We are delighted to welcome Patience Agbabi FRSL, a dynamic poet, novelist, workshop facilitator and Fellow in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University. She has performed all over the world and taught Creative Writing for 30 years, from primary to PhD. Her poem ‘Eat Me’ is studied on the Edexcel A’ Level curriculum. 

Agbabi has created four poetry collections, including Telling Tales (Canongate, 2014), her retelling of The Canterbury Tales, shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry plus Wales Book of the Year 2015. She has toured this work extensively at US universities including Harvard and Yale. Her middle-grade novel The Infinite (Canongate, 2020), launched The Leap Cycle, a time-travel adventure series. This was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and won Wales Book of the Year: Children & Young People category in 2021. The fourth and final book of the series, The Past Master, appeared in February 2024. 

Photo (c) Lyndon Douglas

The first half of this event will be open mic, so please feel free to bring and read a poem in a friendly and welcoming space.

Tickets will be available on the door, but to avoid disappointment we recommend you buy yours in advance here [link coming soon]

Entry prices: £5; £3 for students under 24; Free to ages 18 and under.

Patience Agbabi's visit is part of a Ware Poets collaboration with Presdales and Chauncy Schools. We are very grateful for the support of Ware Town Council.