'Go to the poets, they will speak to thee': Harry Josephine Giles

Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our online contemporary poetry reading series continues throughout 2025.

We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every time!

Our guest poet this month is the poet, novelist and performer Harry Josephine Giles, reading from her latest poetry collection Them! published by Picador in 2024. Giles deploys dynamic language and creative typography to explore trans life with irony, fury, possibility and playfulness in all its complexity. Our presiding spirit of this series William Wordsworth was equally a revolutionary in his commitment to give a voice to people who were homeless or living in poverty, often using his poetry to critique the social conventions of his time.

Open mic

Our open mic theme this month then is to bring a poem that is a portrait of someone else – whether that is a stranger you met on the bus, or your oldest, closest friend. Embrace complexity, welcome possibility and playfulness, and typographical shenanigans in homage to the work of Harry Josephine Giles are welcome.

Open mic slots are limited and must be booked in advance.  Each open mic poem should be no longer than two minutes. Email Kim Moore at wordsworthreadingseries@outlook.com for a slot. Slots do book up quickly, so don’t leave it to the last minute!

How to book and attend

When attendees book a ticket they will receive a confirmation email which includes the Zoom registration link for this event: please use this link to sign up.

This event is a Zoom webinar and the audience will not appear on screen. If you have bought a ticket and signed up to the open mic your audio and video will be enabled during the open mic.

Five free places are available for those experiencing financial hardship that would otherwise not be able to attend. You can select this option during online checkout. If you have booked a free place and find that you can’t attend, please let us know so that we can make this available to someone else.

Automatic live captions will be provided.

Photo credit: Rich Dyson