The Emma Press presents: Laurie Bolger, Z. R. Ghani & Serge ♆ Neptune

Join us for an evening of performance & poetry featuring newly published work from LAURIE BOLGER, Z.R GHANI, & Serge ♆ Neptune presented at Kilder Bar by Birmingham-based publisher THE EMMA PRESS.

LAURIE BOLGER is a London-based writer & founder of The Creative Writing Breakfast Club. Her debut pamphlet 'Box Rooms' (Burning Eye) has featured at Glastonbury, TATE, RA & Sky Arts. Laurie’s writing has appeared in The Poetry Review, The London Magazine, Magma, Crannog, Stand, & Trinity College Icarus & her poems & short stories have been shortlisted for The Bridport Prize, Live Canon, Winchester & Sylvia Plath Prizes. In 2023, Laurie’s poem ‘Parkland Walk’ was awarded The Moth Prize, judged by Louise Glück, & Highly Commended in the Forward Prize for Poetry.

Z. R. GHANI is from London. She graduated with a B.A. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University in 2012. Her poems, which explore themes of identity, femininity, religion, & nature, have been published in literary journals such as Magma, Black Bough Poetry & The Adriatic. In 2021 her first collection of poems was shortlisted in the Poetry Wales Pamphlet Competition.

SERGE ♆ NEPTUNE has been called ‘the little merman of British poetry’. He is a Faber Academy alumnus & a queer neuro-divergent poet based in London. His first pamphlet, ‘These Queer Merboys’, was published with Broken Sleep in 2020. His work was longlisted in the National Poetry Competition & the Winchester Poetry Competition. Several poems have appeared in The North, Propel, The Rialto, Banshee, Magma, Fourteen Poems, and elsewhere.

THE EMMA PRESS is an award-winning independent publishing house specialising in poetry, short fiction, essays & children’s books. It was founded by Emma Dai’an Wright in 2012 & is based in Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, UK.

This is one of our VERSE events where you can hear from the names right at the forefront of Birmingham’s rich poetry scene as they step up to the mic to share new words & new work.

TICKETS: Free

Please reserve your ticket here on our Eventbrite page.

KILDER BAR is located at 5 Shaw’s Passage, Digbeth with step-free access via the entrance on Shaw’s Passage.For further enquiries about the event, or to discuss any access requirements please email [email protected]

Host or Publisher Voce Books