POETRY WEEKEND : 5-6 SEPT 2026 – Saturday
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, RIWA SAAB, and more
with funding from the T S ELIOT FOUNDATION
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ISABELLE BAAFI (main pic) 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 TLS, The Poetry Review, Callaloo, The London Magazine and elsewhere. She edits at Poetry London and Magma. (Pic: Jolade Olusanya)
ISABELLE BAAFI will be running a workshop £15 and giving a reading (FREE to public, with thanks to our funders The T S ELIOT FOUNDATION)
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12.30 – 1pm ISABELLE BAAFI and RACHEL LONG on stage, reading and discussion FREE !
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2 – 3:30 pm ISABELLE BAAFI WORKSHOP – TICKETS ON SALE (see below). ISABELLE BAAFI will run an afternoon workshop. Tickets £15 and places limited to 15
Isabelle’s WORKSHOP will be:
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, was 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.
3:45 – 5:15 RACHEL LONG WORKSHOP – £15, places limited to 15, tickets below. Info here:
Writing Desire: Love, Memory & Transformation
Drawing on the work of Sharon Olds, Marie Howe and Amy Key, this workshop explores the rich terrain of desire, intimacy, memory, the body and becoming. Through close reading and generative writing exercises, we’ll examine how these contemporary poets transform deeply/’apparently’ personal experience into work that is expansive, surprising and emotionally resonant, discovering new possibilities for voice, image and narrative along the way. Expect to leave with a clutch of new, daring poems.
Open to writers of all experience levels
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
5.30 PERFORMING POETS c/o Words to Inspire Purbeck Sounds radio show
Discover the magic of our local poetry voices. Join us at the ‘Words to Inspire’ Poetry Show. Guests take us into their poetry world. Support our local poets who bring their words and worlds to life. We start at 17.30 and are followed by an open mic.
6.15 Open Mic session. Come along and sign up on the day. Spaces limited.
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7.30 pm SAT EVENING VARIETY EVENT – TICKETS £15
LIVE AND WILD – INSPIRATIONAL –
NOT TO BE MISSED!
RIWA SAAB, BAZ LEWIS AND SUFFER FOR ME!
RIWA SAAB (pic above) is a poet, theatre-maker, sound designer, and puppeteer. An alumnus of the Barbican Young Poets collective and a Roundhouse Slam Finalist, her poetry has been published in And Other Poems, Rusted Radishes, and Sukoon magazine, and has been shortlisted for Best Single Poem for the 2026 Forward Prizes.
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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.
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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
and also RIWA SAAB, recently shortlisted for the prestigious 2026 FORWARD PRIZE for POETRY – more information coming soon …
S ⇒ U ⇒ N ⇒ D ⇒ A ⇒ Y
Click here for Sunday details and tickets
Running order
SAT 5TH SEPT
12.30 – 1.30 pm : ISABELLE BAAFI and RACHEL LONG READING and DISCUSSION
2 – 3.3o pm : Isabelle Baafi Workshop
3: 45 – 5. 15 pm : Rachel Long workshop
5.30 – 6.30 OPEN MIC + music
7.30 pm : LIVE AND WILDMUSIC AND POETRY VARIETY EVENT – WILD, INSPIRATIONAL AND NOT TO BE MISSED!
FEATURING: ELLA CRUZ with Grady Moomaw + Baz Lewis + Riwa Saab and more tbc
SUN 6TH SEPT
12 pm : RUTH SHARMAN + STEPHEN BOYCE – READING and discussion (FREE)
1 pm : JEN FEROZE – READING and …
2 – 3.30 pm : Jen Feroze WORKSHOP (£15 X 15 PLACES ONLY)
+ JEN FEROZE POEMS ON THE SPOT ALL DAY – NOT TO BE MISSED!
4 pm : Elvis McGonagall and Tony Kerins reading and discussion to tie in with EXHIBITION ON SITE, more info and TICKETS ON SALE SOON! £8
TICKETS FOR WORKSHOPS ON SALE NOW !
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 those with accessibility needs in which case please email info@sandyhillarts.co.uk to reserve a space. Parking NT carpark nearby.
