Wednesday 18 Nov
6:30-9pm
SPLENDOR: Trans Poetry Night
A Celebration of Shared Humanity Through Poetry
In partnership with Burley Fisher
Bodies. Being. Becoming.
Burley Fisher x SPLENDOR Open Mic Night
Join Burley Fisher & Two Lines Press, on the penultimate day of Trans Awareness Week, for an evening of poetry, community, and connection to celebrate the publication of SPLENDOR: Trans Poets—five voices from Denmark, Argentina, Korea, Norway, and Quebec. Exploring what it means to inhabit a body, to change, to claim yourself, these poems emerge from the trans and nonbinary experience, yet speak to something universal: the courage it takes to become who you are.
Featuring readings from award-winning writers and poets Juliet Jacques, Leo Boix, Gayathiri Kamalakanthan, Hasti Crowther, followed by an open mic for all voices. Whether trans, queer, or ally, come celebrate Bodies that transform. Identities that defy borders. Poetry that speaks to becoming.
(Arrive at 6:30pm to sign up for the open mic)
Theme: Bodies. Being. Becoming.
Reader Bios:
Juliet Jacques is a writer, filmmaker, broadcaster and academic based in London. She has published seven books, including Trans: A Memoir (2015), two short story collections including Variations (2021), Front Lines: Trans Journalism 2007-2021 (2022), and a novella, Monaco (2023). Her fiction, journalism and essays have appeared in the Guardian (including her ‘Transgender Journey’ column, longlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2011), New York Times, Frieze, London Review of Books and many other publications; her short films have screened in galleries and festivals across the world. She teaches at the Royal College of Art and elsewhere, and hosts the arts discussion podcast Suite (212). She has played football for Clapton Community FC, Horley Town and Surrey.
Insta @juliet.variations / https://julietjacques.com/about/
Leo Boix is a bilingual Latinx poet, born in Argentina and based in London. His second collection, Southernmost: Sonnets (Chatto & Windus, 2025), was shortlisted for the Forward Prizes and named book of the year by The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and The Week. His debut English collection, Ballad of a Happy Immigrant (2021), was a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice. Boix is editor and lead translator of Hemisferio Cuir: An Anthology of Young Queer Latin American Poetry, introducing English readers to major Latin American voices. His work appears in POETRY, The Poetry Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry London, Letras Libres and international anthologies. He co-directs Un Nuevo Sol, which nurtures Latinx writers in the UK, and has been awarded the Bart Wolffe Poetry Prize, the Keats-Shelley Prize, and a PEN Award. Boix was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) in July 2026.
Insta @boixleo / https://leonardoboix.wixsite.com/poetry
Reading: This is an ode to my ugliness by Camila Sosa Villada (tr. from the Spanish by Kit Maude)
Books: Southernmost Sonnets (Penguin); Hemisferio Cuir: An Anthology Of Young Latin American Queer Poetry edited by Leo Boix (Fourteen Poems)
Gayathiri Kamalakanthan is a disabled writer based in London. Gayathiri is a recipient of the Poetry Archive Now Prize 2025 and the Disabled Poets Prize 2024. Their debut novel-in-verse Bad Queer is out with Faber.
Insta @unembarrassable / https://www.gayathiri.co.uk/
Hasti Crowther is a poet and writer living in South East London. Their debut pamphlet 'young, dumb, and full of poems' won the Michael Marks Award and is out now with Bad Betty.
Inst @youarehasti https://www.youarehasti.com/
Reading: The Last Hare by Ida Hove Solberg (tr. from the Norwegian by Olivia Lasky)
Pamphlets: ‘U’ (Reference Press); ‘Agitations & Birdsong’ (Bleet! Zine); ‘young, dumb, and full of poems’ (Little Betty)