TALKS

Talks

Saturday - August 1st

The Magic at the Roots of Words

All words come from… somewhere. They have threads and backstories connected to other places and times, and can contain at their core a surprising flavour we didn’t expect. Did you know, for example, that the word ‘thrill’ stems from a Middle English word meaning ‘to pierce’ or ‘perforate’, such as with a spear or arrow? So ‘thrill’ has packaged within it an extra dimension that can give us additional food for thought. In their origins, words can indeed contain such intriguing visual images, and perhaps also the remedy to help us get out of stuck ways of thinking. As adventuring poets who seek the fresh and the different, taking our trowels to dig around at the roots of words can lead us down new, unforeseen – we could even say ‘thrilling’ – paths. In this talk, Katie will tell stories of words that took her off-piste and cross-country, into thickets and back out into unplanned poetic landscapes.

Sunday - August 2nd

From Class Dropout to Regional Laureate: Defying Expectations and Embracing Limitless Expression

Inspired by his journey from disengaged student to internationally recognised poet and founder of the Surrey Poet Laureateship, Adam Gary presents an honest and uplifting talk about creativity, identity, and the courage it takes to pursue your passion. Blending personal storytelling with reflections on poetry, performance, mental health, and artistic purpose, this talk explores how creativity can transform not only the individual, but entire communities. Whether you are an artist, writer, performer, or simply someone searching for meaning in what you love, this is a powerful reminder that the world needs what only you can create. Talk by Adam Gary

Taking Inspiration from Places and People

Poets don’t come to the page empty-handed. Shimmering behind every poem are the things that have shaped us, that will help shape our writing, if we let them. In this talk, Nia Broomhall will introduce you to the people and places that shaped the poems in her Mslexia Prize-winning pamphlet Backalong, and bring some of her favourite poems along for the ride. Expect wildly unstable Somerset accents and interactive elements that will get you thinking about the places and people that shimmer behind you. Talk by Niam Broomhall

Meet the Speakers

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.

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.