Poetry Party
Emily Barker, Bob Beagrie, Harry Man, JLM Morton, Caleb Parkin, Lalah-Simone Springer
Join us for a unique night of wild and restless joy with a brilliant line-up of some of the most exciting cross-genre poets working in the UK – Emily Barker, Bob Beagrie, Harry Man, JLM Morton, Caleb Parkin and Lalah-Simone Springer.
A set of incendiary readings will fire the dancefloor of your imagination, followed by actual dancing* and post-poetry music from DJ Lebkin.
Poetry Party promises to be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser replete with lyrical club bangers, and intrepid journeys through hidden histories, queer ecologies and guilty pleasures.
*optional but strongly encouraged.
Emily Barker, a singer-songwriter from Bridgetown, Western Australia, is best known as the writer/performer of the theme to BBC crime drama Wallander. After numerous critically acclaimed albums, she has now turned her hand to poetry. Her poems have been short- and longlisted in numerous competitions and published in The London Magazine, Magma, Poetry Ireland Review, Hecate Journal, and many more. Her debut pamphlet Where the Black Swans Swim is out now with Broken Sleep Books.
Bob Beagrie (PhD) lives in Middlesbrough and has published fourteen collections of poetry, most recently: Romanceros (Drunk Muse Press, 2024), Kō (Black Light Engine Room Press, 2023), Eftwyrd (Smokestack Books, 2023), The Last Almanac (Yaffle Press, 2023). When We Wake We Think We’re Whalers from Eden (Stairwell Books, 2021). His work has appeared in numerous international anthologies, journals and magazines. He also writes short stories and plays.
Harry Man’s Lift (Tall Lighthouse, 2014) won the UNESCO Bridges of Struga Award. His second pamphlet, Finders Keepers, was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. His co-collection, authored with Endre Ruset, Deretter (‘Thereafter’, Flamme Forlag, 2021) won the Stephen Spender Prize. He was shortlisted for Tees Valley Artist of the Year 2024. His first collection Popular Song (2024) is published by Nine Arches Press. He lives in County Durham.
Winner of the Laurie Lee and Geoffrey Dearmer prizes, JLM Morton’s work has been published in Poetry Review, Rialto and elsewhere. Her first collection, Red Handed, is out with Broken Sleep (2024). She’s currently poet in residence at Sladebank Woods, a semi-urban woodland sandwiched between a housing estate and the Cotswold hills.
Caleb Parkin, Bristol City Poet 2020-22, has had poems in The Guardian, The Rialto, The Poetry Review and was guest poet on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please. He has three pamphlets, his debut collection, This Fruiting Body (Nine Arches) was longlisted for the Laurel Prize and second collection, Mingle, is due in October 2024.
Lalah-Simone Springer is a poet and writer from Dagenham, Essex (she/they). Lalah’s debut poetry collection, An Aviary of Common Birds, was published by Broken Sleep Books in August 2023. In 2023 they also released their collaborative spoken word album, Cyclical Music. Lalah was long-listed for the Merky New Writers Prize in 2021 and has been published on the ANTHEMS podcast, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Onyx Magazine and more.