Well Versed Author Events: Joelle Taylor

In this event, we welcome poet Joelle Taylor l to share some poems, have a chat, and give you a chance to ask questions as part of our Well Versed series in partnership with StAnza International Poetry Festival.

Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry. Her most recent collection, C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize and the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBT authors. C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. She is a co- curator and host of Out-Spoken Live at the Southbank Centre, and tours her work nationally and internationally in a diverse range of venues, from Australia to Brazil. She is also a Poetry Fellow of University of East Anglia and the curator of the Koestler Awards 2023. She has judged several poetry and literary prizes including Jerwood Fellowship, the Forward Prize, and the Ondaatje Prize. Her novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet was published by Riverrun in Spring of 2024 and was named Guardian Book of the Month and a Spectator Book of the Year. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year. She was recently honoured with a DIVA Award for Excellence and was also included in the Independent’s 2024 Pride Power list.

The Well Versed Series

Each month we will host a different poet, with a chance to read their work a week in advance as part of our Well Versed Poetry Reading group, and to write in response to it the week after as part of our Well Versed Poetry Writing group.

Please note this event will be recorded by StAnza. Speakers will be spotlit on Zoom, but if you prefer to remain anonymous please keep your camera off when asking a question.

Open Book aims to be a safe space for all our participants and Lead Readers. This means our groups should be a place in which everyone feels welcome, respected and comfortable. We ask that you follow CARE (confidentiality, attention, respect, enjoy) and the Safe Spaces Framework each time you join a session. You can read the Space Spaces Framework here.

Participants who arrive 15+ minutes late may not be admitted.

No experience necessary, all welcome, ages 18+.