VERVACEOUS: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry for our Times
PRE-ORDER
Verve Poetry Press
Published 3 December 2026
VERVACEOUS isn’t a word, but it should be. What better way to describe the
poetry, the feel, the community that has sprung up over the decade years in
Birmingham around VERVE Poetry Festival?
Celebrating 10 years of roof-shaking spoken word sets, readings and workshops
by award-winning poets, boundary-pushing poetry/theatre performances, lively
children’s events, competitions and open mics in a welcoming, open-hearted
and celebratory environment – this anthology contains brand new poems and
old favourites from poets who’ve held us and enthralled us at the festival in the
last decade. And what a fine list of poets they make – a veritable who’s who of
contemporary UK poetry with the odd international poet thrown in for good
measure.
VERVACEOUS isn’t a word. But what else could you call this era defining
anthology of astonishing contemporary poetry!? Celebrate with us! Dive in! This
book, like our festival, has something for everyone!
Full list of poets included (A-Z): Amy Acre – Sanah Ahsan – Katie Ailes - Yousef
Alawi - Rachael Allen – Deborah Alma - Moniza Alvi - Anthony Anaxagorou –
Romalyn Ante – Raymond Antrobus - Sophia Argyris – Mona Arshi - Neil Astley –
Isabelle Baafi – Casey Bailey - Debmalya Bandyopadhyay – Khairani Barokka -
Elaine Beckett – Jo Bell - Dzifa Benson - Fiona Benson – Liz Berry - Caroline Bird -
Hera Lindsay Bird – Leo Boix – Natalie Linh Bolderston - Laurie Bolger - Helen
Bowell – Alison Brackenbury – AV Bridgwood - Nia Broomhall - Judy Brown –
Jane Burn - Hannah Burrows - Troy Cabida – Helen Calcutt - Anthony Vahni
Capildeo - Roberto Salvador Cenciarelli – Sumita Chakraborty - Mary Jean Chan
– Chen Chen – Tim Tim Cheng - Kayo Chingonye – Jenna Clake - Courtney
Conrad - Jack Cooper - Hannah Copley - Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana - Fred
D’Aguiar – Rishi Dastidar – Olga Dermott-Bond - Imtiaz Dharker – Susannah
Dickey – Elle Dillon-Reams – Kat Dixon - Tishani Doshi – Betty Doyle - Afshan
D'Souza-Lodhi - Ella Duffy - Sasha Dugdale – Ian Duhig – Lily Dyu - Jonathan
Edwards – P. A. Erskine - Giovanni Esposito - Carrie Etter – Kit Fan – Louise
Fazackerley - Linda France - Suzannah Evans Furnass - Jay Gao - Toria Garbutt –
Jasmine Gardosi - Elizabeth Gibson - Rebecca Goss – Will Harris - Roma Havers –
Maz Hedgehog - Gustav Parker Hibbett - Alice Hiller – Sarah Howe – Ian
Humphreys - Shagufta Iqbal – Keith Jarrett - Anthony Joseph – Leyla Josephine -
Gayathiri Kamalakanthan - Jaspreet Kaur - Lisa Kelly - Luke Kennard – Victoria
Kennefick - Sean Wai Keung – Suhaiymah Manzour-Khan - Prerana Kumar –
Zaffar Kunial - Vanessa Lampert - Wendelin Law - Gregory Leadbetter –
Mukahang Limbu - Theresa Lola – Rachel Long – Marjorie Lotfi – Hannah Lowe –
Rona Luo – Aoife Lyall - Nick Makoha – Rachel Mann - Roy McFarlane - Andrew
McMillan – Cynthia Miller - Kim Moore – Helen Mort - Daljit Nagra – Katrina
Naomi – Golnoosh Nour – Pey Oh - Padraig O Tuama – Ruth Padel - Alvin Pang –
Astra Papachristodoulou - Sandeep Parmar - Pascale Petit – Heather Phillipson
– Muneera Pilgrim - Kathy Pimlott – Alycia Pirmohamed - Nina Mingya Powles –
Ilisha Thiru Purcell – Emma Purshouse - Helen Quah – Shivanee Ramlochan -
Vidyan Ravinthiran – Yvonne Reddick - Deryn Rees-Jones – Zain Rishi – Roger
Robinson - Ruby Robinson – Jacqueline Saphra - Denise Saul – Peter Scalpello -
Richard Scott – Nicole Sealey - Hannah Silva – Phoebe Stuckes – Hannah
Sullivan - Ellora Sutton – Bradley Taylor - Joelle Taylor – Jessica Traynor - Jennifer
Lee Tsai – Kostya Tsolakis – Max Wallis - Rupinder Kaur Waraich - Julia Webb -
Natalie Whittaker – Rushika Wick - Antosh Wojcik - Jennifer Wong – Gregory
Woods - Karen McCarthy Woolf – Luke Wright – Jane Yeh – Eric Yip – Fathima
Zahra
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