Helen Mort & Kate Millington @ Nine Lives Poetry: 13th July, 7pm, Cafe #9.

We have two goals at Nine Lives Poetry: to bring some of the UK's most exciting performance poets to a Sheffield audience and to create opportunities for budding Sheffield poets to take the next step in their poetry career. Our performance nights will feature an established guest poet, supported by an up-and-coming local poet. There will also be an open mic segment for up to 7 emerging poets. 4 times a year we will Nine Lives Poetry Slam, offering a future paid support slot as the first prize. We want to support emerging local poets to hone their skills in a friendly and encouraging space. We are a registered charity. Any money we make will go into paying performers, meeting venue costs and buying new bow ties for Meowy Angelou, our stylish mascot.

13th July 7pm Nine Lives Poetry Purrrrsents:

Performances from Helen Mort and Kate Millington

“Helen Mort is among the brightest stars in the sparkling new constellation of British poets” Carol Ann Duffy

Helen Mort is an award-winning author originally from Chesterfield and now based in Sheffield. She has published two poetry collections (Division Street, 2013 and No Map Could Show Them, 2016), a debut novel (Black Car Burning, 2019), a short story collection (Exire, 2019) and Helen also writes drama and creative non fiction (A Line Above the Sky 2022). Helen has been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Costa Prize and won the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize in 2015. She appears regularly on BBC radio and sometimes on TV. Helen is a mum to a toddler, a step parent, a trail runner, climber and all round outdoor enthusiast.She also loves dogs, books, dancing and real ale.

‘Helen Mort is unmistakably one of the most brilliant poets of her generation’ Robert Macfarlane

Kate Millington is a poet from Doncaster, who now lives 'down South' in Sheffield. Her first pamphlet, 'Imprint', was written under the mentorship of Helen Mort. 'Imprint' is about Kate's experiences of being involuntarily childless. Kate says ' I want my peers to know that this awful grief does become liveable with and that we can create in other ways'. Kate likes live mew-sic, wild swimming and is partially made of Mini Magnums. Kate is also one of the founders of Nine Lives Poetry.

Tickets , Refreshments, Open Mic Slots and Accessibility

Tickets are available on a sliding scale ranging from £5 for concessions, £7.99 basic ticket price or £11.99 if you choose to pay a little extra and be a Nine Lives Sup-paw-ter. Our Sup-paw-ters get their paws on a free cat based goody bag! A ll three ticket prices include BYOB. Hot and cold drinks and amazing cakes will also be available on the night from Cafe #9.

Entry is free for open mic performers. Please buy your ticket first and then fill in the Open Mic form on our website If you bag an open mic slot, we will refund your ticket price (including booking fee). Open mic slots are 5 minutes long. We will let you know if you have a slot at least 1 week in advance of the performance date.

Nine Lives Poetry strives to be an inclusive and accessible space for everyone. Cafe #9 is wheelchair accessible but some wheelchair users may find the toilet difficult to use (due to lack of space to transfer). There is a covered outdoor area which can be used if you need to take a break during the show for any reason. If you need any more info please contact us at ninelivespoetry@gmail.com

Registered Charity Number 1199352