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VERVE Poetry Festival

@vervepoetryfest.bsky.social

1.3K followers 710 following 290 posts

Festival of Poetry & Spoken Word ✨Back 7-10 May 2026✨#Brum and online✨ Online Multi-press Poetry-only Bookshop @vervepoetryshop✨ https://vervepoetryfestival.com

vervepoetryfestival.com

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 21h

OUR ONLINE BOOKSHOP NEWSLETTER has just dropped announcing our special October offer - across all titles for October only we are offering a 20% discount for a £30 spend. Offer lasts until midnight on 31st Oct. Click through to read more: tinyurl.com/mrx5s77a 😍

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 1h

www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/verve-poet...

www.eventbrite.co.uk

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 1h

Nesting Grounds
Milla van der Have

Shortlisted September.

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 21h

Offer applies to ALL books incl this year's top paperbacks from #PascalePetit @BloodaxeBooks #SarahHowe @ChattoBooks #FionaBenson @JonathanCape #RichardScott @FaberBooks and preorders from #TishaniDoshi #KarenMcCarthyWoolf @DaljitNagra4 and #AdaLimon and more! ❤️ vervepoetrybookshop.com

Pictures of book selections. Visit our website to read more.

Reposted by VERVE Poetry Festival

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 2d

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 21h

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 2d

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 2d

Shortlisted in May

vervepoetry.substack.com/p/may-poems-of-the-month

MAY Poems of the Month

Congratulations to Sam Tongue for the winning poem Bone Garden, and well done to the shortlisted poems featured in this post. May was feral, funny, and full of feeling.

vervepoetry.substack.com

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 2d

The Phoenix Community Garden
@pimlottkathy.bsky.social

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Reposted by VERVE Poetry Festival

Atrium @atriumpoetry.bsky.social · 3d

With the nights drawing in, it's definitely time to snuggle up with a book in the dark evenings, perhaps our Featured Publication - How to Leave a Body by Holly Winter-Hughes

@vervepoetrypress.bsky.social

atriumpoetry.com/2025/08/03/f...

Featured Publication – How to Leave a Body by Holly Winter-Hughes

Our featured publication for Summer is How to Leave a Body by Holly Winter-Hughes, published by Verve Poetry Press. ‘Holly Winter-Hughes’ visceral writing turns the human form inside-ou…

atriumpoetry.com

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 4d

open.substack.com/pub/vervepoe...

JUNE Poems of the Month

These poems confess the burning immediacy of love and bow deeply to those who dare to live outside the rules; non-conformity as devotion, as praise, as force.

open.substack.com

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 4d

Refugee Handbook
Chiwenite Onyekwelu

Shortlisted in June

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 5d

Read in full and subscribe for deeper long pieces on poetry, workshops and poets

open.substack.com/pub/vervepoe...

AUGUST Poems of the Month

This month’s poems embrace chaos of form, of subject, of fragmentation. They reach into nothingness where meaning falters and begins again.

open.substack.com

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 5d

Progress log
@kadienewman.bsky.social

Shortlisted in August.

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 6d

Shortlisted back in April.

Read the selection from our first months POTM.

open.substack.com/pub/vervepoetry/p/poem-of-the-month-april-25-winners?r=27ea6r&utm_medium=ios

Poem of the Month. April '25 Winners Announced!

Our first monthly poetry competition celebrates humour, heartache, and the wonderfully weird.

open.substack.com

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 6d

Alternative Notes for a Love Poem
Maria Taylor

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 6d

Celebrating the shortlisted poems from our Poem of the Month competition launched six months ago throughout October x

Reposted by VERVE Poetry Festival

Lucy English @lucyenglish.bsky.social · 8d

@literatureworks.bsky.social @lyrafest.com @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social @poetrybookshop.bsky.social @filmpoem.bsky.social

Lucy English @lucyenglish.bsky.social · 8d

Poetry Film Festival Sat 18 October at the John Sebastian Lightship, Bristol. A whole day of poetry films, discussions and workshops. Featuring the winners of the Poetry Film Live competition, Celtic poetry films, and acclaimed filmmaker Jane Glennie.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetry-fil...

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 8d

Read all shortlisted with a write up on the winning poem here

open.substack.com/pub/vervepoetry/p/september-poems-of-the-month?r=27ea6r&utm_medium=ios

SEPTEMBER Poems of the Month

This month’s selection gathers poems that move through address, memory, and observation. What binds them is the way images stand in for presence.

open.substack.com

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 8d

Shortlisted poems & poets

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 8d

Septembers Poem of the Month

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Reposted by VERVE Poetry Festival

Katrina Naomi @katrinanaomipoet.bsky.social · 12d

I had a ball launching 'dance as if' @vervepoetrypress.bsky.social at The Edge of the World Bookshop in Penzance. Joelle Taylor calls 'dance as if' 'a radical relearning of the skin and bones of us. The poetry is alive and in constant movement.' www.vervepoetrybookshop.com/product-page...
#poetry

Woman in a long red and white dress with a book, laughing on stage

Woman in a long red and white dress signing copies of her book 'dance as if' in a bookshop

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VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 22d

Submit your entry here

www.vervepoetryfestival.com/submit-poem-of-the-month-competition

VERVE Poem of the Month

www.vervepoetryfestival.com

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 22d

A poetry competition for our poetry community is here. Submit a poem by midnight on Saturday please.

Your words deserve to be read, even if the letters were not.

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · 27d

Read in full - open.substack.com/pub/vervepoetry/p/poet-interview-minal-sukumar?r=27ea6r&utm_medium=ios

VERVE Poetry Festival @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social · Sep 8

Throw your poem in the hat for Septembers POEM OF THE MONTH

www.vervepoetryfestival.com/submit-poem-of-the-month-competition