Verve Poetry Festival is Birmingham’s currently only poetry festival – and it’s brand new! Starting from an idea on Twitter earlier this year, Verve has spread some serious roots into the local literary community and has set up a wonderful weekend. Curating some of the best modern poets, publishers, performers and spoken word artists from around the country, Verve is injecting life into central Waterstones Birmingham and taking over all three floors for one weekend. Burning Eye is thrilled to be involved alongside so many influential and brilliant groups like Out-Spoken Press, Apples and Snakes, Nine Arches Press and The Anti-Slam with Paula Varjack and Dan Simpson.

Burning Eye will be at Waterstones on Sunday where from 1 – 3pm, Clive Birnie will be facilitating a workshop introducing techniques for redaction, montage and cut-up, using your smartphone to unlock creativity and to find the connections between analogue and digitial, page and performance. Book tickets

From 3 – 5pm Jenn Hart will be hosting the Burning Eye showcase with Emily Harrison, Hannah Teasdale, Pete (the Temp) Bearder and Jess Green so make sure you get a seat for that! Book tickets

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the programme and we’ll see you in Birmingham!