PANELS

Panels

Saturday - August 1st

Poetry in the Digital Age: Social Media and the Modern Poet

Poetry has always adapted to new forms of communication. From oral traditions to print, radio to television, and now social media, poets continue to find new ways to reach audiences. Platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Substack and Facebook have transformed how poetry is discovered, shared, discussed and consumed. For some poets, social media has provided unprecedented opportunities to build communities and careers. For others, it raises difficult questions about authenticity, artistic integrity, algorithms and attention spans. This panel explores the opportunities and challenges facing poets in an increasingly digital world. Panel Guests: Adam Gary, Dakota Warren, Sharron Green

The Publishing Journey

From first publication to first collection: navigating the world of publishing as a poet. For many poets, seeing their work in print remains one of the most meaningful milestones of a writing life. But with competitions, anthologies, pamphlets, independent presses, self-publishing, and social media all offering different routes, where do you begin? And what does publication really mean in today's literary landscape? Join acclaimed poet Dr Melanie Hyo-In Han for an honest conversation about the realities of publishing poetry. Together, we'll explore how poets build their publishing journey, from first submissions to full collections, and whether publication is a measure of success, a creative ambition, or simply one part of a much larger writing life. Whether you're wondering how to get your first poem accepted, debating between traditional and self-publishing, or dreaming of seeing your own collection on a bookshelf one day, this panel offers practical insights and thoughtful discussion for poets at every stage. Perfect for: Emerging poets, unpublished writers, self-published authors, and anyone curious about the path from notebook to bookshelf.

Sunday - August 2nd

Finding Your Voice: Tradition, Community and the Modern Poet

Every poet begins somewhere. Some discover poetry through books and classrooms. Others find it through open mics, community groups, social media, or personal experiences that demand expression. While every poet's journey is unique, all writers face the same challenge: finding an authentic voice that feels true to who they are. In a world where poetry exists simultaneously in literary journals, festival stages, classrooms, bookshops, and social media feeds, what does it mean to be a poet today? This conversation brings together three poets whose careers have followed very different paths to explore voice, authenticity, audience, tradition, community, and the enduring relevance of poetry in the modern world. Panel Guests: Adam Gary, Katie Griffiths, Len Pennie

Poetry Without Borders: How Different Voices Shape the Art

No two poets see the world in exactly the same way. Our experiences, communities, professions, cultures, beliefs, and personal histories all shape the way we write. Yet despite these differences, poetry has a unique ability to connect people through shared emotions, experiences, and ideas. This panel explores how different perspectives influence poetic voice, the relationship between personal experience and universal themes, and why a rich diversity of voices strengthens poetry as an art form. Through their own creative journeys, Dee Cooper and Divya Hirani will discuss authenticity, storytelling, representation, and poetry's ability to build understanding between people and communities. Panel Guests: Dee Cooper, Divya Hirani, Dr Melanie Hyo-In Han

Poetry, Wellbeing and Empowerment

Poetry has long been a tool for self-expression, reflection, and connection. For many people, writing and reading poetry can help build confidence, process experiences, foster wellbeing, and create a deeper understanding of themselves and others. But poetry is not just a personal practice. It can also empower communities, amplify underrepresented voices, encourage empathy, and inspire meaningful change. This panel brings together three poets and facilitators whose work demonstrates the many ways poetry can transform lives. Through education, community engagement, creative practice, and personal experience, they will explore how poetry helps people find their voice and why that voice matters. Panellists: Jacky Power, Nia Broomhall, Shaniqua Benjamin

Meet the Panelists

Sam Ball - Host

Sam Ball is a poet, performer, and natural host with a sharp wit and unmistakable stage presence. With a background in performing, scriptwriting, and digital storytelling, Sam brings both energy and insight to every room he steps into. Known for his clever humour, lyrical playfulness, and love of language, his work draws influence from the absurd brilliance of Lewis Carroll, Spike Milligan, Edward Lear, and Robert Browning, with a style that is both entertaining and deeply engaging. Whether hosting a panel or delivering poetry, Sam creates spaces that feel lively, intelligent, and impossible to ignore.

Adam Gary FRSA

Adam Gary FRSA is a poet, award-winning filmmaker and former actor, best known as the inaugural Surrey Poet Laureate. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and proud alumnus of the National Youth Theatre, Adam began his creative career working in major productions including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Downton Abbey and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, later returning to screen work with the recent Bob Marley: One Love. His transition into poetry and filmmaking led to the creation of his works including Poetry in Motion, the White Cover Trilogy and The Early Hours. During the pandemic, his poem “And In Our Loneliness We Came Together” was archived by the Surrey History Centre in recognition of its cultural significance during a historic moment. Alongside appearances on Brooklands Radio, BBC Radio London and BBC Radio Surrey, Adam has built a global poetry audience through The Poetry Cove and his YouTube channel, which has amassed nearly 10,000 subscribers, establishing him as a distinctive and inspiring voice in contemporary poetry.

Dee Cooper

Dee Cooper is a Surrey-based Romany writer, poet, playwright, award-winning filmmaker, and community advocate whose work explores cultural identity, love, loss, resilience, and both mental and physical health. Through poetry, life writing, film, theatre, and community arts, she seeks to amplify Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller voices while preserving stories, traditions, and lived experiences. Dee is the founder of Write into Culture, a Gypsy, Roma and Traveller women’s writing group that creates safe and supportive spaces for women to share their stories in their own authentic voices. She believes in the power of words to educate, challenge prejudice, and inspire change, and hopes her writing encourages others to tell their own unheard stories. She is the author of The Gypsy Tales Collection, which is held in the National Poetry Library under Endangered Language. Her work has been published in Shorts Magazine, The Steel Jackdaw, Travellers’ Times, Poem Stellium, Between the Lines Anthology, and The Wee Poetry Press Anthology, and has featured on BBC Upload. Dee was awarded the Malorie Blackman Scholarship 2023/24, and her work proudly appeared in the first Surrey Poet Laureateship Anthology in 2024. Alongside her creative practice, she continues to champion literacy, storytelling, cultural awareness, and community engagement through a range of artistic and educational projects. Through every medium she works in, Dee remains committed to ensuring that Romany stories are told with honesty, dignity, and pride. @Romany_Writer_Dee_Cooper

Katie Griffiths

Katie Griffiths grew up in Ottawa, Canada – the daughter of Northern Irish parents. Now based in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, Katie is author of The Attitudes (Nine Arches Press) and the prize-winning My Shrink is Pregnant (Live Canon). She came second in 2018’s National Poetry Competition, and in 2024 won the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize with ‘Before I stillbirthed the birch’, a poem also selected for this year’s Pushcart Prize 50th Anniversary Anthology. A member of the poetry platform Red Door Poets, she is often involved in online and live poetry events. She has read her poetry at festivals in Belfast, Aldeburgh, Ledbury, Much Wenlock, Arundel, Cork, Bantry, and Cordoba. As a teacher of long-standing, her workshops have occurred in a variety of places – libraries, colleges, healing centres, village halls, also including Alfoxton House in Somerset, a former home of William and Dorothy Wordsworth where Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a frequent visitor. Currently Katie runs workshops at the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre in Walton-on-Thames, where she also presents the monthly Live Poetry sessions that feature two guest headliners and open mic poets. Themes that Katie likes to explore in her poetry include the presence, or absence, of trust – in the body, in the mind, and in unseen worlds that swirl around us. Is there a sturdy rust-free peg we can hang our hat on to these days? Her second full collection, Mindset Mindrise, is due from Nine Arches Press this autumn.

Nia Broomhall

Nia Broomhall is Poet in Residence at Painshill Park in Surrey. Her debut pamphlet Backalong won the Mslexia Poetry 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 published in journals including Bad Lilies, Magma, Propel and The North, and she has twice been Highly Commended in the Winchester Poetry Prize. Currently Co-Head of English at a comprehensive school, Nia has been teaching for 25 years. She runs a happy Poetry Club at school as well as workshops and inclusive poetry nights in her local community.

Bradley Taylor

Bradley Taylor is an award-winning poet born and based in Birmingham. In 2024 he won the Roundhouse Poetry Slam, the night of which was the biggest poetry slam in history. In 2025 he released his debut collection ‘You Missed The Best Part’ before embarking on a nationwide tour. Bradley is the host and curator of Piece of Work, Birmingham's premiere poetry night held at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Bradley has appeared at the Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, The Inspirational Youth Awards, on BBC News and on BBC Radio 6 Music as part of Craig Charle’s ‘Class of 2024’, in which Craig Charles described him as ‘A brand new voice and a fresh perspective on the art of poetry and performance’. Bradley’s work has appeared in Gutter Magazine, Shooter, Strix and across Birmingham train stations as part of Birmingham Hippodrome’s and photographer Paul Stringer’s project The City That Spoke To Me. More recently, he was commissioned to write a poem for Steven Knight, creator of the Peaky Blinders. In 2025, his performance at the Roundhouse was nominated for the Sky Arts award for poetry. He writes for, and about, people.

Divya Hirani

Divya Hirani is a dentist, software architect, and passionate advocate for the transformative power of poetry and creative expression. With a unique professional journey that bridges healthcare, technology, and the arts, she brings a multidimensional perspective to community engagement and social impact. Alongside her professional life, she has nurtured a lifelong appreciation for poetry as a powerful medium for reflection and connection.She supports initiatives that encourage creativity, amplify diverse voices, and make the arts accessible to people from all backgrounds. She believes that poetry has the ability to transcend barriers, inspire understanding, and foster a deeper sense of community. By combining the precision of science, the innovation of technology, and the empathy of the arts, Divya champions the belief that every individual has a story worth telling and a voice worth hearing. Her commitment to service, creativity, and lifelong learning continues to inspire the communities she serves.

Len Pennie

Len Pennie is a poet who writes in both Scots and English. She writes passionately about the promotion of minoritised languages, survivors of domestic abuse and the destigmatisation of mental illness. Her two poetry collections poyums and poyums annaw were instant Sunday Times bestsellers. poyums won Scots Book of the Year in 2024 and was the winner of the British Book Awards Discover Book of the Year in 2025.

Shaniqua Benjamin

Shaniqua is a Writer, Poet, and Facilitator, with over ten years of experience in engaging with communities through the power of words. She was Croydon’s first Poet Laureate from 2020-24. Shaniqua has written poems for the London Mozart Players' Oratorio of Hope, the 2022 One Young World Summit and Leigh-Anne Pinnock’s first solo headline show. Her work has been published by Ink, Sweat & Tears, Magma, and RRB Photobooks, and displayed in the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of Croydon. She has facilitated workshops for numerous schools and organisations, including Spread The Word, Central St Martins, and Crisis.

Dakota Warren

Dakota Warren is a poet, writer and founder of the literary arts journal Nowhere Girl Collective. She is the author of the Goodreads Choice Award nominated poetry collection On Sun Swallowing and was named bCreator's Book Creator of the Year in 2023. Her debut novel, Be Happy I Am Mad, a tale of 1960s sapphic obsession, will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2027. Warren’s work is preoccupied with desire, inheritance, and the making of personal myth, often anchored to her roots in rural Australia.

Jacky Power

Jacky Power, The Therapeutic Poet, is an international speaker and workshop facilitator working where poetry meets psychology. With an MSc in Addiction Psychology and membership with the BACP, she developed the HULP to HOPE framework and her Permission to Feel series; approaches that treat poetry as an everyday human technology: something all of us can use to understand ourselves and one another. Her work has reached audiences through Sky Arts, the Edinburgh Fringe and Mole Valley Arts Alive. This year she is speaking at Wellness in the Wild and Into the Wild festivals. She hosts the podcast Words in the Wilderness. She writes for cycle-breakers - people learning to stay with a feeling rather than swallow it.

Dr Melanie Hyo-In Han

Born in Korea and raised in East Africa, Melanie Hyo-In Han recently moved from the U.S. to the U.K. She is the author of Passing Notes in Secret (boats against the current, 2025), Abecedarian: Banff, Canada (kith books, 2025), My Dear Yeast (Milk & Cake Press, 2023), and Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips (Finishing Line Press, 2021), as well as the translator of several collections of Spanish poetry (Hebel Ediciones). Her work has been supported by fellowships from Gladstone's Library, The Society of Authors, Sundress Academy for the Arts, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and others. Han has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and awards from The International Human Rights Festival, “Boston in 100 Words,” Valiant Scribe, The Lyric Magazine, and elsewhere. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing and an MFA in Poetry and Translation. Currently, Han serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Flora Fiction and the Two Languages Prize Editor at Gasher Press. Learn more about her at melaniehan.com.

Sharron Green

Sharron Green lives in Guildford and is also known as @Rhymes_n_Roses on social media. She writes about nature, nostalgia and modern life and enjoys experimenting with poetry forms. In 2022 she graduated from the University of Surrey with an MA in Creative Writing and was a Head Writer for the Surrey New Writers Festival in 2023. With poems in over 20 international anthologies she has self-published four pamphlets – Introducing Rhymes_n_Roses, Viral Odes, Willing Words and Rhymes for the Mind. They are all available from her website and online bookshops. A copy of Rhymes for the Mind can be found in the National Poetry Library. Sharron loves performing and is a third of the fabulous Booming Lovelies along with Heather Moulson and Trisha Broomfield. Their poetry show features at festivals and events and they share highlights on Instagram @boominglovelies. She also co-hosts a monthly open-mic night in Guildford and occasionally organises poetry workshops. Sharron’s a proud supporter of the Surrey Poet Laureateship and promoter of all forms of poetic expression and poets at all stages of their craft.