A poetry reading by award-winning Elizabeth Train-Brown, guest-starring fantastic Northern poets Maria Hill (founder of the Living Poets Society) and Liam Bates (author of Human Townsperson) followed by a Q&A with all three.

Elizabeth Train-Brown (she/they) is a twice-shortlisted Poet of the Year and Pushcart Prize shortlistee. Their debut collection, 'salmacis: becoming not quite a woman' (Renard Press, 2022), was hailed 'Vital for society today' by Jennifer Hill (Ulverstone Publishers) for its raw yet witty exploration of gender through Greek myth. Elizabeth has headlined at festivals and poetry nights across the country and is now working on their biggest collection yet, combining the vulgarity of Rebecca Tamas with the scope of Carol Ann Duffy as she follows the wandering womb through history, terrorising and mothering the men she finds along its path.

Liam Bates (he/they) is a poet from the Black Country now based in Morecambe. He’s released two pamphlets of poetry and most recently his full-length debut, Human Townsperson, with Broken Sleep Books. Work towards his second collection has been awarded a Northern Writers’ Award for Poetry and an Authors’ Foundation grant from the Society of Authors.

Maria Hill (she/they) is the winner of the Lancaster Poet of the Year prize 2022 and has had short stories and poetry published in nine separate journals and magazines. She’s the founder of the Lancaster Living Poets Society and was president for two years. She loves reading and writing horror – both paranormal and psychological – and she has made and written multiple films, one of which won a prize award at Art Beats Festival.