bristol city poet 2024-2026
Applications are now OPEN to become Bristol City Poet 2024-26. Click below to read the Call-Out Information in full, and to fill out an Application Form. The deadline to apply is 20:00pm on Saturday 14th September 2024.
Bristol City Poet
A voice for the city’s conscience, reflecting events, anniversaries, communities, histories and futures of Bristol.
Since 2016, Bristol has had a City Poet to tap into public opinion and act as a communicator of local views.
Traditionally – and in line with the national Poet Laureate objectives – the person who holds this role can become the city’s conscience and can also reflect on what makes the city tick. What they convey through their poetry and creative writing can provide important insights onto contemporary events and feelings, not all of which may make for comfortable reading.
Some of the events that City Poets have performed at include the Mayor’s Annual State of the City Address, the council’s Annual General Meeting, and the city’s twinning celebrations. Poems may also be written for the opening of new buildings, for community events and for commemorative anniversaries.
The role of the City Poet was founded and run by Bristol Ideas in association with the Mayor’s Office from 2016-2024, and the scheme is now run by Lyra Bristol Poetry.
The current City Poet is Kat Lyons (2022-2024). Former City Poets include Caleb Parkin (2020-2022), Vanessa Kisuule (2018-2020) and Miles Chambers (2016-2018).
(Header photo credit: Charley Williams Photography)
Kat Lyons (2022 - 2024)
Kat Lyons is a writer, performer and workshop facilitator working in the field of spoken word poetry and performance storytelling. They use poetry to interrogate ideas, generate positive social change and strengthen people’s connections to the world and each other. Their poetry has been featured in Under the Radar, Ink Sweat & Tears and Bath Magg, and their debut poetry collection, Love Beneath the Nails, was published this year by Verve Poetry Press.
Kat’s commissioned poems include:
Caleb Parkin (2020 - 2022)
Caleb Parkin was Bristol’s third City Poet, appointed towards the end of 2020 when Bristol was in a state of flux with endlessly changing Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. At the end of Caleb’s term, Bristol Ideas published an anthology of his commissions, ‘All the Cancelled Parties’, which is available to download as a PDF at the link below.
Vanessa Kisuule (2018 - 2020)
Vanessa Kisuule was the second Bristol City Poet to be appointed. At the end of her term, Bristol Ideas published an anthology of her commissions, ‘The View From Above and Below’, which is available to download as a PDF at the link below.
You can view the film made by Bristol City Council of her 2020 poem City of Hope here.
Miles Chambers (2016 - 2018)
Miles Chambers was Bristol’s first City Poet. At the end of his term, Bristol Ideas published an anthology of his commissions, ‘This is Our City’, which is available to download as a PDF at the link below.