News and Upcoming performances

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After spending decades coming to the Edinburgh Fringe and thinking 'I wish I could do that!', I am now fulfilling that wish with my show 'Do you remember the first rhyme?'. A show about the love, loss and re-discovery of creativity. 

I am so amazed to share the news that 'Do You Remember the First Rhyme?' has been shortlisted for a  Best Spoken Word Show Saboteur Award. Voting is now open if you want to support me and the show.

Verbose, the spoken word night I co-host is also shortlisted as are two anthologies I feature in, Ey Up and Hope is a Group Project. 

I never dreamed of being included in these lists when I started out sharing my work and I am genuinely so grateful to anyone who chose to nominate my show. 

As I get ready for Edinburgh I will be doing a few warm up previews alongside a number of other poets and storytellers who, like me, started sharing their work after a bit of living.  

I've called it the 'Still got it showcase' although none of us are sure what 'it' is. 

On 20 May me and the cast of May's Still Got It Showcase were invited onto BBC Radio Manchester's Upload show with David Scott. it was a lot of fun.

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Over the early May bank holiday weekend the Reverend and the Makers were promoting their new album 'Heatwave in the Cold North' at a pop up shop in the world famous Sheffield Meadowhall shopping centre and opened the floor to acoustic sets from bands and poets and I was ever so lucky to be part of it.

I did a set of poems around the theme of letters to my younger and current self to connect it to the incredible track 'Letter to my 21 Year Old Self'.

The link below isn't to my work but to encourage you to buy their album. It's a stunner and I am always always going to give back support to people who support others like this. It's a special thing and means a lot.

I had the pleasure of hosting Bevs n' Bards at Haigh Hall in Wigan recently, an event organised by Bent Key Publishing. 

Next up - I am  co-headlining a new spoken word and poetry evening 'Speaking in Tongues' on 12 May 2022

I have created a social media platform called 'Community Poetry Officer' where I share opportunities for poets to have their work published, perform poetry and get their work heard/shared. 

The Altrincham Arts Festival launched with a bang on 19th March and I was lucky enough to be part of an amazing line up of poets on their launch event,

The immensely supportive Blue Balloon Theatre company recently asked me to write in their newsletter. Their motto is 'make it happen' so I wrote about that.

I was delighted to run a poetry workshop on the theme of connection in collaboration with Comma Press and Oldham Libraries.

I ran a wonderfully received workshop fro CIPD Manchester in September 2021 - take a look at their blog for more details.

Thanks to BBC Upload two poems were recently played on BBC Radio Manchester followed by an interview with David Scott and Vicky Hawkesworth.  One was my positive poem and the other was Laptop Love. Both can be found in the reels of my instagram page.

 I am so excited to be invited to headline at Verbose's return to real life at the amazing Kings Arms, Salford 

A poem I wrote in response to the outpouring of women's stories online following the devastating murder of Sarah Everard was included in UN Women's first ever virtual gallery. 'A Safe Space' is a collection of art, photography, poetry music and stories imagining and demanding safer spaces for women. 

I was honoured to be the lead writer for the Visual Verse June edition which was curated by Master House Publishing. Visual Verse has been a wonderful part of my poetry journey. Each month they ask for poetic/prose responses to artwork and curate a beautiful collection of poems. I am lucky to have had a few of my poems selected in the past, so to be a lead writer was a huge privilege. 

I am delighted to be the first poet in residence of the Be Braver collective, an inspirational collective who inspire me daily.

 I recently joined the team at the Poetry Global Network as an occasional UK correspondent of The Poetry Times, a weekly YouTube/Facebook broadcast about the global poetry scene. 

See Episode 4 for an interview with me about my debut poetry collection.

I was delighted to have my poem Lockdown Life is a Rollercoaster of Emotions featured on the Cheshire East Libraries Facebook page to celebrate National Poetry Day 2020.