I didn’t manage to get to Verve last year, but read in 2017 in the Nine Arches showcase alongside Robert Peake, Roy McFarlane and Isobel Dixon, so am really excited about going in February. The line-up is amazing and I bought a festival pass for £35 (£25 concessions) so am all prepared for a fantastic long weekend. Tickets for individual events start at £6 (£4 concessions) and there’s a whole array of poets doing readings for the price of a coffee and cake. For this you get to hear Andrew McMillan on Thursday along with an open mic slots, Carrie Etter, Amy Key and Jane Yeh on Friday and Overhear Walking Tours are also running throughout the festival.
Recently I saw Theresa Lola perform and am really looking forward to hearing her along with Victoria Adukwei Blley, Rachel Long and Momtaza Mehri on the Saturday afternoon.
Other highlights for me on the Saturday include Bernadine Evaristo’s workshop exploring narrative poetry and verse fiction which I need to book. I am currently writing a series of dialogue poems and this will be a perfect practical writing workshop for me. Other workshops on Saturday are being run by Carrie Etter, YoniVerse (a spoken word collective of South Asian womxn), Anthony Anazagorou; for those of you looking to get published Burning Eye Books are running a workshop with editors Bridget Hart and Clive Birnie taking the lead.
Still on Saturday I hope to see Sumita Chakraborty, Vahni Capildeo and Sophie Collins. Then supper and a glass of wine to toast the day, I think!
Sunday will also be a super packed day of readings for me: Proletarian Poetry Showcase, Jacob Sam-La Rose, Alison Brackenbury and Moniza Alvi. If workshops are more your bag Sabotage Reviews are running a Review Writing Workshop, there’s workshops by Liz Berry and Vahni Capildeo too. I’ll round off the day with Funkenteleky – music and poetry. I’ve just been signed up to read at The Skep, another music and poetry festival – so really want to check this out.
Then the next day train home…. Sleep.
Link to tickets HERE
The Poetry Shed 
I look forward to meeting you at Verve, Abegail. Best wishes, Peter
Yep – and I managed to get here – I am now an Andrew McMillan fan.. great events so far