Opening #VERVE2023 is our second Birmingam Schools Slam Final! We’ve invited fifteen local Primary Schools to bring a team of their best poets to this exciting competition hosted and facilitated […]

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. […]

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 […]

‘Why not say what happened?’ – Robert Lowell Drawing on themes from her next collection, Helen’s workshop will encourage you to write honestly from life’s experiences, and see them as […]

Join Suhaiymah in a workshop where we will consider the power of writing as resistance. In this time of worldwide violence and oppression as the consequences of capitalism, racism, misogyny, […]

Helen Mort's latest collection The Illustrated Woman (2022) uses the metaphor of tattooing to explore the agency we have over our bodies and the difference between how we want to […]

A communal workshop playing with - and stretching - the links between objects, words and sounds, in which we'll share stories, listen closely to things, and stay as close as […]

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 […]

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 […]

It’s easy to get bogged down in metaphors and punctuation, poetic form and technique. So in this workshop with Helen Mort, we’ll simply be having fun with poetry. Helen will […]

What do we talk about when we talk about mothers? How does one begin to articulate one's closeness or distance with the mother, and the changing identities and understanding? In […]

The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Takeovers are a space for up-and-coming young poets and performers to meet one another and share their work on stage. This Takeover will be hosted […]

A dedicated space where anyone can share their poetry - whether you've just written it in a workshop or been sitting on it for years, we want to hear it! […]

A poetry writing workshop that examines the presentation of women figures in retellings of mythology. From witches to goddesses, female archetypes have served to perpetuate patriarchal stereotypes and dictate the […]

In this generative workshop we’ll look at how very familiar everyday material – kitchen utensils, shops, routine tasks – can become the launchpad into meditations on love, life, death and […]

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 […]

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 […]

If a poem is described as 'political', this often conjures up the idea of a rant in the shape of a poem, with the control of language slipping away from […]

We will be testing language in the poetic realm. Focus will be placed on getting the work to a high standard that is of publishable quality. If you are working […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

In this workshop we will explore how poets have responded to the verdant variousness of trees. We will think about trees ecologically, but also consider how trees might define limits […]

How can we use poems to tell the stories of our family? Join Liz Berry for a workshop about lifting your family history to the light with sensitivity and nuance. […]

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 […]

Burning Eye editors Bridget Hart and Clive Birnie demystify the process of becoming a published poet. The workshop will include practical guides and case studies looking at what different editors […]

Award-winning writer Jenny Mitchell will facilitate a supportive, creative session that looks at how we write about the elusive concept of Freedom. Why would we want/need to do this? What […]

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 […]

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, […]

In this workshop we’ll explore the poem as a wild place, and the relationship between poetry and the wild life beyond ourselves and our control.How can the will of the […]

Using some of the poems from the acclaimed 100 Queer Poems, join co-editor Andrew McMillan to do some writing and breathe new life into your work. Andrew McMillan's three collections […]

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 […]

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 […]