The last Mirrorball Showcase of 2025 will feature a stellar line-up with award-winning poet Clare Pollard, supported by Taylor Strickland, Stewart Sanderson, Theresa Muñoz and Roger West.

. . . all this and a Christmas poetry book swap as well!

(if you wish to join in the book swap then bring along a nearly-new poetry book, wrapped up and ready to put in a lucky-dip pile to swap)

Clare Pollard’s sixth collection of poetry with Bloodaxe is Lives of the Female Poets. Her poem ‘Pollen’ was nominated for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. Clare has also recently written the children’s novel The Untameables, and the adult novel The Modern Fairies, which won the Tadeusz Bradecki prize. She is the Artistic Director of Winchester Poetry Festival.

Taylor Strickland’s new book is Dwell Time. His first collection,_ Dastram/Delirium, won the Saltire Society’s Poetry Book of the Year and was a PBS Translation Choice. His work has featured in Poetry London, New Statesman, The TLS, and elsewhere. He lives in Glasgow with his wife, Lauren, and daughter, Eimhir.

Stewart Sanderson is a Glasgow-based poet, whose work has been recognised by a number of awards and fellowships. The author of two pamphlets, Fios (2015) and An Offering (2018), his first full-length collection, The Sleep Road, was published by Tapsalteerie in 2021. His new collection, Weathershaker, continues his collaboration with Tapsalteerie.

Theresa Muñoz was born in Vancouver, Canada and lives in Edinburgh. She is a poet, researcher and creative producer. She has a PhD in Scottish Literature from the University of Glasgow, where she wrote the first PhD on the work of Tom Leonard. Her first collection of poetry, Settle, was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize. Her second, Archivum, was published in 2025 by Pavilion Poetry. She has been awarded the Muriel Spark Centenary Award, Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, Creative Scotland Award and shortlisted for The Kavya Prize and a Sky Arts Royal Society of Literature Writers Award. She has produced several literary initiatives in the UK, including the Newcastle Poetry Festival and James Berry Poetry Prize.

Roger West is a poet and performer, a punk long before and long after it was fashionable. The former singer and songwriter with a number of bands – Inside Leg, Billy Goat Gruff, Cats Like Plain Crisps, Roger West & His Own Worst Enemies – he has recorded several what he persists on calling LPs. Scottish by origin, European by inclination, upholder of the Auld Alliance, he also has a presence in France where he performs regularly at poetry festivals combining poetry with live music and electronic soundscapes. He writes and performs in English and in French and translates poetry between the two for dual-language readings. His recent book Hommages Sémaphoriques was published earlier this year and Be That as It May won the Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize at this year’s Wigtown Festival.