Poetry

Our monthly poetry event combines with a festive party hosted by The Lansdown on Thursday 21st November.
We are delighted to welcome back Carrie Etter. 
Arrive from 18.30. Poetry will commence shortly after. Partying will continue until late. 

Carrie Etter has published five collections of poetry. She lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Bristol.

You can buy tickets in advance online or in the shop. A few tickets may be available on the door.
Tickets only are £4 or £10.99 with the purchase of Carrie's books. We will provide a glass of something sparkling on arrival. The bar downstairs will be open throughout the night. 

Our monthly poetry series has a little break for a couple of months over winter. We return from March. Exciting announcements about the 2025 programme coming soon and lots of events and book groups to celebrate before then. Happy reading and we hope to see you at an event and in the shop soon.  

Poetry in Herons returns!

For our March monthly poetry reading, we are delighted to welcome John Greening.

Free entry. Come for the poetry. Stay for the poetry.

Some seating. Some standing. Get in touch with us about any requirements you may have.

It is free and unticketed but it would help if you let us know that you are coming. RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk

John Greening is a poet, critic, editor and translator, a Bridport, Arvon and Cholmondeley winner and author of over twenty collections.

U.A.Fanthorpe (1929-2009) was one of the UK's most popular poets, but it's not well known that her writing career began in Bristol.

There has not been a new selection of her poems available for many years and John Greening will be introducing his annotated edition of her work tonight and also reading some of his own poetry. 

For our April monthly poetry reading, we are delighted to welcome Deborah Harvey.

Free entry. Come for the poetry. Stay for the poetry.

Arrive at 5pm. We'll offer you something fizzy. Usually a drink but perhaps one day it will be a sherbet fountain.

5.10-5.40ish, we'll enjoy some poetry.

5.40-6pm, finish the fizzy things and perhaps buy the poet's books.

Some seating. Some standing. Get in touch with us about any requirements you may have.

It is free and unticketed but it would help if you let us know that you are coming. RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk

Part of Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival 2025

Heron Books will run the bookstall at this special Bristol tribute to Benjamin Zephaniah, celebrating his extraordinary work and enduring legacy.

The event will feature readings of Zephaniah’s iconic poems by renowned figures in UK poetry, including his Poem for St Pauls performed in Bristol in 1983 for the BBC, as well as talks, personal stories and reflections from Benjamin’s friends and family members.

Come along and pay tribute to one of the most influential and remarkable poets in living memory, celebrating his immeasurable contributions to poetry, activism, nature, health and social justice.

Poetry in Herons returns!

For our May monthly poetry reading, we are delighted to Tom Sastry.

Free entry. Come for the poetry. Stay for the poetry.

Arrive at 5pm. We'll offer you something fizzy. Usually a drink but perhaps one day it will be a sherbet fountain.

5.10-5.40ish, we'll enjoy some poetry.

5.40-6pm, finish the fizzy things and perhaps buy the poet's books.

Some seating. Some standing. Get in touch with us about any requirements you may have.

It is free and unticketed but it would help if you let us know that you are coming. RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk

Tom Sastry is political, ironic, emotional, morbid and funny in all the wrong places. Poems have appeared in The Guardian and Poetry Review and been highly commended in the Forward Prize. Books have been Poetry School Book of the Year, Poetry Book Society pamphlet choice and shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Prize. Tom will be reading from his brand new collection Life Expectancy Begins To Fall published in March 2025.

For our July monthly poetry reading, we are delighted to Katrina Naomi, author of Battery Rocks.

Free entry. Come for the poetry. Stay for the poetry.

Arrive at 5pm. We’ll offer you something fizzy. Usually a drink but perhaps one day it will be a sherbet fountain.

5.10-5.40ish, we’ll enjoy some poetry.

5.40-6pm, finish the fizzy things and perhaps buy the poet’s books.

Some seating. Some standing. Get in touch with us about any requirements you may have.

It is free and unticketed but it would help if you let us know that you are coming. RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk

Katrina is an award-winning poet and performer. Her fourth poetry collection, Battery Rocks, (Seren, 2024) is the winner of the Arthur Welton Award from the Society of Authors. Katrina’s previous collections have won an Authors’ Foundation Award and Saboteur Award; she is a recipient of the Keats-Shelley Prize and has twice been highly commended in the Forward Prize. Katrina’s poetry has appeared on Poems on the Underground, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, Open Country and Poetry Please, and in The TLS, The Poetry Review and Modern Poetry in Translation. She has a PhD from Goldsmiths and tutors for Arvon and the Poetry School. Katrina lives in Cornwall.

Please note that, with huge apologies, this event has been cancelled. We are so sorry that the reading can't go ahead but highly recommend reading Anna's poetry and would love to chat with you about it. Apologies again. 

For our August monthly poetry reading, we are delighted to welcome Anna Saunders. 

Anna is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) Kissing the She Bear, (Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox (Indigo Dreams), Ghosting for Beginners, Feverfew, The Prohibition of Touch, ( all Indigo Dreams). Her latest book is Eurydice in the Ruined House, ( Indigo Dreams).

Anna has been described as ‘a poet who surely can do anything’ by The North, ‘a modern myth maker’ by Paul Stephenson, and Tears in the Fence said of her ‘Anna Saunders’ poetry is reminiscent of Plath – with all its alpha achievement and radiance’. She is also the Founding Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

Free entry. Come for the poetry. Stay for the poetry.

Arrive at 5pm. We’ll offer you something fizzy. Usually a drink but perhaps one day it will be a sherbet fountain.

5.10-5.40ish, we’ll enjoy some poetry.

5.40-6pm, finish the fizzy things and perhaps buy the poet’s books.

Some seating. Some standing. Get in touch with us about any requirements you may have.

It is free and unticketed but it would help if you let us know that you are coming. RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk

For our October monthly poetry reading, we are delighted to Esme Allman, author of Sweet Bone Girl.

Esme Allman is a poet, writer and theatre director from South London. Her work explores history, imagined worlds, and desire within the context of black femininity. She has been commissioned to write poems for the Barbican Centre, English Heritage, the Institute of Contemporary Art with BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6, NHS Arts and Heritage, Pace Gallery, and Poetry Vs Colonialism in conjunction with the London Metropolitan Archives. Sweet Bone Girl is her debut collection of poetry.
Free entry. Come for the poetry. Stay for the poetry.

Arrive at 5pm. We’ll offer you something fizzy. Usually a drink but perhaps one day it will be a sherbet fountain.

5.10-5.40ish, we’ll enjoy some poetry.

5.40-6pm, finish the fizzy things and perhaps buy the poet’s books.

Some seating. Some standing. Get in touch with us about any requirements you may have.

It is free and unticketed but it would help if you let us know that you are coming. RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk

For our January monthly poetry reading, we are delighted to welcome Erica Hesketh.

Erica Hesketh is a poet and editor, originally from Japan and Denmark, now based in London. From 2016 to 2024 she was Director of the Poetry Translation Centre. Her debut collection In the Lily Room is published by Nine Arches Press and explores early motherhood.
Free entry. Come for the poetry. Stay for the poetry.

Arrive at 5pm. We’ll offer you something fizzy. Usually a drink but perhaps one day it will be a sherbet fountain.

5.10-5.40ish, we’ll enjoy some poetry.

5.40-6pm, finish the sparkling fizzy things and perhaps buy the poet’s books.

Some seating. Some standing. Get in touch with us about any requirements you may have.

It is free and unticketed but it would help if you let us know that you are coming. RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk