Breakups, fathers, boxing, and sheep; an evening of queer poetry at UNITOM with moving performances and lots of laughter!
On the 17th of October we were delighted to welcome four incredible poets to UNITOM for an evening of queer poetry hosted by Fourteen Poems. It was lovely to hear from Ben Townley-Caning, Fourteen Poems’ founding editor, alongside performances from Andrew McMillan, Mícheál McCann, Carson Wolfe, and Remi Graves. It's great to celebrate an exceptionally well-curated small publication; Ben is an infectiously enthusiastic editor who is dedicated to platforming and supporting queer writers, and as a result, Fourteen Poems is quickly building a roster of some of the most exciting contemporary queer poets writing today.
Each poet read their poem from Fourteen Poems Queer Poetry Anthology, and then went on the perform a range of work including some brand new pieces and works in progress. The evenings are getting darker and colder, but the atmosphere in UNITOM on this October evening was warm and encouraging, it was an honour to host an evening with such talented writers. Many thanks to all four poets joining us, to Ben for bringing Fourteen Poems to Manchester, and to everyone who came; we hope you left feeling as inspired and uplifted as we did!
Fourteen Poems is a delightfully bitesize queer poetry journal with a really simple premise; each issue contains 14 poems (as the title suggests) by queer writers. They accept submissions from all over the world so there are a multitude of different voices, perspectives, identities, and poetic styles anthologised in these colourful and compact journals. You’ll also find established writers alongside writers who are brand new to the scene. These poems can catch you off guard, challenge you, capture something you have felt but not found words for, create new ideas, conjure queer magic, and connect you to a community. Each new issue adds to a growing rainbow of journals on your shelf, and to an expanding collection of queer voices (151 poems and poets so far!) for you to get to know.
They also have a newer series of wonderful single-author poetry pamphlets by queer writers. Remi and Mícheál both have pamphlets published with Fourteen Poems; With Your Chest and Keeper.
We still have copies of various issues of Fourteen Poems Queer Poetry Anthology available as well as a selection of their poetry pamphlets. You can browse the full Fourteen Poems collection here.
