Hello all! Apologies for the long silence on this blog. I’ve been hard at work completing my PhD on authenticity in contemporary UK spoken word. I’m due to submit and defend over the next couple of months, then I’m looking forward to diving headlong into freelance life, working as a poet, producer, educator, editor, etc!

I’m also looking forward to getting this blog up and running again with essays and insights on the UK spoken word poetry scene. If you have any ideas for a guest post, or a blog you’d like to see, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

In the meantime, here’s a blog post I wrote earlier this summer for the wonderful guys at Poetry AF. It’s part of their series – deep breath – Eight Poems That, If You Had to Be Trapped In Some Way For a Prolonged Period Of Time With Little Hope of Rescue, You’d Quite Like to Bring Along For Coping Purposes. I really enjoyed the process of picking out the eight poems that most comfort and inspire me, and in gathering them realised a few threads tying them together. Hope you enjoy!

https://poetryasfuck.wordpress.com/2019/07/17/eight-poems-with-katie-ailes/