Poetry Showcase - Augustine House - Canterbury Christ Church University

Published poets from Kent and Sussex come together at this year’s Festival with readings of their work followed by a short open mic set. Hosted by Christopher Horton. Poets include John McCullough, Setareh Ebrahimi, Bethany Goodwill, Carolyn Oulton, David Dykes and Mat Ritches. Headliner: John McCullough John McCullough’s book of poems, Reckless Paper Birds (Penned in the Margins) won the 2020 Hawthornden Prize for Literature as well as being shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award. John’s collections have been Books of the Year for publications including The Guardian, The Times, The Independent and The Telegraph and he also won the Polari First Book Prize. His fifth collection, Crowd Voltage , was published in March 2026 by Bloodaxe. Other readings from: David Dykes is a poet and host and co-organiser of the Medway poetry night Big Trouble. David has produced three chapbooks including Haunt Me! Haunt Me! Do It Again! about Gillingham-based cult leader James Jershom Jezreel and has been featured in Confluence and The Menteur . He is currently part of the Southbank Centre's 2026-27 New Poets Collective and taking part in their Poet in Every Port project. Mat Riches is ITV’s unofficial poet-in-residence. Recent work has appeared in Wild Court, The New Statesman, The Friday Poem and Finished Creatures . He co-runs Rogue Strands poetry evenings and has a pamphlet out with Red Squirrel Press. Bethany Goodwill is an artist, poet, and co-host of Rochester poetry night Big Trouble. Her work has been published in Confluence and The Menteur , and she has been described as "the greatest car-based poet of our times" and "a toad in women's clothing". She likes Earl Grey tea, cats, the winter, and spicy food. Carolyn Oulton is Professor of Victorian Literature and teaches on the Creative Writing BA at CCCU. She is the author of four full-length poetry collections, most recently The Letter Game (Worple Press). She is the Co-Director of kent-maps.online and Let’s do the time walk again! Exploring the East Kent Coast Through Digital Heritage (funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund). Setareh Ebrahimi has written two previous collections, a pamphlet from Bad Betty Press in 2018, In My Arms , and a full collection in 2020 from Wordsmithery, Galloping Horses . She regularly performs at literary festivals, the last one being the Medway River Lit festival, as well as performs at solo or joint shows. She has a long publication history, her most recent published poem was The Bear in a tabletop book by Harper Collins.