Hello ghost lovers! We are so excited to share that we will be in residence at Sheaf Poetry Festival in Sheffield this May. Sheffield is one of the first places we ever ran events, so we're really excited to return in such a big way.
Our two big events at Sheaf will be on Friday 26 May and they'll both be taking place at our spookiest venue yet: the Samuel Worth Chapel at Sheffield General Cemetery.
First, we're running a Dead [Women] Poets Society zine workshop, where our co-directors Lily Arnold and Jasmine Simms will be inspiring you to make poems and zines after our literary great-great-great-grandmothers. This is always a fun, relaxed and inspiring workshop and we encourage you to take your poetry zines and spread them across Sheffield! It's 4-6pm on Friday 26 May and tickets are £18/£15/free.
Then, hot on the heels of our workshop, we'll be hosting a séance that same evening from 7.30pm. This time, New Poets Prize winners Charlotte Shevchenko Knight and Safia Kahn will be communing with the spirits of Ukrainian poet and activist Lesia Ukrainka (1871-1913) and Lebanese-Palestinian poet, essayist and translator May Ziadeh (1886-1941). This will be followed by our popular open mic, where poets of all genders and none can take to the stage. Our only rule? You have to read a poem by a dead woman poet as well as (or instead of) your own. Tickets are £12/10/pay as you feel.
We've also had a recorded conversation and informal zine-making session with the other poet in residence at Sheaf, the lovely Luke Worthy, and Sheaf will be releasing this as a nice bit of online content in the run-up to the festival. Keep an eye out on their social media for that @SheafPoetryFest on Twitter and @sheafpoetry on Instagram.