Bloodaxe Books at Newcastle Poetry Festival 2026
Several Bloodaxe poets and editors will be appearing at the 2026 Newcastle Poetry Festival, which is being held at St Mary's Heritage Centre, Gateshead, 2-3 October. Details and booking for all events can be found here.
Friday 2 October
10.30am-12.30pm
POETRY LIVE!
Readings from Imtiaz Dharker and Daljit Nagra, with Examiner Tony Childs.
Poetry Live! (www.poetrylive.net) is aimed at GCSE students, but all are welcome. To book, email bookings@poetrylive.net (ten student tickets = one free teacher ticket).
£5+VAT per student
4.30pm-5pm
Discussion and Reading: "Writing to Commission" with John Challis, Imtiaz Dharker & Theresa Muñoz
John, Imtiaz and Theresa will talk about the process of writing for a commission or a project, and read some poems they have written in this way.
John Challis was born in London in 1984. His pamphlet, The Black Cab (2017), was a 2019 New Writing North Read Regional title. His second full-length collection, The Green Parcel, was published by Bloodaxe in 2026 and was longlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2026. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University.
Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist and video film-maker. She was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 2020 became Chancellor of Newcastle University. Her latest collection is Shadow Reader (2024).
Theresa Muñoz is a Canadian poet and academic living in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her second collection, Archivum (2025), was published by Pavilion Poetry. She has produced several literary initiatives in the UK, including the Newcastle Poetry Festival and James Berry Poetry Prize.
Saturday 3 October
11.45am-12.45pm
Discussion: "The Work of a Poetry Publisher/Editor" with Neil Astley, Sarah Howe, Jo Colley & Julie Hogg
Join us for a discussion between Neil Astley (Bloodaxe), Sarah Howe (Chatto), Jo Colley and Julie Hogg (Blueprint Pamphlets) about their experiences of publishing and editing poetry.
3.15pm-4.15pm
James Berry Competition Winners Reading: Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Nadine El-Enany & Roshni Gallagher
Clementine Ewokolo Burnley grew up in Cameroon and has lived between Scotland, Italy and Germany. She is a joint winner of the 2024 James Berry Prize. Her collection Belling the Leopard (2026) is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
Nadine El-Enany was joint winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize in 2024, when she also won the Newcastle University Chancellor's Poetry Prize. Her first collection of poems, Pelican Daughter, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2026.
Roshni Gallagher is a poet from Leeds living in Edinburgh. Her debut collection Even the Trees is published by Bloodaxe Books and is shortlisted for the Forward Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection 2026.
6pm-8.30pm
Griffin Gala: Rachael Boast, Carolyn Forché, Sarah Howe, Roger Reeves & Aleš Šteger
Rachael Boast is a poet, editor and disability advocate. Her fifth poetry collection, Volvelle, was published by Picador in July 2026. She won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2011 and has been shortlisted for the Griffin Prize (2014) and the T.S. Eliot Prize (2016). She edited the 2025 Bloodaxe Books anthology Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets.
Carolyn Forché was born in Detroit in 1950. Her second book, The Country Between Us (1981), drew on her experiences in El Salvador. Her anthology, Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness (1993), remains a classic text. Otherwhere: New and Selected Poems, 1976-2026 is published by Bloodaxe in September.
Sarah Howe is a Hong Kong-born poet and editor. Her first book, Loop of Jade (2015), won the T.S. Eliot Prize and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Her second collection, Foretokens, was shortlisted for both the T.S.Eliot and Forward prizes. She is Poetry Editor at Chatto & Windus.
Roger Reeves is the author of the award-winning Dark Days: Fugitive Essays (2023) and the poetry collection Best Barbarian (2022), which received the 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.
Aleš Šteger is a poet and prose writer from Ljubljana, Slovenia, whose books have been translated into over 20 languages. His latest publication in English is Burning Tongues: New and Selected Poems, published by Bloodaxe in 2023.
Details of the full Newcastle Poetry Festival programme are on the festival website here.
[27 August 2026]
