September Rise Up!

Join us to welcome Ian Duhig, Kirsten Luckens and Henry Raby!

Ian Duhig has published seven books of poetry, won the Forward Best Poem Prize once, the National Poetry Competition twice and his New and Selected Poems was awarded the 2022 Hawthornden Prize for Literature. His most recent book of poems, An Arbitrary Lightbulb, was the 2024 Poetry Book Society Winter Choice.

Kirsten Luckins is a Teesside-based poet whose work explores ekphrasis, ecopoetics and experimentation generally. Her latest pamphlet, Offworld (The Braag, 2025) tells the journey of two runaways as they planet-hop through a disintegrating empire of colonised worlds, where octopi seek out strip clubs and anything can be bought at a spaceport. Beautiful, shocking, funny and prescient, this pamphlet presents us with glimpses of ruined and defiant futures.

Punk poet Henry Raby's work has been described as playful, highly-charged, passionate and anarchic! Henry writes about anger and hope - the twin emotions to keep you fuelled for the fight. You'll find him gobbing verse at DIY venues, protests and festivals (Manchester Punk Festival, Deer Shed, Latitude, Greenbelt and Boomtown Fair). Henry has been published by Burning Eye Books and co-runs York spoken word organisation Say Owt. He co-hosts the Vandal Factory podcast, looking at the magic moments where art and activism meet.

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