The Church Hall Port Sunlight, Wirral, CH62 5DL
Saturday 3 October 2026 – 2.30-5.00PM
Tickets:
£6 for online bookings
£7 On the Door (Subject to availability)
Carers Accompanying adults Free with Access Card
Three poets read from their recent publications:
Zoe Brooks (Something and Nothing),
Caroline Smith (Bycatch) shortlisted for this year’s Forward Prize for Best Collection
Barry Woods (Where Did All the Punks Go?)
Zoe Brooks is an award-winning writer and performer of poetry from Gloucestershire, where she is a director of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival.
Her first collection was Owl Unbound (Indigo Dreams Publishing 2020), and her long poem for voices Fool’s Paradise (Black Eyes Publishing) was published as a print book in 2022.
Zoe’s latest collection Something In Nothing (Indigo Dreams 2026) weaves together the lives of various fairytale characters in a contemporary setting to explore difficult issues and has been described as a “book of hagstones, and unoiled hinges”, and “an utterly electrifying read!”
Caroline Smith studied Fine Arts (Sculpture) at Goldsmiths College, London University. She now lives in Wembley where she works with refugees. Her poetry collection, The Immigration Handbook, (Seren) was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and translated into Italian.
Smith has been widely published in journals and anthologies such as The Poetry Review, The Spectator and ‘Staying Alive’ (Bloodaxe). She has won prizes and been shortlisted in many poetry competitions including, The Alpine International, The Keats/Shelley, The Wirral Festival prize and The National Poetry Competition.
Smith’s poetry has been set to music by the British Argentinian composer Silvina Milstein and sung by the BBC Singers. Her new collection, Bycatch (Nine Arches Press) was published in October 2025 and has been shortlisted for this year’s Forward Prize for Best Collection. She is a 2025 Hawthornden Fellow.
Barry Woods is a contemporary free verse poet, editor, and spoken-word organiser based in Birkenhead, who has been a prominent fixture on the Merseyside poetry circuit for over twenty years. He is widely recognised for capturing the local cultural history, subcultures, and social landscapes of the North West.
His work balances sharp social criticism with an underlying, warm nostalgia. He explores Generation X rebellion, pop culture, and the bitter-sweet reality of human resilience amidst economic struggle.
