Join us for a night of electric poetry celebrating the anthology Mapping the Future: The Complete Works Poets. Founded by Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo, Complete Works Poetry was a revolutionary initiative that transformed the UK poetry scene. Supporting 30 diverse poets over 12 years, the programme has produced a wealth of distinctive voices (from Raymond Antrobus to Warsan Shire) and over 40 poetry collections between them, including three Forward Prizes, two T.S. Eliot Prizes and two Ted Hughes Awards.

Poets performing at this special Manchester celebration include Malika Booker (Pepper Seed), Inua Ellams (The Barber Shop Chronicles), Sarah Howe (Loop of Jade), Ian Humphreys (Tormentil), Adam Lowe (Patterflash) and poet and translator Eileen Pun among others.

A British poet of Guyanese–Grenadian heritage, Malika Booker is co-founder of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. Her debut collection Pepper Seed was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize and the 2014 Seamus Heaney Centre Prize. She won The Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2020 and again in 2023 with her poem ‘Libation’.

Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright, performer and founder of The Midnight Run and The Rhythm and Poetry Party (The R.A.P Party). His poetry collections include The Actual, The Half-God of Rainfall and Afterhours. His plays include The Barber Shop Chronicles and retellings of The Little Prince and Three Sisters.

Sarah Howe is a Hong Kong-born poet, academic and editor. Her first collection, Loop of Jade, won the T.S. Eliot Prize and The Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year Award. Her pamphlet, A Certain Chinese Encyclopedia, won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. She has performed her work at festivals internationally and on BBC Radio 3 and 4.

Ian Humphreys’ latest poetry collection, Tormentil won a Royal Society of Literature ‘Literature Matters’ Award while in progress. His debut, Zebra was nominated for the Portico Prize. Ian was Writer in Residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum (2023/24).

Adam Lowe (he/his, mostly) is a writer of British, Irish and Black Caribbean heritage. He is the UK’s LGBT+ History Month Poet Laureate. When not writing, he performs in drag as Beyonce Holes. His debut Patterflash is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Eileen Pun is as poet, translator, maker and martial artist based between Cumbria, UK and Abruzzo, Italy. She considers her approach to poetry as an experiential ecosystem: working between the themes of movement, nature, the meditative space, permaculture and self-sufficiency. Recent work can be found in Mapping the Future.

Presented by Manchester Literature Festival in partnership with Speaking Volumes and Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University.