our final Chelping event of 2022 takes place at The Leeds Library on Thursday 17 November, and our feature poets are Cecilia Knapp and Rommi Smith! there’ll also be open mic hosted by Matt Abbott, with slots available on a first-come, first-served basis.

tickets are available here for £5.

Cecilia Knapp

Cecilia Knapp is a poet and novelist and the Young People’s Laureate for London 2020/2021. She was shortlisted for the 2022 Forward prize for best single poem. She is the winner of the 2021 Ruth Rendell award and has been shortlisted for both the Rebecca Swift Women’s Prize and the Outspoken Poetry Prize. She curated the anthology Everything is Going to be Alright: Poems for When you Really Need Them, published by Trapeze in 2021. Her debut novel Little Boxes is published by The Borough Press.

Her debut poetry collection Peach Pig was published by Corsair Books on 6 October.

Rommi Smith

Dr. Rommi Smith is a multi-award-winning poet, playwright, theatre-maker, performer, scholar and Cave Canem Fellow. Winner of numerous prestigious residencies and commissions from institutions ranging from the British Council to the BBC, Rommi is the inaugural British Parliamentary Writer-in-Residence and inaugural Poet-in-Residence for Keats’ House, Hampstead. She is winner of the Northern Writers Prize for Poetry.

Open Mic

These 3-minute slots are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please email eyup@mattabbottpoet.com to reserve yours!