Verse On: An Evening of International Poetry

Join us in celebrating poetry from around the globe with featured poets from India, South Africa, New Zealand and Austria at Literaturhaus Wien. The event will also include an open mic segment with four walk-in slots up for grabs on a first come-first serve basis. Your MCs for the evening will be Claire Palzer and Shefali Banerji.

Shantanu Anand is an Indian poet and co-founder of Airplane Poetry Movement. He has been part of the core curation team of Spoken Fest, Asia’s largest spoken word and storytelling festival, for its editions in 2020, 2022, and 2024. In 2019, he co-created the poetry anthology, A Letter, A Poem, A Home, and was included in the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list for his contributions to performance arts.

Raphael d’Abdon is the author of four poetry collections, sunnyside nightwalk (2013), salt water (2016), the bitter herb (2018) and Poesie scelte – Selected poems (2010 – 2020) (2021). He is South Africa representative of Africa Haiku Network and poetry editor of BKO Poetry & Literature Magazine.

liz breslin is a queer, tangata Tiriti writer, editor, performer and facilitator of Polish, Irish and English descent based in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand. Their third full length poem collection, show you’re working out, will be published by Dead Bird Books in August 2025. @liz_breslin / @lizbreslin.bsky.social / www.lizbreslin.com

With performances in over 20 countries, Katharina Wenty is one of the most internationally successful Austrian slam poets. As a filmmaker, she has already been part of several festivals and a winner of the Media Literacy Award, the Zeitimpuls Short Film Award and many more. Since 2018, Katharina has been organizing/moderating events at home and abroad, including the European Poetry Slam Championship in Graz 2026.

Host or Publisher Poetry Off the Page