Raise the Bar
🔵 South West England's acclaimed poetry and live arts events.
✍️ 2025 Artist Development Programme funded by @artscouncilengland.bsky.social
🎫 Tickets & Opportunities linktr.ee/rtbspokenword 🎫
@lyrafest.com
Lyra runs Bristol's Poetry Festival, City Poet, Young City Poet & community collabs. Festival supported by ACE. Next Festival: 25 Apr - 4 May '25 www.lyrafest.com
@rkokayokay.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Comparative Poetry and Poetics. Co-director Bristol Poetry Institute. Out now: HÉLIO OITICICA: SECRET POETICS. Out next: DETROIT'S ALTERNATIVE PRESS: DISPATCHES FROM THE AVANT-GARAGE. Bristol, England // Lake Michigan
@andrewkelly.bsky.social
Writer, festival director, interviewer, visiting professor UWE. Projects: ideas events, Future City Film Festival, John Boorman, John Berger, William Gray Walter, revisiting J B Priestley, and writing my book on Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
@stgeorgesbris.bsky.social
Grade II* listed building. Grade 5 music theory. Independent live music venue in the heart of Bristol. Music | Festivals | Ideas | Family | Café Bar
@davidellington.bsky.social
Deaf/BSL user, artist & film maker 🌈 working in the umbrella of creative arts.
@pascalvpoet.bsky.social
He/him. Poet. Nonbinary Person. Pagan. Perliginous pandemian pensmith. Good Listeners out with Burning Eye. 📓🗝🌒✨💀🎧
@katlyonsartist.bsky.social
Writer, performer, creative producer, wkshop facilitator, fungi-friend, hedgewitch, QueerAF 🍄🌈 🍉 https://linktr.ee/katlyons Former Bristol City Poet, co-host w. Raise the Bar, collection Love Beneath the Nails published by Verve Poetry Press.
@spice8rack.bsky.social
Nice Communist. Often YouTuber. It/Them. https://linktr.ee/spice8rack
@fayroberts.bsky.social
Queer, disabled, Welsh(ish), progressive performance poet/ musician/ project manager/ event host/ musician/ award-winning voice actor. Lover of spreadsheets and creative writing. ze/zir or they/them/their https://linktr.ee/fayroberts
@bristolpoetry.bsky.social
Official account of the Bristol Poetry Institute at the University of Bristol. Blog https://poetry.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/. Insta @ thebristolpoetryinstitute. Events on #UoBrisBPILive
@melaniebranton.bsky.social
Spoken word artist, Green Party member, lover of linguistics and cryptic crosswords, hater of plastic (she/her or they/them)
@livtorc.bsky.social
Poet and project weaver. Director of Hot Poets, Haiflu, Banana Poems, Hip Yak Poetry… runs poetry stage at WOMAD, UN Consultant.
@speaking-volumes.bsky.social
A live literature organisation getting underrepresented voices heard, reaching diverse audiences and finding exciting ways to present writers. https://linktr.ee/speakingvolumes?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=b591d9c3-0f16-46cd-a964-600542abf00d
@bernardineevaristo.bsky.social
10 books inc. Girl, Woman, Other (Booker Prize 2019), Mr Loverman (2013) a BBC1 TV series in 2024 & Manifesto (2021). Professor of Creative Writing, Brunel University of London (Profile portrait by Valerie Asiimwe Amani)
@mrjohnmccullough.bsky.social
Poet. Winner of the Hawthornden Prize for Literature with Reckless Paper Birds. Forward & Costa-shortlisted. Working-class writer. New book: Panic Response (Penned in the Margins). He/him. 🏳️🌈
@josiealfordpoet.bsky.social
"Gateway drug to poetry" - stranger at a gig Debut Collection: Faulty Manufacturing - www.josiealford.com Check out my YouTube channel for all things poetry. https://www.youtube.com/@JosieAlfordPoet
@poetryod.bsky.social
2021 UK Poetry Slam Champion 🏆 Poet • Editor • Mentor • Event Organiser House of O’Driscoll ✨✌️ 🏳️🌈♿️🥄☘️🇮🇪⚔️📝🇬🇧🍉
@samjgrudgings.bsky.social
Host at Large. Occasional artist. Horror Laureate. Sober AF. Loud Yelling. He/him. Books with Verve Poetry Press & Broken Sleep Read my Poems - https://linktr.ee/samjgrudgings
@arvonfoundation.bsky.social
The Home of Creative Writing. Writing courses and retreats online and at three UK countryside homes. https://linktr.ee/arvon_
@mrirwin.bsky.social
Out-Spoken Press Emerging Poet 2022. Published in Poetry Review, Propel, Alchemy Spoon, Outcrop, berlin lit, Carmen et Error, Trasna. Photographer.
@calebparkinpoet.bsky.social
Poet 💡 PhDing, Exeter RENEW Biodiversity 🌿 'Mingle' - Nine Arches ☣️ 'The Coin' - Broken Sleep 🪙 Bristol City Poet, '20-22 🦄 Ecopoetry, queer ecologies 🐙 Music, dancing, DJing 🎶 Say hello 👋🏼 https://linktr.ee/CalebParkin
@rachaelboast.bsky.social
Disability advocate, editor and author. Recent publications: Hotel Raphael (Picador, 2021) and TIMESLIPS (Clutag Press, 2024)
@carrieetter.bsky.social
Poet and novelist, latest Grief's Alphabet (Seren, 2024) | Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at U of Bristol | Grief, trauma, and the environment | All the 🐈⬛! | Foodie | Dem 🇺🇸 expat in Bristol, UK | Insta: https://www.instagram.com/carrie__etter
@foundationswift.bsky.social
Advancing the craft, creativity and wellbeing of women poets in the UK
@ogdenlaurie.bsky.social
Poet, Playwright, Actor, Access Support Worker. Represented by The Artist Partnership. Published by flipped eye. Co-editor of And Other Poems. www.laurieogden.co.uk
@jacobslr.bsky.social
Writer, reader, editor, facilitator, programme leader, artistic director. Geeks for mobile computing, creative coding, generative tech, ergomech keyboards, sci-fi & spec fic...
@kimmoorepoet.bsky.social
Poet and non-fiction writer. Latest poetry collection "All The Men I Never Married" won the 2022 Forward Prize. Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Substack: https://shorturl.at/Ea3sI
@carolinebirduk.bsky.social
Poet & playwright. 7th poetry collection, Ambush at Still Lake, out from Carcanet: https://shorturl.at/JXYCR. Winner of Forward Prize for Best Collection 2020 www.carolinebird.co.uk
@literatureworks.bsky.social
We are a charity in South West England using words and stories to support creativity and wellbeing. We connect people and communities, nurture talent, and champion the power of storytelling, writing and reading. 📖 literatureworks.org.uk
@vervepoetrypress.bsky.social
Prize-winning #Brum based poetry indie making high octane collections and vervey pamphlets. Related to @Vervepoetryfest (did you guess?) 😍 https://vervepoetrypress.com
@holliemcnish.bsky.social
Follow for poetry, random thoughts and new discoveries because poetry and the world is endlessly fascinating and I know nothing. On tour now: www.holliepoetry.com/livedates
@poetclare.bsky.social
Novelist. Poet. Reader. 🏺OVID’S HEROINES 🍼INCARNATION 🐇FIERCE BAD RABBITS 🔮 DELPHI 🏰THE UNTAMEABLES 🧚🏾THE MODERN FAIRIES, etc. ✍️LIVES OF THE FEMALE POETS coming 2025. Substack: Clare’s Poetry Circle
@outspokenpress.bsky.social
Independent poetry publisher 📧[email protected] https://linktr.ee/outspokenpress
@courtneyconrad.bsky.social
🇯🇲🇬🇧 Poet| Cave Canem Fellow| Book'I Am Evidence' @BloodaxeBooks|2022 Eric Gregory Award @Soc_of_Authors |2023 Michael Marks Award| Instagram - @courtneyconradpoetry Website: http://www.courtneyconradpoet.com/
@jobellwriter.bsky.social
Poet, digital salonniere. Host of The Poetic Licence (Patreon) - monthly prompts, famous poet interviews, a creative community. Memoir, BOATER out with HarperNorth in summer '25. https://linktr.ee/BoaterJoBell
@pascalepetit.bsky.social
BEAST April 2025 (Bloodaxe),’Tiger Girl’ shortlisted Forward Prize, ‘Mama Amazonica’ won Ondaatje & Laurel prizes. 1st novel ‘My Hummingbird Father’ from Salt 2024 http://www.pascalepetit.co.uk
@poetrytranslation.bsky.social
Giving the best contemporary poems from Africa, Asia and Latin America a new life in the English language. Books | Events | Workshops | Podcasts https://www.poetrytranslation.org/
@nikeshshukla.bsky.social
Author. Wrote a Spider-Man comic. He wears a mask just to cover the raw flesh. A rather ugly brother with flows that’s gorgeous.