Blog
Can’t wait until February? Find out what we’re up to…
Blog
Can’t wait until February? Find out what we’re up to…
Verve Poetry Festival Competition 2022: Everything You Need to Know
Entries have been coming in fast and fabulous for the fifth edition of the Verve Poetry Festival Competition—and there’s still time to get your poetry in! Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know before entering.
We’re taking single poems on the theme ‘Beginnings’ until midnight on 30th September, so get to writing/editing/workshopping!
Guess Who’s Back?
Hello poetry people! Wow, have we waited a while to say that again. After taking a break in 2021 we are wildly excited (and relieved) to announce that Verve Poetry Festival will be returning with a bang in February 2022 — we have a lot to catch up on. You'd best...
Verve Poetry Competition 2020: DIVERSITY
Before you knew you missed us, Verve are back with the details of a brand new - and slightly earlier - poetry competition ahead of our fourth (fourth!) festival coming February 2020. The Verve Poetry Competition has been one of the most...
Introducing… Verve Friendship Scheme!
Do you love Verve Poetry Festival? Do you want to get your hands on festival & workshop tickets before anyone else? Do you want a shiny new pin badge?? If you answered yes to any of the above then it sounds like we should be friends! Get ready for Verve's new...
UniSlam x Verve
UniSlam founder and Verve poet Toby Campion wrote a guest blog about UniSlam, its relationship with Birmingham and what you can look forward to at Verve Poetry Festival. UniSlam is the UK National University Poetry Slam & Summit, bringing together teams of...
Guest Blog #6: Peter Raynard on Proletarian Poetry
Have you heard the poem about the refugee, the postman, the bookie, the barmaid, brass band, homeless person, war hero grandfather, suffragette grandmother, the footballer, and the capitalist? Well you will if you come along to...
Guest Blog #5: Will Barrett (Poetry School) on ‘The First Verve Annual Performance Lecture’
Verve Poetry Festival is doing something it has never done before: a lecture. More specifically: a performance lecture, produced in association with The Poetry School (where I currently work). So what exactly is the inaugural Verve Performance Lecture, and...
The World’s Smallest Poetry Festival
Whilst we at Verve love putting on some of the finest poets in the world, in one of the greatest cities on the planet, we are also very partial to humouring people. The more studious of you may recall last year's 'Verve is Fake' debacle: where anonymous...
Guest Blog #4: Bridget Hart (Burning Eye Books) on their ‘Getting Published Workshop’
Burning Eye Books is the biggest publisher of UK spoken word and performance poetry. Clive first came up with the crazy notion of putting it on the page back in 2011 at an Ash Dickinson gig. From there, this backroom press has produced 150 poetry...
GUEST BLOG #3: Jack Crowe on ‘Funkenteleky’
In late 2016, David Ferris (organ-playing genius) and I (lost poet) concluded it’d be awesome if Birmingham’s equally thriving Poetry and Jazz scenes got together. We messaged peeps, made a sexy banner, and for reasons that are yours to discover, dear blog...
GUEST BLOG #2: Tom Peel on ‘Overhear’ and poetry walking tours
Hello! What a pleasure to feature as a guest blogger for Verve! I’m going to take this opportunity to tell you all about Overhear. Overhear is about location and creative content. It uses mobile technology to link the two and generate a...
Verve Poetry Festival 2019 Competition Winners Announced
We're really excited to announce, after months of deliberation, that the winners of the 2019 Verve Poetry Festival competition, on the theme of 'community', are finally decided. The three winning poets will appear at the competition event on the Saturday...