Poetry Slamming from Bath Spa University

Staff and students from Bath Spa University are taking the performance poetry slamming scene by storm.

Creative Writing lecturer Lucy English has gained a place in the semi finals in the coveted BBC Radio 4 National Slam, after slamming against 16 other poets and finally winning a place in a heated and dramatic tie break showdown.

She will be one of two poets from the South West going to the semi finals in London on Sunday 1 July. The semi finals, at the Drill Hall, Bloomsbury, will be broadcast live by BBC Radio 4 - the first time a UK slam has been broadcast on Radio 4. The finals will take place at the Arnolfini, Bristol, on Saturday 8 September during the Bristol Poetry Festival.

Not to be outdone, five students collectively forming the Bath Spa Poets will be performing at the Battersea Arts Centre in London at the invitation of Apples & Snakes, the UK's leading performance poetry agency. Gordon Egginton, Tracy Wall, Emerson Leese, Ed Parshotham and Jason Curley will be performing a set at a showcase evening on Friday 29 June alongside some big names in the poetry world.

Head of the School of English and Creative Studies, Professor Tim Middleton commented: “Bath Spa University is the only UK university to run a performance poetry module as part of its curriculum. Lucy English is one of the country’s leading performance poets and her success at the Radio 4 competition is well deserved. And I’m sure that our student poets will impress the audience with their energy and talent in their first performance on a London stage.”