Join us for an afternoon of readings as the Indie Press Network brings together acclaimed poets from across the UK’s vibrant small press landscape.
Hosted by Dialect Press in the walled garden at Museum in the Park, voices from Broken Sleep Books, Arachne, Black Cat, and Emma Press will gather to share work that defies convention and deepens connection. Our readers are Catherine Balaq, Barry Hollow, Hannah Hull, Iris Anne Lewis, Des Mannay, Mary Mulholland, Philip Rush and Rachel Spence (find out more about them below). Emily Lucas, one half of the artist duo (both laughing) will also be in attendance to entertain us with a game of enjambments.
Expect performances that stir, provoke, and console - woven with conversation around the craft, community, and care that independent publishing cultivates.
Whether you're a seasoned reader or simply curious, come be part of a living archive of voices shaping the future of poetry.
This is a FREE event, but please do book a ticket below so we can keep an idea on numbers. The Poetry Salon is kindly supported by the Museum. Books will be available for sale.
More about our readers
Catherine Balaq is a writer and body psychotherapist, published in numerous anthologies and journals. Her work has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and nominated for the Pushcart and Forward Prize. She is co-editor of Black Cat Press. She has two published collections of poetry centred around themes of class, gender and the politics of the body.
Artist duo Emily Lucas and Nick Grellier’s (both laughing) collaborative work is grounded in drawing practice and rich research that explores, discovers, invents, solves problems and cracks jokes. They make artwork using low value, low fi materials and objects from around the home, including baby wipes, stencils, felt tip pens and printing stamps, in order to tackle the problem of emotion versus seriousness and other hierarchies both in the art world and wider society. (both laughing)’s remit is to generate new ways to talk, write and think about drawing and other art practices. The work is both playful and serious, celebrating difficulties and achievements. Together, they have begun to develop our own manifesto for drawing as a way to embrace mistakes, test out new ideas and acknowledge non-binary viewpoints and grey areas, giving value to the overlooked. www.bothlaughing.com / @both_laughing 2023
Barry Hollow is a Scottish poet and poetry filmmaker based in Thornbury. His work includes Viaducts & River Views (Black Cat Poetry Press) and the forthcoming, Fankle. His poetry films have screened internationally, and he’s been widely anthologised, featured on BBC Radio, and has performed across the UK.
Hannah ‘Hunter’ Hull (they/them) is a poet, artist and musician living in Yorkshire. Their debut poetry collection Home is a place that visits me, is published by Arachne Press September 2025, is a companion to Close to Home, a collection of songs released under the alias Burning Salt.
Originally from Wales, Iris Anne Lewis now lives in Gloucestershire. Featured in Black Bough’s Silver Branch series. Winner of the Gloucestershire Poetry Society competition 2020 and the Graffiti competition 2023. Highly commended in the Wales Poetry Award 2022 and the Stanza competition 2023. A runner-up in the 2023 Gloucestershire’s Writers Network competition, she read her work at the Cheltenham Literary Festival for the seventh time as a prizewinner. In 2024 she was a guest poet at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival and was joint winner of the Gloucestershire Poetry Society Friendship Prize. Iris has a poem in Arachne Press anthology Afonydd
Des Mannay is a disabled Welsh writer of colour. His first poetry collection, “Sod ’em – and tomorrow” is published by Waterloo Press. He’s an Associate Editor of Poetry Wales, co-editor of The Angry Manifesto poetry journal. Winner -‘rethinkyourmind’ poetry competition (2015), LIT-UP poetry competition (2019). 2nd/ highly commended – Disability Arts Cymru poetry Competition (2015). ‘Gold Award’ – Creative Futures Literary Awards (2015). Shortlisted in 7 competitions, performed at numerous venues/festivals, and published in various poetry journals. Judge in the Valiant Scribe ‘Vultures and Doves’ poetry competition (USA). Work in or accepted for 49 poetry anthologies. Des is on facebook as “The stuff wot I wrote’ Des Mannay – hooligan Poet” and Twitter as @hooliganpoet
Mary Mulholland is a widely published poet, eg Stand, Magma,14 Magazine, and she’s been a finalist in many competitions, eg Write Out Loud, Bridport, Aesthetica, Mslexia. Her second pamphlet, the elimination game (Broken Sleep Books) launched this summer. She founded Red Door Poets and is Editor of The Alchemy Spoon.
Philip Rush was born in Middlesex and worked as an English teacher in Gloucester for many years. He won prizes in two Ledbury Festival competitions (judged by Carol-Ann Duffy and Ian Duhig) and a selection of his poems was included in New Poetries IV from Carcanet; other poems have been in a number of British, Irish and US magazines over the years. Many of his poems have appeared in a series of pamphlets from Yew Tree Press. Philip’s retired now. He is a keen photographer, and his book Camera Obscura (The Garlic Press) includes both poems and photographs. He also plays the fiddle in a ceilidh band.
Rachel Spence’s poetry publications include Daughter of the Sun and Call & Response (The Emma Press), Uncalendared (Coast to Coast to Coast Journal Winner, 2023), Furies and Bird of Sorrow (Templar), highly commended in the 2019 Forward Prize. Her non-fiction book Battle for the Museum (Hurst) was a 2024 Financial Times Book of the Year.
The walled garden at Museum in the Park, Stroud