In the Poet’s Chair: Roger Robinson

Thursday 5th May, 6.30-8pm Northern Stage £5/£3 Join Jackie Kay, one of Scotland’s most celebrated voices, for a unique discussion about poetry with T.S. Eliot prize-winning poet, Roger Robinson. In this event, Jackie will interview Roger about his writing process, his past, and his priorities. Roger will also read from his prize-winning collection, A Portable… Continue reading In the Poet’s Chair: Roger Robinson

Hannah Hodgson

Hannah Hodgon is an award-winning poet and a palliative care patient. In her compelling debut collection 163 Days, she uses a panoply of medical, legal, and personal vocabularies to explore what illness, death and dying does to a person as both patient and witness.

Kris Johnson

Kris Johnson is from Seattle, Washington. She holds a PhD in creative writing from Newcastle University for a creative and critical thesis that explores the relationship between deep ecology, the nature essay and poetry. In 2019, she was awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from Arts Council England. Her poetry has appeared in journals… Continue reading Kris Johnson

Roger Robinson

Roger Robinson is a writer who has performed worldwide.  He is the winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2019, RSL Ondaatje Prize 2020 and RSL Fellow.  He was chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the Black-British writing canon.  His latest collection ‘A Portable Paradise’ was a New Statesman book of… Continue reading Roger Robinson

Billy-Ray Belcourt 

Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation in northwest Alberta. He lives in Vancouver, where he is an Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. His books are THIS WOUND IS A WORLD, winner of the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize, NDN COPING MECHANISMS, longlisted for Canada Reads… Continue reading Billy-Ray Belcourt 

John Challis

John Challis is a poet, researcher and teacher living in the North East. His debut collection of poems The Resurrectionists was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2021. Until recently, he was writer-in-residence at the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall, where he produced Hallsong, a series of poems published as a pamphlet and made into a film. He… Continue reading John Challis

Helen Bowell

Helen Bowell is London-based poet, producer and arts administrator. She is an Education Officer at The Poetry Society, and runs its Young Poets Network and Poets in Schools programmes. She is also a co-director of Dead [Women] Poets Society, a live literature organisation that ‘resurrects’ women poets of the past. Helen is a Ledbury Poetry… Continue reading Helen Bowell

Johnny Fluffypunk

Stand-up poet and lo-fi theatremaker Jonny Fluffypunk has been dragging his art around the UK and occasionally beyond for over 20 years, deafly fusing bittersweet autobiography, disillusionment and wonder into an act that has established him as a firm favourite at gigs, festivals and housing benefit offices everywhere. He has two volumes of poems, micro-fictions… Continue reading Johnny Fluffypunk

Grace Nichols

Grace Nichols was born and brought up in Guyana. After working there as a teacher and journalist, she came to Britain in 1977. Her first collection, I is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983), was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. She has published many books of poetry for both adults and children, including the bestselling, The Fat Black… Continue reading Grace Nichols