A workshop series for experimental poetry, open to all.
Innovative Poetry Readings in London
Writers Forum Workshop is pleased to host this listing of readings, exhibitions, performances, discussions, workshops and courses taking place on London’s innovative poetry scenes.
If you write innovative poetry and would like to share it with an interested audience, please consider attending Writers Forum Workshop’s London or virtual meetings.
See the bottom of the page for an FAQ, including how to get your own event listed here.
Key for colour coding:
Blue: In-person event.
Pink: Online event featuring London-based poets or organisations.
Green: In-person event in London, with simultaneous online broadcast.
Ongoing Exhibitions and Shows
Until Wed 27 June, Mon-Sat 7.30pm, plus 2pm on most Saturdays.
Trombone Poetry: Performance by Paul Taylor, inventor of trombone poetry.
Southwark Park Galleries / Lake Gallery, Southwark Park, Rotherhithe SE16 2UA.
Free, bookable.
7pm.
For the Lost – Sonic Archives: Experimental music, sound art and poetry with Adam Boham, Eleanor Lee, Lorena Shapiro, Oh Tiny, Operation Goatee and Night Movies.
Barking Learning Centre, Barking Library, Barking IG11 7NB.
Free, booking required.
7pm.
Flanders Poetry Celebration: Collaborative performances by Flemish and UK-based poets, featuring Maarten Inghels and Colin Herd, Lotte Dodion and Mary Paterson, Paul Demets and Lisa Blackwell, Melanie Hyo-In Han and Beverly Frydman, Samuel Brzeski and Sam Riviere, Freya Shi and Francis de Lima, Nick Roth and SJ Fowler, and Golnoosh Nour and Andrea Mason.
Book Launch: How to Read a City: Australian poet Elizabeth Walton reads to launch her collection How to Read a City. With music by Richard Lawson, plus an open mic.
The Poetry Café, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden WC2H 9BX.
Free, bookable.
7pm.
Housmans Poetry Series: James Byrne reads to launch his poetry collection The Banality of Power. Plus more poetry from Ziba Karbassi and Stephen Watts.
The Black Cultural Centre, 16–18 Hornsey Road, Islington N7 7BT.
Free, bookable. Donations welcome.
7pm.
Magazine Launch: Weekend: Readings to launch the first issue of Weekend poetry magazine, featuring Luke Roberts, Harriet Rose and more.
Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross N1 9DX.
Free, bookable.
8pm.
Estonian Poetry Celebration: Collaborative performances by Estonian and UK-based poets, featuring Triin Paja and Rushika Wick, Jan Kaus and Damian Le Bas, Jürgen Rooste and Ivor Kallin, and Cat Paronjan and Caitlin Nugent.
National Poetry Library, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
Free, bookable.
8pm.
Jawdance: Performance poetry with Hannah Silva, Jay Mitra and Toby Campion, plus an open mic.
Deaths and Afterlives: Walter de la Mare: Scholar William Wootton and rare books curator Karen Attar present talks on twentieth-century poet Walter de la Mare. Plus readings by actor Emily Sawtell.
Seng Tee Lee Seminar Room, Senate House Library, Malet Street, Bloomsbury WC1E 7HU.
Free, booking required.
6.30pm.
Lorca and the Archive: Scholars Melissa Dinverno and Stephen Roberts lecture on Spanish poet Federico García Lorca’s presence in archives.
Instituto Cervantes, 15-19 Devereux Court, Temple WC2R 3JJ.
Austrian Poetry Celebration: Collaborative performances by Austrian and UK-based poets, featuring Andreas Unterweger and James Knight, Patricia Mathes and Kate Wakeling, Carla Lorenz and Michael Sutton, Amy Evans Bauer and Oli Evans, L Kiew and Laura Davis, Egidija Čiricaitė and Astrid Alben, Anna Ayanoglou and more.
Austrian Cultural Forum, 28 Rutland Gate, Knightsbridge SW7 1PQ.
Free, booking required.
7pm.
Exiled Writers Ink: ‘Courage for the Battle’: Chilean poet Xaviera Ringeling, Ethiopian poet Alemu Tebeje and Iranian journalist Elika Ansari read their work, and discuss how writers can advocate for democracy in their home countries from a position of exile. Plus an open mic.
One75 Cocktail Bar and Garden, 175 West End Lane, West Hampstead NW6 2LH.
Romanian Cultural Institute, 1 Belgrave Square, Belgravia SW1X 8PH.
Free, booking required.
Doors 6.30pm, event 7.30pm.
Fitzcarraldo Editions Annual Summer Party: Readings by writers from Fitzcarraldo Editions, featuring poet Holly Pester, Keith Ridgway, Alice Hattrick, and Saskia Vogel reading from her translation of Event Horizon by Balsam Karam.
Bold Tendencies, 7th-10th Floors, Multi-Storey Car Park, 95a Rye Lane, Peckham SE15 4ST.
£9.50, bookable.
Friday 26 June
5.30pm.
Black Art and Poetry Group: Event for sharing poetry and artwork by Black creators, either one’s own works or those by favourite artists.
The Fish Fry: Poetry Night: Event inspired by the communal traditions of the Caribbean fish fry, responding to the venue’s exhibition Cornwallis Cloth: The Second World War in the Caribbean. Featuring a poetry workshop (limited places), followed by poetry readings from Kareem Parkins-Brown, Lola Oh, Tolu Agbelusi and Francis-Xavier Mukiibi.
Visitor Centre, Old Royal Naval College, College Approach, Greenwich SE10 9NN.
Free, booking required.
6pm.
Research Is Poetry: Fundraising event for the Knots Co-operative of noise artists, inviting participants to present poetry, essays, slides, photography and other creative research.
Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green E1 5QJ.
City Lit: Poetry Masterclass Showcase 2026: Poet Fran Lock presents readings by students from the venue’s Poetry Masterclass. Featuring Katie Beswick, Jo Davis, Priya Kahlon, Julia Salem, William Skelton, Jessica Todd, Tash Walker and Rafeef Ziadah.
John Lyons Theatre, City Lit, 1-10 Keeley Street, Covent Garden WC2B 4BA.
Free, bookable.
Saturday 27 June
10am-8pm.
Overspill: Symposium on the poetics and politics of writing the self, featuring discussions and workshops with Anne Boyer, Sarona Abuaker, Sita Balani, Lola Olufemi, Donna Marcus Duke, June Archbold, the Mental Health Justice Network, Entrar Afuera, pratyusha, Katie Lewis Hood, Maxe Crandall, Remi Graves, Hesse K and more, plus an open mic.
Bloc, Arts One, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, Mile End E1 4NS.
Free, bookable.
12pm-4pm.
Convergence Of The Arts 2026 Exhibition: Day One: Exhibition of works combining poetry and other art forms, on the themes of men’s mental health and masculinity in nature. Contributors include Nat Nye, Jon Lewis, Stephen Wanjiru and Warwick Thomsett.
Sands End Arts & Community Centre, Peterborough Road, Fulham SW6 3EZ.
£11.55, bookable. All ticket sales go to the James’s Place charity.
1pm-4.20pm.
Penance Poetry Workshop: Nols Nathanski leads a workshop on creating automatic poetry under deliberately restricted conditions.
Make Poetry Weird Again Studio, Grosvenor Avenue, Canonbury N5.
Pay what you can, booking required.
6.30pm.
Live at St Giles: Anthony Joseph: Performance by poet Anthony Joseph and his band. Plus more music from AERonin and Black Kobayashi.
Live At St Giles, Camberwell Church Street, Camberwell SE5 8RB.
£17.03, bookable.
7pm.
Hummingbirds: Jordache A Ellapen reads from and discusses Indenture Aesthetics, his new non-fiction book about activism in South Africa. Plus a poetry reading by Azad Ashim Sharma.
Polish Poetry Celebration: Collaborative performances by Polish and UK-based poets, featuring Weronika Lewandowska and Mischa Foster Poole, Agata Masłowska and Agnieszka Studzińska, Maria Jatrzębska and Jules Sprake, Anna Blasiak and Susie Campbell, Tomasz Mielcarek and Mikael Buck, Landa wo and James Byrne, Nasim Luczaj and more.
Hundred Years Gallery, 13 Pearson Street, Hoxton E2 8JD.
Free, no booking required.
Sunday 28 June
11am-4pm.
Convergence Of The Arts 2026 Exhibition: Day Two: Exhibition of works combining poetry and other art forms, on the themes of men’s mental health and masculinity in nature. Contributors include Nat Nye, Jon Lewis, Stephen Wanjiru and Warwick Thomsett.
Sands End Arts & Community Centre, Peterborough Road, Fulham SW6 3EZ.
£11.55, bookable. All ticket sales go to the James’s Place charity.
Canada Water Library, 21 Surrey Quays Road, Rotherhithe SE16 7AR.
Free, bookable.
4.30pm.
Queer Joy: Panel discussion on queer joy as an act of defiance, featuring poets Gayathiri Kamalakanthan and Jack Parlett, food writer Kate Young, journalist AJ West and YA author Josh Silver.
Poetry Karaoke: Sara Mostafa hosts an evening for sharing favourite poems by other writers.
Torriano Meeting House, 99 Torriano Avenue, Kentish Town NW5 2RX.
£6 cash on the door.
Monday 29 June
Doors 6pm, event 6.30pm.
Notes from a Lost Country – Book Launch: Iraqi poet Sinan Antoon discusses his new novel Notes from a Lost Country with Iraqi-British writer Dalia Al-Dujaili.
The Arab British Centre, 1 Gough Square, City of London EC4A 3DE.
£5, bookable.
6.45pm.
The Dance Poetry Night: An evening of dance and poetry, featuring poets AV Bridgewood, William Wyld and Ishita Uppadhayay.
MAP Studio Cafe, 46 Grafton Road, Kentish Town NW5 3DU.
£5, bookable.
7pm.
5×15: Live at The Tabernacle: An evening of five talks, including poet Jack Parlatt on the power of flamboyance and living boldly. Plus historians Andrea Wulf, Juliet Nicolson and Erica Wagner, and economist Tim Harford.
The Tabernacle, 34-35 Powis Square, Notting Hill W11 2AY.
Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, 21 Portland Place, Marylebone W1B 1PY.
£25/£18.75, booking required.
7.30pm.
Twelve Acts of Shelter: Act 6: Music and poetry on the theme of shelter, featuring Black Geographies and more. Plus a guided writing session with musician Esther Kehinde Ajayi and poet Phoenix Yemi, and an open mic.
Reference Point, 2 Arundel Street, Temple WC2R 3DA.
£9.38 or pay what you can, bookable.
July 2026
Wednesday 1 July
Wed 1 July – Sun 27 September.
Gift to the Future: Installation of poetry by school pupils from London, Birmingham and Manchester, responding to the venue’s brutalist architecture.
Riverside Terrace, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
Free, no booking required.
8pm.
Latvian Poetry Celebration: Collaborative performances by Latvian and UK-based poets, featuring Māra Ulme and Jonathan Boyd, Krišjānis Zeļģis and SJ Fowler, Agnese Graudiņa and Alex Murphy, and Alise Bogdanova and Sophia Rahim.
National Poetry Library, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
£30/£20 for both days, £20/£15 for one day, booking required.
9.30am-6pm.
Close Encounters of the Nonhumankind: In the US and Beyond: Conference on the subject of nonhumankind, featuring a poetry reading of Ecotone by Alice O’Malley, a keynote by Lucy Bond, and more speakers including Heather Houser, Christy Tidwell and Stephen Rust.
University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, Marylebone W1B 2HW.
Free, booking required.
7pm.
European Poetry Festival Kingston Camarade: Collaborative performances by European and UK-based poets, featuring Deborah Zafer, Isaac Blake, Nat Norland, Eleanor Wilders Caitlin Nugent and more.
Town House, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2EQ.
Holly Pester & Luke Roberts: Cafés: Holly Pester reads from her new poetry collection Cafés, and discusses her work with poet Luke Roberts.
London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place, Bloomsbury WC1A 2JL.
£10, bookable.
Friday 3 July
7pm.
Swarm Anthology Launch: Readings to launch Who I Am, When Not Seen By You, an anthology of sex worker writing, spanning theory, poetry, short fiction and more.
The People’s Letters Bookshop, 395 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green E2 9RA.
Bridging the Gap Poetry Event: Poetry readings responding to the venue’s art exhibition inspired by nearby Southwark Bridge. Featuring Emma Simon, Katherine Cleave, Lauren Thomas, Mary Wilson, Mirka Jokelainen, Nisa Saiyid, Sue Johns and Susanna Fitzpatrick.
Hypha Gallery & Studio South Bank, 42 Southwark Bridge Road, Southwark SE1 9EU.
Free, bookable.
2.30pm-4.30pm.
Writing Homelands: Laila Sumpton leads a poetry workshop responding to Alan Gignoux’s photography exhibition at the venue, which pairs portraits of Palestinian refugees with landscapes of their home villages.
P21 Gallery, 21-27 Chalton Street, Somers Town NW1 1JD.
£5, booking required.
2.45pm-4.45pm.
Writers Forum Workshop: Workshop for experimental poets to share their writing. All welcome.
Romanian Poetry Celebration: Collaborative performances by Romanian and UK-based poets, featuring Simona Nastac and Livia Franchini, Miruna Fulgeanu and Andra Simons, Margento and Nick Murray, Luminita Amarie and Tony White, Katarína Krupičková and SJ Fowler, Yekta and Matt Martin, Eleanor Wilders and Annabel Taylor-Munt, and Edward Adonteng and Victor Rees.
The Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden WC2H 9BX.
HWK London, 29 White Post Lane, Hackney Wick E9 5EN.
Pay what you can, bookable.
7pm.
Sex, Poetry and the Turning World: Poets Sarah Howe, Sandeep Parmar, Sophie Robinson and Oluwaseun Olayiwola discuss how poets write about sex.
London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place, Bloomsbury WC1A 2JL.
£10, bookable.
7pm.
Poetry Evening: Oleg Prokofiev: An evening of poetry by the late Russian poet Oleg Prokofiev, read by composer Gabriel Prokofiev and poet Maria Bregman.
Hypha Gallery, 1 Poultry, City of London EC2R 8EJ.
Free, bookable.
7pm.
East to West: Poetry exploring the interconnectedness of Eastern and Western cultures, featuring poets Mariam Saidan and Shaila Simi, readings from the poetry of Daniel Danish, storytelling by Rez Kabir, and music by Pritom Ahmed.
St Mary’s Church, Upper Street, Islington N1 2TX.
£13.70, bookable.
Friday 10 July
2pm.
Asymmetry Publishers Festival: Day One: Book fair bringing together independent presses from London and across the world. With a programme of discussions, workshops and readings.
Well Versed: In Support of Anthony Nolan: Poetry with Cecilia Knapp, Troy Cabida and Marcel Bedeau, plus an open mic and music. All ticket proceeds go to the Anthony Nolan charity for stem cell research.
Mezzanine, Unit 4, 20 Totterdown Street, Tooting SW17 8TA.
£16.96/£14.79/£12.62, bookable. Further donations welcome.
7pm.
Eating Air Launch Event: Suyin Du Bois reads to launch her poetry pamphlet Eating Air. Plus more poetry with Nina Mingya Powles, Pratyusha and Elhum Shakerifar, and Malaysian snacks.
Morocco Bound Bookshop, Unit 3A, New Acres, Wandsworth SW18 1UZ.
£5.04 (£12.62 with a copy of the pamphlet), bookable.
8pm.
Benjamin Zephaniah: A Celebration: Poetry, music and discussion to celebrate the late dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah, featuring Lemn Sissay, Jackie Kay, Michael Rosen and more.
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
Foyle Pavilion, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £27 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
11am.
Asymmetry Publishers Festival: Day Two: Book fair bringing together independent presses from London and across the world. With a programme of discussions, workshops and readings.
Asymmetry, 102a Albion Drive, Hackney E8 4LY.
Free, bookable.
12.30pm.
After Catastrophe: Futures Beyond Crisis: Poets, translators and editors discuss the roles of young writers and translation in addressing crises. Featuring Janani Ambikapathy, Leo Boix, Dominic J Jaeckle and Ghazal Mosadeq.
Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
Sunley Pavilion, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £27 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
2pm.
Peter Gizzi & Denise Riley: Denise Riley and Peter Gizzi read their poetry, and discuss the art of elegy.
Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £15 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
4pm – 9.30pm.
Q is for Garden Queer Nature Extravaganza: Launch of Q Is for Garden, Jenny Chamarette’s new book on the history of queer gardening. With poetry and performance by Mira Mattar, So Mayer and declan wiffen. Plus cuisine from Electric Future Foods, family storytelling, a creative writing workshop, and badge-making.
Grow Mayow, Mayow Road, Sydenham SE26 4JA.
£16.96/£11.55, bookable.
Doors 4pm, event 4.30pm.
Dissidences. Sound, Voice, Word: Performances by poets Marilza Gouvêa and Marijó Alba Sánchez, performance artist Veronica Cordova and musician Marcio Mattos.
Hundred Years Gallery, 13 Pearson Street, Hoxton E2 8JD.
Free, donations welcome.
5pm.
The Birdwatchers Sing: Readings of poems inspired by Attar of Nishapur’s twelfth-century Persian poem The Conference of the Birds, featuring Elhum Shakerifar, April Yee and Leo Boix, plus participants in recent workshops at the venue.
Aga Khan Centre, 10 Handyside Street, Kings Cross N1C 4DN.
Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £15 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
Doors 7pm, event 7.30pm.
Plastique Fantastique: Experimental music with the ensemble Plastique Fantastique, plus a performance by poet-artist dove / Christine Kirubi, and more.
The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury WC1N 1JD.
£10-£14, bookable.
7.30pm.
Maggie Nelson: Poet Maggie Nelson discusses The Slicks, her new non-fiction book about poet Sylvia Plath and singer Taylor Swift.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £22 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
8pm.
From the Lips to the Moon: Multimedia performance featuring poet Tara Fatehi, musician Pouya Ehsaei and more.
Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
Free, no booking required.
Sunday 12 July
10am-12pm.
Masterclass: Peter Gizzi: Peter Gizzi leads a workshop exploring the identity of the speaking voice in poetry.
Sunley Pavilion, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £27 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
11am.
Asymmetry Publishers Festival: Day Three: Book fair bringing together independent presses from London and across the world. With a programme of discussions, workshops and readings.
Level 5 Function Room, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £11 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
1pm-3pm.
Masterclass: Denise Riley: Denise Riley leads a workshop on using simplicity in poetry, inspired by poets like Gwendolyn Brooks, WS Graham and Warsan Shire.
Foyle Pavilion, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £15 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
4pm.
Hard Work: Experimental poetry, music and performance featuring Muscle Flex, Silkess Demon, Alison Rumfitt, Allan Struthers and Justin Katko. Link forthcoming.
The Castle, 44 Commercial Road, Whitechapel E1 1LN.
Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £15 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
7.30pm.
Allen Ginsberg at 100: Poetry, music and visuals to celebrate the hundredth birthday of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £15 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
Monday 13 July
6.30pm.
Blake, Ginsberg & “Ah! Sunflower”: Screening of Ah! Sunflower, poet Iain Sinclair’s 1967 documentary about Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Plus discussion of the film with Sinclair, historian Barry Miles, William Blake scholar Camila Oliveira and curator Stephen Coates, and a music by Steven Taylor.
Institute of Psychoanalysis, 10 Windsor Walk, Denmark Hill SE5 8BB. Also livestreamed online.
£31/£20, booking required.
Tuesday 14 July
6.30pm.
Slowly, slowly, the tongue unrolls: An evening of poetry and sound, featuring poets Allen Fisher and dove / Christine Kirubi, artist Tris Vonna-Michell, DJ duo Time Is Away, experimental choir Vocal Constructivists, writer Samra Mayanja, performer Rowland Hill, and the Poets Workout Sound System.
The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury WC1N 1JDH.
Sold out; waiting list available.
6.30pm.
UK Premiere: ‘Outrider’ with Q&A: Screening of Outrider, Alystyre Julian’s new documentary about Beat poet Anne Waldman. Plus discussion of the film with Waldman, Julian and curator Stephen Coates.
Red Door Poets Summer Party: Poetry with Hannah Lowe, Nasim Luczaj, Mary Mulholland, Chris Hardy, Gillie Robic, Katie Griffiths, Lesley Sharpe, Tamsin Hopkins, Neil Douglas, Hanne Busck-Neilsen and Tom Cunliffe.
The Club for Acts and Actors, 20 Bedford Street, Covent Garden WC2E 9HP.
Free, bookable.
7.15pm.
Patterned Ground: Poetry, prose and music featuring William Wyld, Roisin Dunnett, The Hope Convention, Nima, and Charlotte Cole.
Languages of Belonging: Gayathiri Kamalakanthan leads a workshop inspired by trans and queer South Asian poets.
Dalston CLR James Library, Dalston Square, Dalston E8 3BQ.
Free, booking required.
Doors 6.30pm, event 7pm.
Scales of Breathing: Participatory performance using experimental breathing to imagine earthworms’ strategies of interspecies collaboration, with poets Sophie Seita and Rike Scheffler, artist Youngsook Choi and choreographer Jaelee Kim.
Live Art Development Agency, The Garrett Centre, 117A Mansford Street, Bethnal Green E2 6LX.
Pay what you can (£8-£15), bookable.
Thursday 16 July
Doors 6pm, event 7pm.
Meet the Pioneers: The Radical Publishers: Readings and discussion to celebrate radical Black publishers Bogle-L’Ouverture and Allison & Busby, featuring poet Lemn Sissay, publisher Margaret Busby, writer Colin Grant, curator Beverley Mason, editor Lemara Lindsay-Prince and calypsonian Alexander D Great.
British Library, 96 Euston Road, Kings Cross NW1 2DB.
An Evening with Rough Trade Books: Performances by authors from Rough Trade Books, featuring poet Ella Frears (with musician Aidan Moffat) and poet Jen Calleja (with puppets), plus Max Porter (with musician Kate Stables), Anna Whitwham (with dancers Sylvie Poppy O’Brien and Francesca Thakorlal), Owen Williams, Kirsty Gunn and Babak Ganjei.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £17 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
8.30pm.
Groundings on a Black Planet: Participatory discussions about archiving, rituals, nationhood and Black life across geographies, inspired by the pedagogy of historian Walter Rodney. With poet Caleb Femi, writer Haja Fanta and community advocate Sheeba Levi.
Conservatory, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, City of London EC2Y 8DS.
Saturday: Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, Richmond TW10 5HX; online access also available. Sunday: Online only, for the London Arts-Based Research Centre.
£195.72 in person, £109.05 online, booking required.
11am-2pm.
Queer Archive Writing Workshop: Poet Tash Walker and historian Adam Zmith lead a life-writing workshop for LGBTQIA+ writers, using prompts from queer archives.
Hikayat-e-Aamm – Our Stories Told: A Culture Fest: A day of poetry, conversation, music and culture, including launches of two global majority poetry anthologies, readings from the poetic play When We Arrive, Gazan poets remembering Refaat Alareer, and more.
Kensington Central Library, 12 Phillimore Walk, Kensington W8 7RX.
£3.96, bookable.
3pm-5pm.
Critical Fabulation Writing Workshop: Poet Joelle Taylor leads a workshop for LGBTQIA+ writers, exploring critical fabulation through a queer lens.
Kooch Festival: An evening of Persian culture, featuring poetry from Ziba Karbassi, a performance of the play the play Two Faces, music by the Neyriz Ensemble, and film extracts by Bahman Maghsoudlou, Manijeh Hekmat and Amir Naderi.
Djam Lecture Theatre, SOAS University of London, 10 Thornhaugh Street, Bloomsbury WC1H 0XG.
£22.38 advance, £27.80 on the door, students £11.55.
Doors 7pm, event 7.30pm.
Performance Queered: Radical Acts of Visibility: Poets Joelle Taylor and Jade Anouka, plus writers Charlie Josephine and Libro Levi Bridgeman, discuss how queer, lesbian, trans and intersex artists can occupy space on the page and stage.
Triangle, 34 Watson’s Street, Deptford SE8 4AU.
£10, bookable.
Sunday 19 July
Doors 6pm, event 6.30pm.
The Haunted Body: Unquiet Histories and Queer Futures: Poets Joelle Taylor, Salena Godden and Nikita Gill, plus novelist Julia Armfield, discuss the haunted body as a site of remembrance, transformation and possibility.
Institute of Psychoanalysis, 10 Windsor Walk, Denmark Hill SE5 8BB. Also livestreamed online.
£31/£20, booking required.
Tuesday 21 July
7pm-9.15pm, then at the same time weekly until Tue 29 September.
Experimental Life Writing: Tim Atkins leads an eleven-session course on using experimental poetics to write about one’s life, inspired by poets like Bernadette Mayer, Lyn Hejinian and Ntozake Shange.
Online, via Zoom for the Experimental Writing School.
Rilke – One Million Words: Ivo Müller performs a solo show based on the works of modernist poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury WC1N 3AL.
£30, bookable.
Saturday 25 July
7pm-9.15pm, then at the same time weekly until Sat 26 September.
A Menagerie of Forms: Michał Kamil Piotrowski leads a ten-session course on writing poetry in experimental forms, inspired by poets like Astra Papachristodoulou, Karenjit Sandhu and Amy Evans Bauer.
Online, via Zoom for the Experimental Writing School.
£399, booking required.
1pm-4.20pm.
Penance Poetry Workshop: Nols Nathanski leads a workshop on creating automatic poetry under deliberately restricted conditions.
Make Poetry Weird Again Studio, Grosvenor Avenue, Canonbury N5.
Pay what you can, booking required.
Doors 7pm, event 7.30pm.
An Exploration of Female Poetry: Poet Harriet Tarlo gives a talk about how women poets across history have used poetry as a form of feminist and political expression. .
The Blues Kitchen, 40 Acre Lane, Brixton SW2 5SP. Also livestreamed online.
In person £14.75-£19.75, online £13.50/£11.50, booking required.
Doors 7pm, event 7.30pm.
Rilke – One Million Words: Ivo Müller performs a solo show based on the works of modernist poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury WC1N 3AL.
£30, bookable.
Thursday 30 July
7.45pm.
Neoprene Genie: Dream Jump: Multimedia performance by the Neoprene Genie collective, combining speech, music, poetry and visuals. Written and directed by Tice Cin.
Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £15 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
August 2026
Saturday 1 August
2.45pm-4.45pm.
Writers Forum Workshop: Workshop for experimental poets to share their writing. All welcome.
Poetry Festival: A day of workshops and performances celebrating South Asian feminist poetics. Featuring Gita Ralleigh, Saj Fareed, Alycia Pirmohamed, Remi Rana Allen, Durree Shahwar, Amarjeet Nadhra, Mona Arshi, Imtiaz Dharkar, Suman Gujral, Charnjit Gill, Sanju Pal and Poonam Lumb, plus an open mic.
SOAS University of London, Russell Square, Bloomsbury WC1B 5DQ.
Penance: The Long Day: Nols Nathanski leads a seven-hour workshop on creating automatic poetry under deliberately restricted conditions. Stamina is required.
Address to be confirmed upon booking, Grosvenor Avenue, Canonbury N5.
HWK London, 29 White Post Lane, Hackney Wick E9 5EN.
Pay what you can, bookable.
Saturday 29 August
1pm-4.20pm.
Penance Poetry Workshop: Nols Nathanski leads a workshop on creating automatic poetry under deliberately restricted conditions.
Make Poetry Weird Again Studio, Grosvenor Avenue, Canonbury N5.
Pay what you can, booking required.
September 2026
Thursday 3 September
7pm-9.15pm, then at the same time weekly until Thu 24 September.
Writing with Constraints: Michał Kamil Piotrowski leads a four-session course on on how constraints can inspire new directions in poetry.
Online, via Zoom for the Experimental Writing School.
£149, booking required.
Friday 4 September
7pm.
Book Launch: Liquid Reflections with Liliane Lijn: Textual artist and poet Liliane Lijn launches the paperback edition of her memoir Liquid Reflections, and discusses the book with art writer Jennifer Higgie.
Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross N1 9DX.
Free, bookable.
Saturday 5 September
11am-4.30pm.
Multicultural Book Fair: Fair with stalls selling books from multicultural publishers. Plus a programme of readings and talks.
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Bloomsbury WC1R 4RL.
Free, bookable.
2.45pm-4.45pm.
Writers Forum Workshop: Workshop for experimental poets to share their writing. All welcome.
7pm-9.15pm, then at the same time weekly until Wed 30 September.
Transgressive Writing: Tim Atkins leads a four-session course on writing transgressively, inspired by poets and authors like Kathy Acker, Charles Baudelaire and Dodie Bellamy.
Online, via Zoom for the Experimental Writing School.
HWK London, 29 White Post Lane, Hackney Wick E9 5EN.
Pay what you can, bookable.
Saturday 12 September
Doors 4pm, event 4.30pm.
Dissidences. Sound, Voice, Word: Performances by poet Yě Yě, movement artist Monika Tobel, and musicians Edward Shipsey and Gardyloo Spew.
Hundred Years Gallery, 13 Pearson Street, Hoxton E2 8JD.
Free, donations welcome.
Wednesday 16 September
6.30pm.
The Musicality of Language: Readings responding to the venue’s art exhibition by Nhu Xuan Hua, exploring how language carries memory across generations. Featuring Hanan Issa and more.
ArtHouse Crouch End, 159A Tottenham Lane, Crouch End N8 9BT.
£11.55, bookable.
Friday 18 September
7.30pm.
Future Sounds: RAP Party x Out-Spoken: Poets read their work and select music for a DJ to play. Featuring Anthony Anaxagorou, Inua Ellams, Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Caitlin O’Ryan, Joelle Taylor and more.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, Waterloo SE1 8XX.
From £15 plus £4 booking fee, bookable.
Saturday 19 September
Sat 19 – Sun 20 September, times TBC.
Poetry between Creation and Interpretation: The London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research hosts an international conference on poetry studies. The call for papers is open until Sat 25 April.
Birkbeck University of London, Bloomsbury; building and rooms TBC. Also livestreamed online.
£150 in person, £90 online, booking required.
1pm-8pm.
Penance: The Long Day: Nols Nathanski leads a seven-hour workshop on creating automatic poetry under deliberately restricted conditions. Stamina is required.
Address to be confirmed upon booking, Grosvenor Avenue, Canonbury N5.
£33 or pay what you can, booking required.
1pm-5pm.
‘Spiritual Landscapes’: Richard Skinner leads a workshop on exploring the spirituality of walking through poetry.
Penance: The Long Day: Nols Nathanski leads a seven-hour workshop on creating automatic poetry under deliberately restricted conditions. Stamina is required.
Address to be confirmed upon booking, Grosvenor Avenue, Canonbury N5.
Moor Mother: Performance by US poet and composer Moor Mother.
ICA, The Mall, St. James’s SW1Y 5AH.
£24.21, bookable.
Saturday 21 November
1pm-8pm.
Penance: The Long Day: Nols Nathanski leads a seven-hour workshop on creating automatic poetry under deliberately restricted conditions. Stamina is required.
Address to be confirmed upon booking, Grosvenor Avenue, Canonbury N5.
The listing is primarily maintained and updated by Matt Martin, with assistance from other attendees of Writers Forum Workshop.
Haven’t I seen this page elsewhere?
Innovative Poetry Readings in London was developed by the poet Peter Philpott in 2009 as part of his website, www.modernpoetry.org.uk. He continued to run the listings as a service to London’s poetry communities until August 2018; the rest of his site remains active and is of great interest. In 2018, Peter bequeathed the listings to the website of the Contemporary Poetics Research Centreat Birkbeck, University of London, where Matt Martin took on its maintenance. In 2022, changes to the university’s IT systems made it impractical for the listings page to continue there; it moved to its current home at the beginning of 2023.
Why only London?
Exciting things definitely happen in the rest of the UK; this page’s focus on London reflects that Writers Forum Workshop convenes there. To maintain listings of innovative poetry events nationwide would be a forbiddingly huge task, given that the page is updated by volunteers in their spare time.
How can I get my event listed?
Contact us herewith details of any readings or other events for this page, including a link to a webpage or social media post for the event if possible. Contact us when we’ve made a mistake also, please. Bear in mind:
The listings are not always updated daily. To ensure that your event is posted in time to spread the word, please send information at least a week beforehand: the further in advance, the more useful the listing will be for you.
The listings are for activities within the traditions or communities of innovative poetry – those that Writers Forum Workshop exists to further. We aim to be inclusive, incorporating cross-cultural and internationalist currents, and extending to celebrations of modernist precursors, but there are limits to what will be publicised here.
What do you mean by ‘innovative poetry’?
Broadly speaking, poetry that challenges the traditionally accepted definitions of the art form – work which might also be dubbed ‘experimental’, ‘avant-garde’, ‘modernist’, ‘postmodernist’, ‘neo-modernist’, etc. Such poetry can diverge from the conservative norm in many different directions – a personal view from Peter Philpott is online here. These scenes are constantly developing. In the UK, the last couple of decades have seen an increasing (though still frustratingly sporadic) acceptance of innovative poetry by universities, major publishers, literary prize-givers and other institutions. Simultaneously, the field has been enriched by a growing number of intersections between poetry communities, while women, non-binary, Black British and British Asian poets, as well as UK-based poets born overseas, have all become more prominent.
Can you guarantee that these events will be good?
We hope they will be, but we cannot take responsibility for the quality of events organised by other parties, or for the reliability of information made available to us by others. However, every event here is listed because it promises something of interest to those keen to explore new possibilities for poetry. Descriptions in the listings are based on publicity material.
Writers Forum Workshop 