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POETRY WEEKEND : 5-6 SEPT 2026 – Sunday

SAVE THE DATE !

FANTASTIC POETS READING AND GLORIOUS WORKSHOPS FOR POETRY LOVERS!

POETRY READINGS and WORKSHOPS with award winning

ISABELLE BAAFI, RACHEL LONG,

JEN FEROZE, STEPHEN BOYCE, RUTH SHARMAN, ELVIS McGONAGALL,

‘SUFFER FOR ME’ DUO, BAZ LEWIS,  and many more

with funding from the T S ELIOT FOUNDATION 

S U N D A Y 

AND, BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND the award winning and brilliant …
JEN FEROZE lives by the sea in Essex. Her work has appeared in publications including Magma, Poetry Wales, Under the Radar, Acumen and Butcher’s Dog. She won the 2024 Poetry Business International Book & Pamphlet Competition with her book ‘A Dress With Deep Pockets’.
Jen writes bespoke poems on the spot on her vintage typewriter. She has written at festivals, weddings and events, and is the resident poet at London’s Poetry Pharmacy on Oxford Street. She loves cold water swimming, chunky knitwear and cheese you can eat with a spoon.

Jen Feroze will give a workshop on Sunday 6th (£15) and also a reading (FREE), AND SHE WILL BE WRITING POEMS ON THE SPOT at her table, on her manual typewriter, all day, that she will the give you, at only £5 per poem. Last year this was a hit! Don’t miss a chance to have a piece of bespoke poetry wisdom written for you, or someone of your choosing, by Jen.

JEN FEROZE WORKSHOP £15 1pm – 2.30 pm

Jen Feroze, pictured 

STEPHEN BOYCE: Prize-winning poet Stephen Boyce ‘makes it real in a seamless weave of thought, perception and emotion’ (Philip Gross). Stephen will read from his new collection Marnhull Solitudes, which evokes the natural spirit of Dorset’s countryside, and other recent work. Author of three previous collections and three pamphlets Stephen is co-founder of Winchester Poetry Festival, former chair of ArtfulScribe and a resident of north Dorset. ‘No-one else I have ever read has made me exclaim over a description of gravel! Wonderful!’ (Robyn Bolam). stephenboycepoetry.com

RUTH SHARMAN: Ruth Sharman is a prize-winning poet and freelance translator whose work has been published widely in national newspapers, magazines and anthologies, including Bloodaxe’s Staying Alive series of world poetry. She is the author of Birth of the Owl Butterflies (Picador) and Scarlet Tiger(Templar’s Straid Collection Award for 2016). In 2019, she received a Society of Authors Foundation Grant to revisit South India – where she was born – and produce the poems for her third collection, Rain Tree (Templar, 2022), and she is currently working on a fourth.

 

S A T U R D A Y Click here for Saturday details and tickets 

ISABELLE BAAFI is an award winning poet, and the author of Chaotic Good (Faber & Faber / Wesleyan University Press, 2025), which won the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and is longlisted for the Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize. Her pamphlet Ripe (ignitionpress, 2020) won a Somerset Maugham Award and was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. She won the Winchester Poetry Prize 2023 and has been published in Granta, the TLSThe Poetry ReviewCallalooThe London Magazine and elsewhere. She edits at Poetry London and Magma. (Pic: Jolade Olusanya)

ISABELLE BAAFI will be running a workshop £15 (ticket info coming soon, and limited places!) and giving a reading (FREE to public, with thanks to our funders The T S ELIOT FOUNDATION)

WORKSHOP TICKETS ON SALE SOON. ISABELLE BAAFI will run an afternoon workshop. Tickets £15 and places limited to 15 so watch this space …

Isabelle’s WORKSHOP will be:

Tiny Rituals
Where do our rituals come from, how do they shape us, and what do they reveal about our humanity? In this generative and interactive workshop, we’ll explore poetic depictions of various rituals, including rites of passage, prayer, ceremony, and everyday habits that capture our inclination to marvel, memorialise, protect and stay centred. We’ll be responding to work by Alycia Pirmohamed, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, Gboyega Odubanjo, Mona Arshi, Chris Abani and Harryette Mullen. There’ll be opportunities for reading, discussion, writing, sharing and feedback. In the process, we’ll deconstruct many of our own rituals and possibly invent new ones.

RACHEL LONG published her debut collection, My Darling from the Lions in 2020 (Picador). It was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, The Costa Book Award, The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, The Rathbones Folio Prize, and the Jhalak Prize Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour, and named one of the 100 must-read books of 2021 by TIME. Her second collection, Sparrow on the Rooftop, will be published by Chatto & Windus, in June 2026.

Her individual poems have appeared in The Guardian, Poetry, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, The London Magazine, and Granta. She has curated and co-produced multiple programmes for BBC Radio 4, and literary events for Tate.

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RACHEL LONG WORKSHOP – £15, numbers limited

Aporia: Writing Through Uncertainty

What happens when a poem refuses to answer its own questions? Inspired by the idea of aporia – a moment of doubt, uncertainty, or impasse – this workshop explores poetry as a space for ambiguity, paradox, and possibility. Through the reading of contemporary poets such as Jericho Brown and Emily Berry, lively discussion, and generative writing prompts, we’ll consider how questions can suspend meaning, deepen emotion, and invite readers into a poem’s mysteries.

Open to writers of all experience levels, this workshop encourages curiosity over certainty, embracing not knowing as a place where new poems can begin.

Limited tickets on sale very soon 

♥    ♥    ♥

SAT EVENING VARIETY EVENT

LIVE AND WILD – INSPIRATIONAL

NOT TO BE MISSED!

SUFFER FOR ME is a London-based duo composed of poet Elena Cruz and musician Grady Moomaw. Their music combines shifting soundscapes with spoken word to offer an emotional release despite a chaotic political backdrop. Together they have performed in art galleries and sold-out music venues across London.

Elena Cruz is a Milwaukee-born writer and poet. Her debut novel will be published by Red Clay Books in 2029. Before moving to London, she worked in the US as a reporter, winning the National Newspaper Association Awards first place for business writing, 2021.

Grady Moomaw is a multi-instrumentalist originally from Raleigh, North Carolina. In Suffer for Me, he incorporates live synth work, creative sampling, and classical guitar — seeking unlikely connections between styles from across the world.

+

BAZ: Baz Lewis is a writer from Dorset and The Story Works’ Young Poet Laureate for Bournemouth. He is Poetry Editor at Bournemouth Journal and was Writer in Residence at Upton Country Park. He has performed at events across the country, and has been published in ANMLY, Eche, Full House, and elsewhere.

BAZ, pictured

 

 

Running order

SAT 5TH SEPT

PM: ISABELLE BAAFI READING AND WORKSHOP (time tbc)

RACHEL LONG – READING AND WORKSHOP

EVE: MUSIC AND POETRY VARIETY EVENT – WILD, INSPIRATIONAL AND NOT TO BE MISSED!

FEATURING: ELLA CRUZ with

+ BAZ LEWIS + MORE TBC

 

 

SUN 6TH SEPT

RUTH SHARMAN + STEPHEN BOYCE – READING

JEN FEROZEREADING AND WORKSHOP + POEMS ON THE SPOT ALL DAY

Elvis McGonagall and Tony Kerrins reading and discussion to tie in with EXHIBITION ON SITE, more info and TICKETS ON SALE SOON!

OPEN MIC + music

 

More to be announced asap

TICKETS FOR WORKSHOPS ON SALE SOON !

We are hugely grateful to the T S Eliot Foundation for their support and funding, without which this poetry weekend would not be possible ♥ 

Jerk Chicken and Veggie Curry and BAR on site all weeeknd!

No Parking on site except for accessible needs in which case please email info@sandyhillarts.co.uk to reserve a space. Parking NT carpark nearby.

 

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Jen Feroze Workshop
£15
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Jen Feroze Workshop - 3.00-4.30pm

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Elvis McGonagall & Tony Kerins Talk and Reading 12.00 - 13.00pm
£10
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Elvis McGonagall & Tony Kerins Talk and Reading Ticket - Seated. 12.00 - 13.00pm

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Date
6th September 2026
Time
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
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