Date: Saturday 18th April 2026

Venue: St. George’s Bristol (Glass Studio)

Time: 10:30 - 12:00

Tickets: £8 (£10 solidarity, £5 concessions)

✅ All Lyra Fest venues are wheelchair accessible. Access Information Pack available at www.lyrafest.com.

Using Your Authentic Voice: with Maria Ferguson

Writing Workshop

Having a unique voice is integral to a poet's success. But how do we weave our individual identities through our work with authenticity? This workshop will explore how we can use our own lived experience, backgrounds and colloquialisms to make our work stand out. Expect to leave with the tools to say what you want to say in a way only you can say it!

Maria Ferguson

Maria Ferguson is a writer and performer. Her poetry has been widely anthologised and published in literary magazines such as Magma, The Rialto, The North and The Poetry Review. She was a finalist of the Montreal International Poetry Prize 2024 and her debut collection, Alright, Girl? (Burning Eye, 2020), was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. On the stage, her one-woman show Fat Girls Don’t Dance (Oberon, 2017) won the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show; Essex Girl (Oberon, 2019) was shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award and won Show of the Week at VAULT Festival. She has been commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts, Stylist magazine, The Bronte Parsonage and BBC Radio. Her work has been featured in The Guardian and on Radio 4’s The Verb and Woman’s Hour. She is the Associate Producer of LIVEwire Poetry and teaches creative writing in a variety of settings. Her second poetry collection, Swell was published in 2025 by Penguin Random House.

Part of Lyra – Bristol Poetry Festival 2026

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