Join us as Pen-Ting brings you the […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Liz Berry Workshop: The Poetry of Amulets
Workshop Room 1,
9:30am – 11:30am “To love is the great amulet that makes this world a garden.” – Robert Louis Stevenson. How might we use poems – those we love and those […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Natalie Linh Bolderston Workshop: Fragmentation and Reconstruction
Workshop Room 2,
10:00am – 12:00pm Using the poems she entered for the 2020 Women Poets’ Prize as a base, Natalie Linh Bolderston will provide an insight into her writing process and how […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Poetry Society Young Poets Takeover: Feat Dale Booton, Aliyah Begum & Tom Rowe, plus young person’s open mic!
Patrick Studio,
11:00am – 12:10am The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Takeovers are a space for up-and-coming young poets and performers to meet and share their work on stage. This Takeover will be […]
Free
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Jo Bell Workshop: Straight To The Point
Workshop Room 1,
12:00pm – 2:00pm In an intensive, lively two-hour session, poetry dynamo Jo Bell (Kith, How To Be A Poet) presents surefire techniques to correct common weaknesses in poetry. Make your […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Fiona Benson Workshop: Magical Thinking
Workshop Room 2,
12:30pm – 2:30pm In this workshop we will delve into our own personal treasure troves of magical thinking – excavating superstitions and superstitious sayings, folk tales that are meaningful to […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Third Verve Poetry Performance Lecture – Stephanie Sy-Quia: Exiled Texts and Fractured Anecdotal Histories.
Patrick Studio,
12:30pm – 1:25pm In this year’s Performance-Lecture, Stephanie Sy-Quia will use poetry to think through mixed race identity, female embodiment, and how ‘structures of faith’ abide in contemporary life – […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Poet On A Podium 1: Sophie Sparham
Podium Event Space,
1:35pm – 1:50pm Sophie Sparham’s incedible second collection, The Man Who Ate 50,000 Weetabix (Verve Poetry Press, 2021) cemented her status as a poet who tells it as she sees […]
£3.00
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
One-off (not) Online Indie Poetry Press Festival VERVE Special
Patrick Studio,
2:00pm – 3:25pm Jake Wild Hall founded digital festival OOIPP in 2021 with the aim of showcasing work from the best indie publishers from across the UK. We loved it […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Jack Underwood Workshop: Not Understanding Poetry
Workshop Room 1,
2:30pm – 4:30pm Who has ever fallen in love with a poem because they understood it? Poetry is often spoken about as something inaccessible, obscure, difficult to understand, or nonsensical, […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Leo Boix Poetry Translation Workshop
Workshop Room 2,
3:00pm – 5:00pm Join poet and translator Leo Boix for a creative translation workshop on the Spanish poetry of Argentinian writer Diana Bellessi. During the session you will work as […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Poet On A Podium 2: Rushika Wick
Podium Event Space,
3:35pm – 3:50pm Join Forwards highly commended poet Rushika Wick for an intimate and inspiring reading from her debut full collection, Afterlife as Trash, which was published in March this […]
£3.00
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
The Coventry and Beirut Youthful Cities Exchange present Transnational Lag Express
Patrick Studio,
4:00pm – 5:00pm Twelve young writers and artists embark on a fictional train ride from Coventry to Beirut (and back again!) exploring personal and collective journeys through poetry, dance, spoken […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
SATURDAY NIGHT HEADLINE EVENT: Fiona Benson, Kim Moore, Parwana Fayyaz, Host Jo Bell
Patrick Studio,
5:30pm – 6:55pm Our regular Saturday evening poetry headline is always a festival highlight. This year we feature three incredible poets who are contributing ground breaking new work to […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
Poet On A Podium 3: Beth Calverley
Podium Event Space,
7:05pm – 7:20pm You’ll see Beth Calverley with her Poetry Machine in our VERVE Poetry Fayre this year. Now hear her poetry! Beth will be reading from her debut collection, […]
£3.00
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Feb
19
19
February
2022
That’s What We Said VERVE Special: Hosted by Bridget Hart
Patrick Studio,
7:30pm – 9:30pm For Books’ Sake presents: That’s What We Said, a queer feminist poetry night led by non-binary and women performers. We aim to curate live poetry events that […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Jo Flynn / For Books’ Sake Workshop: Writing your Intuition
Workshop Room 1,
10:00am – 12:00pm Join For Books’ Sake for a creative writing workshop inspired by intuition, meditation and tarot. We’ll be using imagery and poetry to get writing with confidence, although […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Kostya Tsolakis Workshop: Let’s Get Classical! Responding to Greek and Roman Poetry
Workshop Room 2,
10:30am – 12:30pm Love Sappho, Ovid and Catullus? So does Kostya Tsolakis! In this workshop, Kostya – editor of harana poetry, the online magazine for poets writing in English as […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
The VERVE Poetry Festival Competition Event: Beginnings, hosted by Caroline Bird
Patrick Studio,
11:00am – 12:25pm The VERVE Competition on the Theme of Beginnings was open for entries in the Summer of 2021, and judged by the wonderful Caroline Bird. This FREE to […]
Free
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Kim Moore Workshop: One Train May Hide Another Train
Workshop Room 1,
12:30pm – 2:30pm Taking inspiration from Kenneth Koch’s poem of the same name – during this workshop we will examine hidden-ness, misdirection and disappearing in poetry. We will look at […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Poet On A Podium 4: Kathryn O’Driscoll
Podium Event Space,
12:35pm – 12:50pm The UK’s reigning Slam Champion, Kathryn O’Driscoll delights us with poems from her debut poetry collection, Cliff Notes, (Verve Poetry Press, 2022) which perfectly straddles page and […]
£3.00
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Pascale Petit Workshop: The New Nature Poetry
Workshop Room 2,
1:00pm – 3:00pm Climate change is urgent and poets are seeking new approaches to nature writing, ways which are not always white-centric. We can no longer reliably portray the natural […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Kat Lyons presents excerpts from Dry Season
Patrick Studio,
1:00pm – 2:00pm Menopause? Seriously? WTF? Join Kat for a performance of poetry from their debut collection from Verve Poetry Press and low-tech excerpts from Dry Season to launch the […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Diana Bellessi & Leo Boix: To Love A Woman / Amar a una mujer
Patrick Studio,
2:30pm – 3:55pm Join Argentinian poet Diana Bellessi and translator Leo Boix to celebrate the publication of To Love A Woman with Poetry Translation Centre. Bellessi is a groundbreaking […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Caroline Bird Workshop: The ‘I’ in Poetry
Workshop Room 1,
3:00pm – 5:00pm “I am not the “I” in my poems. “I” is the net I try to pull me in with.” – Toi Derricotte. Who are you? Who […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Kat Lyons Workshop: Reconnecting With The Body
Workshop Room 2,
3:30pm – 5:30pm Our bodies are often a site of conflict and discontent. This creative writing workshop will focus on nurturing positive re/connection and bringing the corporeal into the […]
£16.50 – £22.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Poet On A Podium 5: Sean Wai Keung
Podium Event Space,
4:05pm – 4:20pm Join Glasgow based Sean Wai Keung for a short but enthralling reading in our cosy Podium Event Space. Sean’s debut full collection, Sikfan Glaschu, was published in […]
£3.00
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Malika’s Poetry Kitchen Anthology Party, hosted by Bohdan Piasecki
Patrick Studio,
4:30pm – 6:30pm In 2001, Malika Booker and Roger Robinson were young, black poets being overlooked by the poetry establishment, but serious about their work and dedicated to their craft. […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
Poet On A Podium 6: Elaine Beckett
Podium Event Space,
6:35pm – 6:50pm Faber pamphleteer Elaine will read from her astonishing debut full collection Sea Creature Regrows Entire Body (Verve Poetry Press, 2021) in our last cosy Podium event […]
£3.00
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Feb
20
20
February
2022
SUNDAY NIGHT HEADLINE EVENT: Pascale Petit, Ian Duhig & Rachel Long
Patrick Studio,
7:00pm – 8:30pm Our final headline event of the weekend brings three vital poets together to read and talk about their work. Pascale Petit’s eighth collection, Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe Books, […]
£4.50 – £6.50
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