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Derby Poetry Festival is returning for 2025 with an 'abridged' version of our much-loved festival, a 48-hour celebration on Thursday, 2nd and Friday, 3rd October, with workshops, events, and a Slam.Our National Poetry Day collaboration is taking place at The Old Bell Hotel with Bad Betty. They'll be bringing three of their outstanding poets to perform, Agata, Antosh and Desree; it's a night not to be missed.
Read the poets' bios below:
Agata Maslowska
Agata Maslowska was born in Poland and lives in Scotland. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in many magazines. She received the Scottish Book Trust Award. Her debut collection, Woman: Plant: Language: will be published by Bad Betty Press.
Antosh Wojcik
Antosh Wojcik is a poet, drummer, and sound designer. His work explores memory, heritage, labour, time & the destabilisation of these things. He is a co-founder of Sleepwalker Studios, a Dorset-based production company and has received film commissions from BFI Network, The Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts and Culture University of Exeter and Natural England. He wrote the screenplay for ‘The Memory Boom’ (dir. Xenia Glen), which premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2024 in the Rebels With A Cause competition category. His poems are published in bath magg, Action, Spectacle and Anthropocene. His debut poetry collection, Suburban Locust, is forthcoming from Bad Betty Press in Autumn 2025.
“Like James Tate, but drunk.” -Roger Robinson
Desree
Desree is an award-winning writer, spoken word artist, educator and producer based in London and Slough. An alumna of Born: Free Writers Collective, Jerwood Arts and the Obsidian Foundation, Desree was Poet in Residence at Glastonbury Festival 2022 and Slough’s EMPOWORD. A familiar voice on BBC Radio Berkshire, her work has been broadcast on Radio 4’s The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah; and published in JOY//US Poems of Queer Joy, Ink Sweat & Tears, Spoken Word London’s Anti-Hate Anthology and more. She performs across the UK and internationally. Her sell-out self-published pamphlet, I Find My Strength in Simple Things (2017) was published in second edition by Burning Eye Books in 2021. Altar is her first collection.
About DPF
Often referred to as DPF, Derby Poetry Festival is a four-day poetry and literature festival held in the centre of Derby in the autumn. We are dedicated to developing new writing talent in Derby and bringing excellent work to the city.
Previous headliners include Linton Kwesi Johnson, Joelle Taylor and Shivanee Ramlochan.
We host a range of performances, workshops, slams, and panel discussions for all ages in partnership with many venues in the city. Recently, DPF was unsuccessful in our most recent funding round, and we are currently crowdfunding to cover our year-round activity, which includes DYWG, Adult Workshops, Poetry Competitions, and wellbeing activities. We're extremely grateful for any donations to our crowdfunder, which can be found here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-derby-poetry-festival
About Bad Betty
Bad Betty is an award-winning independent publisher of new poetry
and curator of live literature events taking place across the UK. London-born, Nottingham-based, Bad Betty Press was set up in 2017 by Amy Acre and Jake Wild Hall with the aim of showcasing exciting and risk-taking poetry, supporting poets’ artistic development and celebrating stories less often told. We believe strongly in art’s capacity to challenge its own definition, to curve away from the norm, making space for more and varied voices. When an author joins our list, we engage creatively, ambitiously and supportively with their work: including close collaboration on editing and design, and a commitment to helping books find their readers through live and online performance. Bad Betty won the Michael Marks Publisher’s Award in 2022, and was a regional finalist for the British Book Awards Small Press of the Year in 2023 and 2024. Our books have won or been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Michael Marks Award, the Laurel Prize, Polari First Book Prize and BAMB Readers’ Award, featured in the Guardian‘s Best Recent Poetry, and selected as a Telegraph Poetry Book of the Month, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and several times as Pamphlet Choice. See all books. We’re grateful for the support of Arts Council England.
Little Betty
In 2023, we established pamphlet imprint Little Betty with editors Anja Konig and Gboyega Odubanjo, whose inaugural list of pamphlets were published in 2024. We’re continuing the imprint in 2025, with Anja Konig and Vanessa Kisuule currently selecting books for Little Betty’s second list. See Little Betty.
Bad Betty Live
We run live poetry events across the UK, partnering with arts organisations including Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, National Centre for Writing, I Am Loud, Nymphs & Thugs, Raise the Bar, Derby Poetry Festival, Rich Mix and many more. Our home event, Bad Betty Live Nottingham, takes place at Peggy’s Skylight in Hockley, and includes poetry and music from local, national and international artists, preceded by an afternoon masterclass led by one of the performing acts. In 2023, we launched Bad Ideas Club: a programme of free writing workshops in Nottinghamshire and West Midlands libraries.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Old Bell Hotel Derby, 51a Sadler Gate, Derby, DE1 3, United Kingdom
