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 for an hour of explosive dubstep bass-lines and soaring folk violin which blow apart the boundaries of gender and musical genre alike. Watch Jasmine converse, […]
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 Forward Prize for Best First Book of Poetry in 2020. Phoebe Stuckes, four times winner of the Foyles Young Poets Award, released her debut collection, […]
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 best of UK-based poetry and hip hop with vibes higher than London rent and tastier bars than the Cadbury factory, all wrapped up in a […]
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 – exploring nation states, heteronormative family ideals, and museums as shrines to colonialism. Through a diverse range of poetic and cultural touchpoints – including George Herbert's […]
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 so much, we asked them to come and be in our physical space! This VERVE special event will feature Bad Betty Press, The Poetry Business […]
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 word, live performance and video. Created in partnership with Coventry City of Culture, Youthful Cities, the British Council and originally performed at the BBC’s Contains […]
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 the contemporary UK poetry scene. Fiona Benson's third collection, Ephemeron (Jonathan Cape, 2022) is brand new for VERVE 2022. Her previous collection, Vertigo & Ghost, […]
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 celebrate the power of queer identities, resilience and joy. Join us for a long-overdue party at VERVE this year, with very special guests Rosie Garland, […]
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 attend event will feature all the winners and commended poets, as well as four commissioned poets, who will read their poems on our subject and […]
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 show’s UK tour. Expect honest explorations of perimenopausal chaos and musings on societal ideas of age and gender, as well as poems about love, grief […]
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 writer who is been credited as the godmother of lesbian poetry in Latin America. Over the decades she has championed feminist and LGBTQI+ issues and […]
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. They invited other poets to join them around Malika’s kitchen table in Brixton every Friday night to inspire and encourage each other, share ideas and […]
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, 2020), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year. A poem from the book won the Keats-Shelley Prize. Her seventh […]
Meet the poets shortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize in this unique panel event hosted by Jackie Kay, acclaimed poet and author and one of this year’s judging panel. Known for celebrating writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, this year the Prize has expanded to celebrate 15 authors, 5 in each genre. The panellists […]
Introducing the festival special of our quarterly VERVE Poetry Night, with all its usual fun, energy and bombast, its plentiful featured poets and its numerous open mic slots.Joining regular host Sam J Grudgings are poetry powerhouses, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, Muneera Pilgrim, Kirsty Taylor and Malaika Kegode. And this wouldn’t be a special without the special addition […]
Our regular Friday evening poetry headline event features three incredible contempory poets. Edinburgh born US based Jay Gao’s debut full collection Imperium (Carcanet, 2022) follows his New Poetry Prize-winning pamphlet Katabsis. Will Harris’ debut collection RENDANG (Granta, 2020) won the Forward First Book Award and his follow-up Brother Poem will be available to purchase early […]
This year we are having our first poetry film night at VERVE! What's better than sitting in the dark with your feet up being drawn into the visual masterpieces that await you as a result of our December 2022 open call? We can't wait for this new event at VERVE and hope you will join […]
What do you know about Basquiat? What do you know about Icarus? What do you know about the Entebbe hijacking in 1976? In this year’s Performance-Lecture, Nick Makoha fuses these seemingly disparate sources and events into poems in a new piece based around his recent work A Low-Pressure System, which won the Ivan Juritz Prize. […]
What would a poetry magazine look like if it was put on a stage? Well, this year we have invited the wonderful Harana Poetry (the online magazine for poets writing in English as a second or parallel language). Magazine editor Kostya Tsolakis has put together an exciting event involving readings, discussions about translation, an editorial […]
We’re proud to bring you the first of what will be an annual event at VERVE - our new Long Poem Event, which will feature one of our favourite poets performing new longer work - one poet alone on a stage reading one long poem. Wayne Holloway-Smith (Alarum, 2017 & Love Minus Love, 2020 both […]
This year’s Saturday evening headline features three incredible poets, all giants in their way on the contemporary UK poetry scene. We’re thrilled to welcome Queen’s gold medalist for poetry Imtiaz Dharker back to VERVE for the first time since 2018. Joining her will be Helen Mort, whose latest collection, The illustrated Woman, was short-listed for […]
Join award-winning poet Kevin P. Gilday for a night of riotous entertainment from North of the border. Kevin has curated a Caledonian cabaret of Scottish delights featuring poetry, comedy and music from some of the country’s most talented contemporary acts. The show will see performances from powerhouse poet Victoria McNulty, futuristic rapper Texture, comedian Stuart […]
The Verve Competition on the Theme of Protest opened for entries from Nov 14 2022 to Jan 2 2023, judged by the wonderful Kim Moore. This FREE to attend event will feature all the winners and commended poets, as well as four commissioned poets, who will read their poems on our subject and help launch […]
Hear poets from the acclaimed 100 Queer Poems (Vintage, 2022) anthology, including editors Andrew McMillan and Mary Jean Chan read their own and other work from this important work! Featuring Jay Gao, Rachel Mann, Golnoosh Nour & Gregory Woods in the flesh, as well as Chen Chen appearing on zoom!
Hailed as a ‘lyrical genius’ by Benjamin Zephaniah, Imogen Stirling’s writing crackles on and off the page. This award-winning performance poet teams up with composer and multi-media artist Sonia Killman, to present Love The Sinner: a modern retelling of the seven deadly sins. At once a mirror and rallying cry, the performance sees a loose […]
Bristol Based Burning Eye Books are the UK's top indie publisher of performance poetry. Returning for their third VERVE showcase, we are delighted to welcome Burning Eye editors Bridget Hart and Clive Birnie to introduce four poets whose latest books were published in Autumn / Winter 2022 - some of the best voices on the […]
Our final headline event of the weekend brings three wonderful poets together to read and talk about their work. Birmingham born Zaffar Kunial's second collection England's Green (Faber, 2022) has been short-listed for the TS Eliot Prize and follows his prize-winning debut collection Us (Faber, 2018). Brummie resident Gregory Leadbetter's second collection, Maskwork (Nine Arches, […]