Verve Poetry Festival: Vervaceous and Competition Anthologies

It has been an honour to be Commended three years in a row in the Verve Poetry Festival Competition, with three brilliant poets as Judges. Helen Mort chose my poem ‘Crocuses, etc.’ in 2024, with my poem published in the anthology, A gift, once given, must not be spurned. Hannah Lowe chose my poem ‘Candle people’ for the 2025 Competition, including it in The poem, I now realised, was a dog. In 2026, Victoria Kennefick selected my poem ‘How to tell when a ghost video is fake’, and it was published in Stitching a net to hold joy. I enjoyed performing my poems at all three Festivals.

I was then overjoyed to be asked to be part of Vervaceous, a super-anthology celebrating Verve and full of legendary poets. I am really looking forward to sharing this anthology with the world.