Melt: BirdsNest Poetry Reading

Solid, liquid, gas. What does metamorphosis look like, and how can poetry chronicle or enact change? Whether an altered state or the arrival of a new season, we all encounter some form of 'melting point' in our lives as we move between joy, sappy sentimentality, exhaustion, and grief. BirdsNest looks forward to hosting a selection of accomplished poets who will share their writing with us. Maybe their words will make you glow or ponder—or even melt.

• James Appleby

James Appleby is the author of Spurious Language, which came out last year with Blue Diode Press. His writing is published in the London Magazine and the Kenyon Review, and he has performed at festivals across Europe. He will be a translator-in-residence for the 60th Anniversary of Modern Poetry in Translation. James is editor of Interpret, a magazine of international writing, where he has featured winners of the Booker Prize and other major awards. He is always looking for new authors to publish in his home city of Edinburgh.

• Siying Wu

Siying Wu is a poet and researcher based in Edinburgh. She uses poetry to hold — and sometimes release — moments and feelings that slip past ordinary language. Her recent work explores themes of love, grief, loss, diaspora, womanhood. Her work has been performed at spoken word events and exhibitions in Edinburgh. She is also completing a PhD in Human Geography researching migration and racial violence.

• Elissa Hunter-Dorans

Elissa Hunter-Dorans is an Edinburgh-based writer and artist from the Highlands, writing in Gaelic and English. She was the Scottish Poetry Library’s first Next Generation Young Makar for Gaelic poetry, and she has performed at the Dandelion Festival, StAnza, The Edinburgh Fringe and Push the Boat Out. Elissa was recently awarded the Julia Budenz Commemorative Prize for Gaelic poetry. In 2025, her writing was published in Taigael: Stories from Taiwanese and Gaelic. She was the 2025 Gaelic judge for the Wigtown Poetry Prize, and is currently the Gaelic editor for The Poets’ Republic, by Drunk Muse Press. She has a fascination with religious and folk visual culture and is currently studying History of Art at the University of Edinburgh.

• Kate Millar

Kate Millar is a poet, essayist, and music journalist from Edinburgh. She holds an MFA in Poetry from The New School in New York City and an MA in English from the University of St Andrews. Her work can be found in atmospheric quarterly, BOMB, Cutleaf Journal, Ekstasis, Gutter, LA Review of Books, and elsewhere.

• Mattea Gernentz

Mattea Gernentz is an art curator, PhD researcher, and writer based in Edinburgh. She has been selected as a Clydebuilt 16 Poet, Next Generation Young Makar, and Writer-in-Residence at Château de Sacy, Casa Regis, and Château de la Haute Borde. She has also been featured in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Dandelion Festival, and StAnza Festival. Mattea's writing can be found in Gutter Magazine, Interpret, Gilded Dirt, Ekstasis Magazine, and beyond.

• Ben Mann

One of Scotland’s Next Generation Young Makars (2023), Benjamin Mann is was raised in Turriff, Aberdeenshire. He has performed his predominantly Scots poetry at The Edinburgh International Book Festival and alongside Michael Pedersen, Edinburgh’s Makar, at The Fringe. His work has been published on The Scottish Poetry Library’s website, through the Burns Night Skies initiative and in their anthology, For Those Who Tend The Soil.

• Caitlin Sherret

Caitlin Allmond Sherret is a makar from the Highlands of Scotland, now
based in Leith. Educated at Edinburgh Napier University, she was named a Traverse Theatre Young Writer in 2021 and Scottish Poetry Library Next Generation Makar in 2022. Her work is deeply observational and explores themes of story, nature and self-discovery. You can follow her on Instagram at @kitkatpoetry_

Event Venue

BirdsNest Gallery, 71 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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