Our monthly readings by well-known poets normally take place at 8 pm on the third Tuesday of the month, in the Alexandra Room at the Royal Wells Hotel in Tunbridge Wells, with a livestream for members who can’t attend in person.
Meetings are free for members. Non-members are also welcome, and the entry fee of £3 can be paid at the door. There is usually an opportunity to read a short poem (up to 40 lines) at Open Mic unless otherwise indicated below.
Details of each meeting are uploaded on the front page of this website in advance. The poets so far booked for 2026 are listed below.
enquiries, e-mail: kentandsussexpoetry@gmail.com (but please note, this email is not checked daily).
2026
January 20th, Martin Cordrey, shortlisted for the Fish and Canterbury Prizes, Mary Gurr shortlisted for the National Poetry Competition, and mulika ojikutu-harnett, one of the winners of our 2025 Open Competition. (No open mic.)
Feburary 17th. Stav Poleg, Her collection The City was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Prize for First Collection 2023. Her most recent collection is The Banquet.
March 17th. Jack Underwood is an award-winning poet who won the Eric Gregory Award in 2007 and the Somerset Maugham Award in 2015.
April 20th. Mimi Khalvati is the recipient of the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry for 2023 for ‘her outstanding talent’. This is the results evening for our Open Competition. No open mic.
May 19th. Clare Best was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Prize in 2012 for Excisions. Her third full collection is Beyond the Gate (Worple Press, 2023). This is the results evening for our members’ only Folio competition. No open mic.
June 16th. Julia Copus has won the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, and been short-listed for the Forward Prize and the T.S.Eliot Prize.
July 21st. Tom Bailey won an Eric Gregory Award and the Poetry London Pamphlet Prize for his debut pamphlet Please Do Not Touch or Feed the Horses.
September 15th. Vanessa Lampert has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize 2018 and had a commendation in the National Poetry Prize 2020.
October 20th. Mark Pajak has won the Bridport Prize 2016, the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize, and an Eric Gregory Award and been short-litsed for the T.S.Eliot.
November 17th. Imtiaz Dharker has won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and a Chomondley Award.
December 18th. AGM, Open Mic & Quiz/Party, have a drink and a mince pie with your fellow poetry lovers…
The Kent & Sussex Poetry Society 