Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our online contemporary poetry reading series continues throughout 2025.

We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every time!

Our next event will feature the brilliant poet and editor Erica Hesketh. Erica will be reading from her debut poetry collection In the Lily Room (Nine Arches, 2025). Erica’s poems excavate the transformational journey of early motherhood, in lyrical, image-drenched poems that never fail to find the wonder in the everyday, the extraordinary in the ordinary. This focus on the ordinary is a concern that links Erica’s work with the work of our presiding spirit of the reading series, William Wordsworth. In Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads, we see a deep desire to write ordinary life, time and time again.

Open mic

Our open mic theme this month is to write about the ordinary and everyday, and make them extraordinary. As ever, feel free to interpret the theme widely!

Open mic slots are limited and must be booked in advance.  Each open mic poem should be no longer than two minutes. Email Kim Moore at wordsworthreadingseries@outlook.com for a slot. Slots do book up quickly, so don’t leave it to the last minute!

This event is a Zoom webinar and the audience will not appear on screen. If you have bought a ticket and signed up to the open mic your audio and video will be enabled during the open mic.

Five free places are available for those experiencing financial hardship that would otherwise not be able to attend. You can select this option during online checkout. If you have booked a free place and find that you can’t attend, please let us know so that we can make this available to someone else.

Automatic live captions will be provided.