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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. DPF uses a tiered ticketing system for access and affordability reasons. Tickets are £10, with a £7 reduced price and a £12 pay-it-forward ticket. We encourage people to attend and select the best ticket price for their circumstances.
Join Desree for an energising, hands-on workshop that will get your creativity flowing. Inspired by her collection Altar (Bad Betty Press), Desree invites you to explore the art of the list, a simple form that can spark vivid imagery, unexpected connections, and powerful storytelling.
From shopping lists to to-do lists, pros-and-cons to never-agains, lists are usually practical, but in this session, they’ll become springboards for humour, honesty, and poetic surprise. No previous writing experience is needed; just bring your curiosity!
[PLEASE NOTE: This workshop starts promptly at 3 pm, please arrive a few minutes before to get yourself situated and to avoid missing the beginning of the session]
About 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 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.
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
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Derby Libraries (Riverside Library), Riverside Library, Council House,Derby, United Kingdom
Tickets
