About us
Verve Poetry Press is a prize-winning Birmingham based publisher dedicated to promoting and showcasing unnoticed and overlooked poetic talent in colourful and exciting ways. (Just what you’d expect from a press that had grown out of the giddy and flamboyant annual four days of poetry and spoken word that is Verve Poetry Festival.)
Co-founded by Stuart Bartholomew and Amerah Saleh, the press works hard to publish poets from all corners of the UK and beyond – poets that chime with our city’s varied and energetic qualities. While our horizons have expanded beyond our original focus on Birmingham, there will always be a place for excellent poets from our home city at Verve!
As we continue to grow so we are beginning to get noticed. We've been voted Most Innovative Publisher at the Sabotage Awards, and have won the Publishers’ Prize at the Michael Marks Pamphlets Awards. One of our first books, the wonderful Besharam by Birmingham poet Nafeesa Hamid, was highly commended for the Forward Prize 2020. This has been followed by further commendations for Qudsai Akhtar and Sarah James, while Golnoosh Nour’s ROCKSONG was short-listed for the Polari Prize. Andrew McMillan called us ‘the always exciting Verve Poetry Press.’
With poets such as Luke Kennard, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, Carrie Etter and exciting debutants such as Betty Doyle, Roshni Gallagher, Ellora Sutton & Sean Wai Keung on our list, you really can’t afford to take your eyes off of us!
ABOUT VERVE Poetry Festival:
Birmingham’s own VERVE Festival of Poetry and Spoken Word is based at Birmingham Hippodrome and online! Over the years, VERVE has become synonymous with a lively and celebratory approach to programming poetry of every different kind, whether it be raucous performance poetry events, quiet reading events, studious workshops, mind-blowing dramatic poetry, collaborative work and open mic. We encourage our audience to see their favourite poets and try something new, to join in and create or listen and learn. Most importantly, ALL are welcome at our poetry party of national standing. Whether new to poetry or an old hand, there will be something for everyone to enjoy at VERVE!
