Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our contemporary poetry reading series continues throughout 2024. We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each online event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every time!

Our next event will feature the poet Mimi Khalvati. She was awarded the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2023, and in 2024 her Collected Poems will be published with Carcanet. At the heart of Mimi’s work is a commitment to formal innovation, whether that is a playful re-imagining of the ghazal or ­­­pushing the boundaries of the sonnet. This can also be seen in the poetry of William Wordsworth, who famously experimented with the ballad tradition in Lyrical Ballads, and renovated traditional forms such as the sonnet and the ode.

Our open mic theme this month is to bring a poem that experiments with form in some way – whether that is through re-inventing or re-imagining, through engaging with tradition or talking back to it – please feel free to interpret this theme widely!