Date: Saturday 25th April 2026

Venue: Watershed (W3)

Time: 14:30 - 16:00

Tickets: £5 / £3 / FREE

Booking Link:

✅ Live Streamed (book a ‘Live Stream Ticket’ at checkout)

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

Women Poets’ Network: Open Mic

Presented in partnership with the Rebecca Swift Foundation

Join the Women Poets' Network for an in-person version of our popular open mic, featuring a feature set from Clare Pollard reading from her new collection Lives of the Female Poets, plus Bristol-based Deanna Rodger. Hosted by Degna Stone. 

Whether you're a seasoned performer or a first-timer, all women poets are welcome to sign up to the open mic. And everyone is welcome to come along and listen. Expect a welcoming, friendly atmosphere and inspiring poetry.

Want to read? You can sign up in advance via the link in your booking confirmation (after you’ve booked your ticket). A few on-the-day slots will be available too—first come, first served!

The Women Poets’ Network is open to UK-based women poets aged 18+, including trans women and any individual for whom woman is a meaningful identifier or lived experience. The Rebecca Swift Foundation is proud to be trans-inclusive.

Artist Bios:

Clare Pollard:

Clare Pollard’s sixth collection of poetry is Lives of the Female Poets. A poem from it, ‘Pollen’, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Individual Poem. Clare also writes in many other genres: her play The Weather was performed at the Royal Court Theatre, she wrote the non-fiction title Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Children’s Picture Books, and she toured her translation of Ovid’s Heroines as a one-woman show. Clare has been editor of Modern Poetry in Translation and Artistic Director of the Winchester Poetry Festival, and is a regular prize panellist and reviewer. Her latest adult novel The Modern Fairies was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Prize and won the Tadeusz Bradecki Prize. Her second children’s novel, The Othernauts, is published in June 2026.

Deanna Rodger:

Deanna Rodger is a former UK Poetry Slam Champion who has recently written and performed commissioned pieces including ‘Bigger Than Sport’ for BBC1’s Sports Personality of the Year, ‘Black History Matters’ for BBC Sport 2020 and ‘If’ which was read by Serena Williams for International Women's Day 2021. Deanna has over ten years of facilitation experience and has designed long term programs for schools and youth centres such as Active Citizens (British Council and Lyrix Organix), Creative Facilitation Training (Roundhouse) and Black Lives matter homepack (Hamilton Trust).

Degna Stone:

Degna Stone is a poet and poetry editor based in northeast England. A Hawthornden Fellow and Northern Writers' Award recipient, their poem 'Swimming' is prescribed for the Irish Leaving Certificate. They are a contributing editor at The Rialto, a co-founder of Butcher's Dog poetry magazine and the project Manager for the Rebecca Swift Foundation. Their debut collection, Proof of Life on Earth, was published by Nine Arches Press in 2022.

Rebecca Swift Foundation:

The Rebecca Swift Foundation is the only charity in the UK working at the intersection of craft, creativity, and wellbeing for women poets, with a co-creative programme powered by women poets, for women poets. It is the home of the Women Poets’ Network, a thriving community of women poets at all stages of their careers.
https://www.rebeccaswiftfoundation.org/women-poets-network

Part of Lyra – Bristol Poetry Festival 2026

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Entry requirements: 16+, any under 18s accompanied by 21+ adult 1:1 ratio — Read more — Read less