Please join us on Saturday 26 September 2026, 2.30-4.00 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation for a wonderful line-up of poets and musicians.

You will find all the information you need regarding visiting the IABF on their website here. The event is free and everyone is welcome (no need to book tickets). Performers often bring along books and CDs to sell, please note we are only able to accept cash payments.

You can read about the poets and musicians below:

Jean Sprackland

Jean Sprackland’s latest collection Goyle, Chert, Mire is a book-length sequence about place, time, illness and recovery. Her previous collections include Tilt, which won the Costa Poetry Award in 2008. Jean is also the author of three books of non-fiction, most recently Night Vision: In search of the true dark. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Manchester Met.

Isabelle Baafi

Isabelle Baafi is the author of Chaotic Good (Faber & Faber/Wesleyan University Press, 2025), which won the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Her pamphlet Ripe (ignitionpress, 2020) won a Somerset Maugham Award and was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. Her work has been published, or is forthcoming, in Granta, the TLS, Wasafiri, The Poetry Review, Callaloo and elsewhere. She edits at Poetry London, Magma and ignitionpress.

Carlton Rose

Carlton Rose is a poet from Wolverhampton who lives in Manchester. He recently won New Writing North’s Northern Debut Award for Poetry. Carlton’s work has appeared in The Poetry Review, Magma, Ambit and various other publications.

Nicky Phillips

Confessions wrapped in an indie-folk-pop style… Nicky Phillips has appeared at well-known venues across the North-West and further afield; she has previously supported Kate Nash in London and Ben Ottewell in Cheshire. Swiftly following her first single Echo in 2021, Nicky independently released her debut EP, leading to her music being featured on BBC Introducing. 2024 saw her first UK tour and she was featured as a headline act for Independent Venue Week in 2025. Her second EP will be released on 25/09/26 following an EP launch show at Band on the Wall, Manchester on 20 September.