Join us at EBB for the launch of Samatar Elmi's new book of poetry *Agen Bien Fou*, published by Kulvert Press. With readings by the author and poet Nell Osborne, and a presentation by Jeff Towns.

*Agen Bien Fou* is a fierce, elegiac poetry collection that confronts systemic oppression, modern warfare, and global complicity. Dedicated to the children of Gaza and the enduring spirit of resistance, the book is divided into a Thesis on Annihilation and an Antithesis of personae. Through powerful, politically charged poems like The Genocide Will Not Be Televised, Elmi weaves sharp historical references with raw, contemporary outrage. It is a profound exploration of cultural survival, grief, and the defiant human spirit in the face of devastation.

'"If 'this is no time for poets' but for teachers of history, Brecht knew that the bad time for poetry was when it was most needed, and that poets teach us the history we needed to learn but didn't get taught. Samatar Elmi's *Agen Bien Fou* raids registers of resistance from the Panthers to the Ghost Dance, turning the mendacity of official discourse 'agenst' itself, pushing out from delicate lyric carapace to fractured lines braced against the violence of genocide and annihilation writ large on the world as it is. Yet as Elmi's poem in memory of Sean Bonney knows only too well, in this moment the revolutionary is just another posture, 'our protests contain us/in the language of our enemies/and syntax is a prison'. In response, poetry is the only language useless enough to slip under the door, the 'negative light' that steals everything back." - Dan Eltringham

Bios:

Samatar Elmi is an award-winning poet, writer, musician and educator. His debut pamphlet, *Portrait of Colossus* (flipped eye press, 2021), was selected as a PBS Pamphlet Choice. His stunning debut collection, *The Epic of Cader Idris* (Bloomsbury, 2024), includes the 2021 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize winning poem The Snails. Poems have appeared widely including in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Magma, Iota, and anthologised in More Fiya, Filigree, After Plath, and The Echoing Gallery. Elmi is a seasoned performer, having shown his work at Laugharne Festival, Latitude Festival, London Literature Festival, Somali Week, Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, Cheltenham Poetry Festival, Poetry Society, Serpentine Gallery, Southbank Centre, Cardiff Millennium Centre, Oxford House, Whitechapel Gallery and Rich Mix. As Knomad Spock, he has released the albums *Winter of Discontent*, *A Darker Light* and *Through the Walls* to critical acclaim. He has also rapped on records with UK hiphop legends Chester P and Jehst, and released *Preludes* under the moniker Nomad.

Nell Osborne is a poet, novelist and researcher of experimental writing. In 2024, she published a poetry pamphlet, *Thank You For Everything*, with Monitor Books and co-edited, *Gestures: a body of work*, a cross-disciplinary anthology on gesture and feminist practice, published with MUP. Her first novel, *Ghost Driver*, came out in 2025 with Moist.

Jeff Towns is one of the world’s leading Dylan Thomas experts. An antiquarian bookdealer by trade, based in the poet’s home-town of Swansea, Jeff was originally known, both locally & globally, as ‘Jeff the Books’. He is now known simply, affectionately and professionally as ‘The Dylan Thomas Guy’. He has published *Dylan Thomas: the pubs* (Talybont, 2013) and *The Wilder Shores of Dylan Thomas* (The Hmm Foundation, 2025).

Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio) — Read more — Read less