Description

Join us in the stunning surrounds of 253-year-old The Leeds Library for one of Leeds’ leading poetry nights! The 14th instalment of  Chelping stars Kim Moore and Becky Cherriman, plus open mic hosted by Matt Abbott.

Don’t miss this! Tickets are £5. Book on the link.

Previous headliners have included internationally renowned performers such as Joelle Taylor, Sabrina Mahfouz, Anthony Anaxagorou, and Theresa Lola. We’ve also had nationally renowned poets including Cecilia Knapp, Jess Green, and Toby Campion.

KIM MOORE

Kim Moore was born in Leicester and now lives in Cumbria. Her début pamphlet ‘If We Could Speak Like Wolves’ was a winner in the 2011 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition and went on to be shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award and the Lakeland Book of the Year. Her début collection ‘The Art of Falling’ (Seren 2015) won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her second collection ‘All The Men I Never Married’ was published by Seren in 2021 and her début non-fiction book ‘What The Trumpet Taught Me’ will be published by Smith/Doorstop in March 2022.

She won an Eric Gregory Award and the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2010 and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Poem in 2015. She won the 2020 Ledbury Poetry Competition and was placed third in the 2021 Mslexia Poetry Competition. Her work has been translated into many languages as part of the Versopolis project and she was a judge for the 2018 National Poetry Competition and the 2020 Forward Prizes.

She was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Bursary in 2016 to carry out PhD research at Manchester Metropolitan University and completed her doctorate in ‘Poetry and Everyday Sexism’ at Manchester Metropolitan University in March 2020. She’s the co-director of Kendal Poetry Festival and hosts a monthly reading series for Wordsworth Grasmere as well as running regular writing workshops for young people and adults.

BECKY CHERRIMAN

Becky Cherriman is a writer, workshop leader and performer based in Leeds. Her work has been named in prizes such as the Women’s Poetry Competition 2019, the Ilkley Literature Festival Open Mic, and the Forward Prize 2017. It’s also been published by Seren, Mslexia, The North, Envoi, Stand, and Bloodaxe, written on umbrellas and hung from a market square. She has a poetry pamphlet ‘Echolocation’ and collection ‘Empires of Clay’. Becky also writes fiction and for theatre and has collaborated regularly with other artists.

Commissioned work includes having been resident poet for Morley Literature Festival and Altofts Lit Fest in a Day, an audio poem for The Cultural Institute in 2020 and Haunt, a site-specific theatre show by Imove, which was inspired by experiences of homelessness. For the last eighteen years, her main occupation has been connecting communities with creative writing and performance. She curates the Speaking to the Shelves workshops at The Leeds Library and works part-time for the University of Leeds Lifelong Learning Centre where she co-leads the creative writing pathway.

OPEN MIC

We have six open mic slots available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please reserve your slot by emailing Matt Abbott at eyup@mattabbottpoet.com. These slots are limited to 3 minutes, and we encourage poets at all stages of their careers.

MATT ABBOTT

Matt Abbott is a poet, educator, and activist from Wakefield. His début one-man show ‘Two Little Ducks’ earned a string of 5* reviews at Edinburgh Fringe 2017 and on a 2018 UK theatre tour. The show’s poems were published as his début poetry collection by Verve Poetry Press in 2018.

Matt’s début kids’ poetry collection ‘A Hurricane in my Head’ was published by Bloomsbury in 2019 and was a National Poetry Day selected title. He formed Nymphs & Thugs, the UK’s leading spoken word record label, in 2015. He also fronts indie outfit Skint & Demoralised. Notable commissions include TV ads for Nationwide Building Society and Leeds United FC’s centenary kit launch.