An unmissable chance to experience two of the the world's most illuminating poets on their visit from the US. 

Carolyn Forché is a world-leading poet of witness, human rights activist, teacher and translator. Her multiple award-winning poems are testimonies, enquiries and calls to action and reflection, marrying the personal and political to extraordinary effect. Her work has been described as a ‘means to attain understanding, reconciliation, and peace within communities and between communities’. She will be reading from her brand new Otherwise: New and Selected Poems 1976-2026 (Bloodaxe Books) which includes a selection of new work.

‘Carolyn Forché’s politically engaged work redefines lyric poetry through its attention to history and care for the world’ (Windham Campbell Prizes)

‘(Carolyn Forché hovers above the lacerated landscape of history filing the holes ‘between saying and said’ (C.D. Wright)

Kwame Dawes. The multiple award-winning poet laureate of Jamaica, Kwame has written over thirty works of poetry, plays and fiction, most recently the highly praised Sturge Town and Forward Prize-winning Progeny of Air, both published in the UK by Peepal Tree Press. He is also an acclaimed academic and critic. Kwame’s poetry has been described by Martin Espada as ‘the music of survival and transcendence.’ He is the current Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival.

He creates worlds in a music, and a music for the fleeting world. (Jess Nathan McSweeneys)

‘Visceral, memorable and urgent lyricism – a poetry of compassion, moral seriousness and depth that resonates across continents.’’ (Windham Campbell Prizes)