Ways into poetry

Cecilia Knapp is a poet and novelist and the Young People’s Laureate for London 2020/2021. She was shortlisted for the 2022 Forward prize for best single poem. She is the winner of the 2021 Ruth Rendell award and has been shortlisted for both the Rebecca Swift Women’s prize and the Outspoken poetry prize. Her debut poetry collection Peach Pig was published by Corsair in 2022 and was the Observer’s poetry book of the month for October. Her poems have appeared in The Financial Times, Granta, The White Review, Wasafiri, Popshot, Ambit, Magma and bath magg and anthologised. She curated the anthology Everything is Going to be alright: Poems for When you Really Need Them, published by Trapeze in 2021. Her debut novel Little Boxes is published by The Borough Press (Harper Collins.) In 2023, Little Boxes was longlisted for The Authors Club Best First Novel Award.

Dr Megan Beech is a literature scholar and performance poet. She was the winner of the Poetry Society’s SLAMbassadors national youth slam in 2011. She has performed at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Parliament, the Southbank Centre, Glastonbury Festival and Cheltenham Literature Festival. Her debut collection 'When I Grow Up I Want to be Mary Beard' was published in 2013, and her latest book 'You Sad Feminist' was released in 2017. Her poetry has featured on the Sky One's 'Russell Howard Hour' and the BBC iPlayer series ‘Women Who Spit'. She was featured in The Guardian lists of ‘inspiring young feminists in 2014’ and ‘Must Read Books of the Year 2014’ and Evening Standard's list of 'Ten 21st Century feminist icons'. She has recently finished a PhD at the University of Cambridge.

Suzannah V. Evans is a poet based in Bristol. She is the author of Brightwork and Marine Objects / Some Language (Guillemot Press, 2021 and 2020), and the editor of All Keyboards are Legitimate: Versions of Jules Laforgue (Guillemot Press, 2023). A selection of her work appears in the anthology New Poetries VIII (Carcanet, 2021). Her poetry has been broadcast on BBC Radio, performed at international festivals, and awarded a Northern Writers’ Award and the Ivan Juritz Prize for Creative Experiment. She completed her PhD in modern poetry at Durham University.

Writer and visual artist Claire Collison was awarded the Women Poets’ Prize, 2018. Her first novel was a finalist in the Dundee Book Prize, 2005. Her poetry appears in magazines and anthologies, and has been placed in Winchester, Resurgence, and Hippocrates prizes. She has worked as subeditor for MAKE, the magazine of Women’s Art, and Arts Editor for Disability Arts Magazine. Claire was the first MaxLiteracy writer at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, and designs engagement resources, including for the Government Art Collection, National Maritime Museum, and Photographers’ Gallery. She has led creative projects within hospitals and schools, and with refugees and asylum seekers, vulnerable adults, elders, and young children. Her recent cross-disciplinary project, Truth Is Beauty was performed in venues across the UK. She is a founder member of Poets for the Planet.

Andrew Weale is a poet and author of five picture books, including Nora: The Girl Who Ate and Ate and Ate, and the Red House Award winning Spooky Spooky House. He also lectures on picture book writing at Winchester University as part of the Children’s Writing MA, and mentors writers for the highly successful Golden Egg Academy.

Toby Campion is an award winning poet and playwright. Winner of the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2024 and shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2024, Toby is a former UK National Poetry Slam winner and World Poetry Slam finalist. His debut short collection, Through your blood, was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes 2018 and his poems have been published widely, most recently in The Rialto, bath magg, And Other Poems, Aesthetica and The London Magazine. Toby is the founder of the National Poetry Collectives Showcase and the Director of UniSlam. He teaches the London-based queer creative writing group, verse, and has taught for organisations including Roundhouse, Financial Times, National Trust and The Poetry Society.