Live Poetry at Riverhouse, our monthly series bringing the spoken word to the warm, intimate setting of the Barn stage, returns with more guest poets reading and discussing their work, plus the ever popular Open Mic spots, where you have the chance to read your own work to a friendly, appreciative audience! The evenings are once again hosted by Riverhouse Poets tutor Katie Griffiths.
This month, Katie will be in conversation with KATE NOAKES, author of nine collections of poetry, and member of the Welsh Academy of Letters, and NIA BROOMHALL, poet in residence at Painshill Park, and winner of the Mslexia Pamphlet Prize.
Kate Noakes lives in Bristol. She has read her work all over the country including at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and the Poetry and Words stage at Glastonbury Festival. Elected to the Welsh Academy of Letters in 2011, her website www.boomslangpoetry.blogspot.com is archived by the National Library of Wales. Kate has a PhD in Critical and Creative Writing from the University of Reading and her new book arising from this work, Sublime Lungs, is published by Two Rivers Press this month. Bog Queens, a pamphlet from Green Bottle Press, is going to be published in June this year. Kate is also one-third of Bristol poetry performance group, Braid www.braidpoetry.com
Nia Broomhall is Poet in Residence at Painshill Park in Cobham. Her debut pamphlet Backalong won the Mslexia Pamphlet Prize and was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2024. She won the Poetry Society’s Hamish Canham Award the same year. Her poems have been widely published. Currently co-Head of English at a comprehensive school, she has been teaching for 25 years; the best hour of her week is Poetry Club on Friday afternoons. She runs workshops and inclusive Poetry Nights in her community. Originally from Somerset, she comes from a long line of West Country women who talk to strangers and embarrass their children.
https://www.niabroomhall.co.uk
Katie Griffiths is author of The Attitudes and the prize-winning My Shrink is Pregnant. She came second in 2018’s National Poetry Competition, and in 2024 won the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize. Her next book Mindset Mindrise is due from Nine Arches Press in September 2026. She has read her poetry in festivals in England, Ireland and Spain, regularly mentors, and leads poetry workshops including here at Riverhouse.