Debuts Showcase: Isabelle Baafi, Erica Hesketh, Dzifa Benson

Winchester Poetry Festival 2025

Debuts Showcase: Isabelle Baafi, Erica Hesketh, Dzifa Benson

Three major new talents in British poetry, remaking poetic forms from renga and dramatic monologue to concrete poetry. Readings will be followed by a discussion about the pleasures and pressures of being a debut poet, and the poets who have inspired them. Hosted by Clare Pollard.

Isabelle Baafi is the author of Chaotic Good (Faber & Faber / Wesleyan University Press, 2025), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her writing has been published in Granta, The TLS, The Poetry Review, Callaloo, The London Magazine, and elsewhere.

Erica Hesketh is a poet and editor, originally from Japan and Denmark, now based in London. From 2016 to 2024 she was Director of the Poetry Translation Centre. Her debut collection, In the Lily Room, is published by Nine Arches Press.

Dzifa Benson is an award-winning artist whose multidisciplinary practice intersects literature, science, theatre, art, the body, ritual, performance, teaching and immersive technologies. Her work has been awarded fellowships from the Jerwood Foundation and Hedgebrook, and was shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize 2022 and the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize. Her debut poetry collection, Monster, is published by Bloodaxe Books.

Suitable for: all

Duration: 1 hour

Format: in person event. Poetry readings and conversation

Access: wheelchair accessible venue throughout

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