This is the first of two lounges which spotlight the work of poets who have read in our open mics.

Corinna Board is a remarkable poet and close observer of the natural world. She teaches English as an additional language in an Oxford secondary school. Arboreal, her debut pamphlet, was published in 2024 by Black Cat Poetry Press. Her second pamphlet, Mædwe (Salò Press) was released in February 2026. Her microchapbook The Little Book of Moss was published by The Braag in July 2026. Corinna's recent work appears in Tendrils (Silver Press/ Field-notes Collective), Mslexia, Poetry London and Ecoshock.  

"There is joy in greening; equally, in the playful methods deployed to represent something so wild, more-than-human, and beyond order. That’s what Corinna Board’s Mædwe communicates, through the pastoral and lostoral; in the way she manoeuvres Old English language, typography and form, and a bucolic childhood lost to both the speaker and our accelerated world. These poems of meadows, fields and creatures burst forth with fierce energy like the ‘frothy mess’ of cuckoo spit around a green stem. Will we listen? Yes, ‘more song! (please) more song!’ – Tom Branfoot

Daniel Hinds’s debut poetry collection New Famous Phrases was published by Broken Sleep Books, and won the international UNESCO Bridges of Struga Award from Struga Poetry Evenings. He won the Poetry Society’s Timothy Corsellis Young Critics Prize. His poetry was commended in the National Centre for Writing’s UEA New Forms Award and has been published in The London Magazine, The New European, Wild Court, Poetry Salzburg Review, Stand, Southword, Shearsman, and elsewhere, and broadcast on BBC platforms. Daniel’s stage adaptation of his BBC audio piece, The Stone Men of Newcastle, was a Runner-Up for the Pomegranate Poetry Theatre Prize, and was performed by Théâtre Volière at the Poetry Plays Festival at the Cockpit Theatre, London. 

In New Famous Phrases, Daniel Hinds unearths sparkling treasures from the word-hoard. Classic themes are given witty and innovative twists: Apollo becomes the god of moonboots and Ted Hughes’s Crow inspires a mischievous magpie. Come and revel in the rites of spring, voyage with a young mariner, and enjoy innovative review-responses to contemporary voices. New Famous Phrases brims with freshness and virtuosity.— Dr Yvonne Reddick.

There will be an open mic at this event. To book an open mic slot (1 poem lasting not more than 2 minutes) please choose an open mic ticket. Please note there is no need to also buy a general audience ticket.

If the open mic slots are sold out, we will start operating a reserve list. We often find that people on the list do get to read, so it is well worth putting your name down. Follow the instructions on the booking page.

The Poetry Festival is entirely reliant on ticket sales and donations to fund our work. Our tickets are pay-what-you-want, please be generous.