Jennifer Lee Tsai Readings
'Powerful and distinct, Jennifer’s poems weave historical and personal trauma into a vivid, striking exploration of family, heritage, and personhood. Her work balances emotional depth, clarity, and sharp wit. At times meditative and lyrical, at others bold and incisive, Jennifer offers poetry that is both intimate and resonant.' – Romalyn Ante
Jennifer Lee Tsai’s first full-length poetry book Melete, published by Bloodaxe in May 2026, explores family history, intergenerational trauma, love, loss and belonging through the perspective of a second-generation British Chinese identity. Melete interweaves dual cultures and heritages through narratives of memory, migration and mysticism across Liverpool, China and Hong Kong.
Jennifer Lee Tsai is a poet, writer and artist. Born in Bebington on the Wirral, she grew up in Liverpool, where she still lives. She has published two pamphlets, Kismet (ignitionpress, 2019) and La Mystérique (Guillemot Press, 2022), with her first full-length poetry book, Melete, published by Bloodaxe in 2026. She is a fellow of The Complete Works, a Ledbury Poetry Critic, and a former Contributing Editor to Ambit. She has received a Northern Writers' Award for Poetry and is a winner of the Rebecca Swift Foundation’s Women Poets’ Prize. She has worked as a teacher of English to students in universities and colleges as well as within community settings. She is the recipient of an AHRC doctoral scholarship in Creative Writing at the University of Liverpool and an Artist in Residence at the Bluecoat’s studios through the Wittenham Bursary. Her poetry, essays and reviews have been published in publications including The Guardian, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Telegraph, The TLS and The White Review, as well as being broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
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'Melete is the debut collection by the exceptional poet Jennifer Lee Tsai, a Northern Writers’ Award winner in 2020. Jennifer’s collection follows on from her absorbing and expansive two pamphlets, Kismet (ignitionpress) and La Mystérique (Guillemot). The poems in Melete reflect on Jennifer’s upbringing in Liverpool, migration, memory and family history.' – Will Mackie, New Writing North (New and Recent Poetry from the North, Spring 2026)
‘Debut poets are so often described as “daring” that the word has lost its shine. However, in the first full-length collection by Jennifer Lee Tsai – a Liverpool-based fellow of the Complete Works programme founded by Bernardine Evaristo – its true meaning glimmers through. This courage is shaped by moving stories of her family’s migration to the UK […] “With this – she writes herself / back into existence,” Lee Tsai writes in Rebirth. It is words, after all, that first provided her with an escape, lifting her from the monotony of pressing lids on to food containers in her family’s Chinese takeaway, to lyrical flights that would make any poet proud.’ – Jade Cuttle, The Observer (Poetry Books of the Month), on Melete
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Jennifer Lee Tsai launched Melete on publication day at Toppings St Andrews, and then at Bluecoat in Liverpool on 3 June 2026. She gave a pre-publication reading at Cork International Poetry Festival in May 2026. Scroll down to see a video of her joint online Bloodaxe launch with Tishani Doshi.
More readings to follow later in 2026 - details to be confirmed.
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Thursday 18th June, 7pm
Guillemot Press online launch event: Erica Hesketh with Jennifer Lee Tsai & Imogen Wade
Jennifer Lee Tsai will be a guest reader alongside Imogen Wade at the online launch of Erica Hesketh's new collection To an Unknown Receiver.
Free Zoom event - details and booking link here.
PAST EVENTS
Tuesday 19 May 2026, online launch event for Melete
Tishani Doshi and Jennifer Lee Tsai joined us for this launch event for new May 2026 titles. Patricia Smith was originally advertised as taking part but was unable to due to unforeseen circumstances. Both Tishani and Jennifer celebrated the publication of their new books by reading selections from them and discussing their work with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley.
This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/4x0gzWrAClU
[23 March 2026]
