Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our online contemporary poetry reading series continues throughout 2025.

We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every time!

Our guest poet this month is the poet, novelist and performer Harry Josephine Giles, reading from her latest poetry collection Them! published by Picador in 2024. Giles deploys dynamic language and creative typography to explore trans life with irony, fury, possibility and playfulness in all its complexity. Our presiding spirit of this series William Wordsworth was equally a revolutionary in his commitment to give a voice to people who were homeless or living in poverty, often using his poetry to critique the social conventions of his time.

Our open mic theme this month then is to bring a poem that is a portrait of someone else – whether that is a stranger you met on the bus, or your oldest, closest friend. Embrace complexity, welcome possibility and playfulness, and typographical shenanigans in homage to the work of Harry Josephine Giles are welcome.