About this Event
Join us in an event that centres on poetry, conversation, and camaraderie and explores the ways that we use and rely on words to make sense of, and to shape, our lives. TS Eliot Prize Winning poet and literature champion Joelle Taylor, and poet and novelist Patience Agbabi will read from their works and explore making change with words in an event chaired by Melanie Abrahams. Experience thrilling performances and be part of a discussion on friendships in and outside the poetry sector and the movements and moments that have impacted our literature/s and communities.
Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry and a novel. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize and was the subject of a Radio 4 arts documentary Butch. C+NTO was nominated for the Rathbone Folio Prize, longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, and won 2022 the Polari Book Prize. It was named by The Telegraph, the
New Statesman, The Guardian, The White Review & Times Literary Supplement as one of the best poetry books of the year, as well as DIVA magazine’s Book of the Month, and awarded 5 stars by the Morning Star. She has completed a book tour of Australia including Sydney Opera House (March 2022). C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. A former UK SLAM Champion she founded the national youth poetry slams SLAMbassadors through the Poetry Society in 2001, remaining its Artistic Director until 2018. She is a co-curator and host of Out-Spoken Live, resident at the Southbank Centre, and an editor at Out-Spoken Press. She is also completing her memoirs for publication in 2024, and her novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet will be published by Quercus in Spring of that year. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year.
Patience Agbabi is a sought-after poet, novelist, performer and mentor who has spent 20 years celebrating the written and spoken word. A former Poet Laureate of Canterbury with numerous residences and awards under her belt, Agbabi’s work has appeared on both radio and TV and she has toured around the world to festivals and events. In 2014 she was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Prize for New Work in Poetry following her fourth collection, ”Telling Tales”, and in 2004 she was nominated one of the UK’s ‘Next Generation Poets’. Her first middle-grade novel was published by Canongate in 2020.
Event created through a partnership between Renaissance One and the Centre for New Writing for the festival.
*While we welcome non-ticket holders to all our Literary Leicester 2023 events, we do recommend booking your free tickets in advance to avoid disappointment*
Photo credit: Lyndon Douglas, courtesy of Renaissance One
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Ken Edwards Building, Lecture Theatre 1, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00