Verbose MCR

PRESS RELEASE: VERBOSE MONDAY 18th May 2026, KINGS ARMS SALFORD, 7.30PM

One of Manchester’s longest running spoken word events, Verbose, returns on Monday 18th May 2026 at the Kings Arms for a very special collaboration with Bad Betty Press.

Bad Betty is an award-winning independent publisher of new poetry, and curator of live literature events taking place across the UK. London-born, Nottingham-based, Bad Betty Press was set up in 2017 by Amy Acre and Jake Wild Hall with the aim of showcasing exciting and risk-taking poetry, supporting poets’ artistic development and celebrating stories less often told. It believes strongly in art’s capacity to challenge its own definition, to curve away from the norm, making space for more and varied voices.

Bad Betty won the Michael Marks Publisher’s Award in 2022, and was a regional finalist for the British Book Awards Small Press of the Year in 2023 and 2024. Their books have won or been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Michael Marks Award, the Laurel Prize, Polari First Book Prize and BAMB Readers’ Award, featured in the Guardian‘s Best Recent Poetry, and selected as a Telegraph Poetry Book of the Month, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and several times as Pamphlet Choice.

Introducing our headliners for May!

Ashley Hickson-Lovence is the author of The 392,Your Show and Wild East. He is a former secondary school English teacher with a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. WHY I AM NOT A BUS DRIVER is his first poetry collection.

Hannah Silva is a writer and performer working in sound poetry, radio and experimental non-fiction.Their eighth BBC radio play, “An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love” was the starting point for My Child, the Algorithm – a memoir exploring love and queer single parenting, woven into surreal and funny contributions by an early, open source large language model, and a toddler. Silva won the Tinniswood Award for radio drama and has been shortlisted for the Ted Hughes award and the Orwell Prize for reporting Homelessness. Silva’s first collection, Forms of Protest (Penned in the margins) was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. Talk in a bit, Silva’s record of sound poetry in collaboration with award-winning musicians is available on Spotify or on vinyl through bandcamp.Crow, Pirate, Fly(Bad Betty Press) is their second poetry collection.

Photo credit – Romany Francesca

Keith Jarrett is an international slam champion and was selected for the International Literary Showcase as an outstanding LGBT writer. His poem, ‘From the Logbook’ was projected onto St Paul’s Cathedral. His play, Safest Spot in Town, was performed at the Old Vic and aired on BBC Four.

His work has been widely anthologised across poetry, fiction and essay forms. He has appeared in Benjamin Zephaniah’s BAFTA-winning show Life and Rhymes and in documentaries on Black and queer history.

Keith is a Lambda Literary and an Obsidian Fellow, and holds a PhD from Birkbeck University, where he was awarded the Bloomsbury Studentship. He currently teaches at NYULondon. His collection, Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied is a PBS Spring recommendation.

Photo credit – Adrian Pope

Jake Wild Hall is an award winning poet and one half of Bad Betty Press. He has performed on BBC Radio and at festivals and literary events across the UK. He is a multiple slam champion and his work has been published in magazines, anthologies and online journals. He is the Author of two pamphlets Solomon’s World which was longlisted for the Saboteur award for best pamphlet and Blank.

He has worked with partners including Penguin, Apple’s and Snakes, Writing East Midlands, Derby Poetry Festival and Pearsons. He has also been a guest tutor for Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham University, King’s College London, Lincoln University and others.

His debut collection Alanis Morissette was published by Broken Sleep Books in January 2026.

Carson Wolfe is a Mancunian poet and Grand Prize Winner of The Disquiet Literary Program 2024. Their work has appeared with POETRY, The Rumpus, The Common, and Rattle, amongst others. In 2023, they won New Writing North’s Debut Poetry Prize, received awards from The Aurora Poetry Prize, The Edward Thomas Fellowship, and were longlisted in The Poetry Society’s National Competition.Their book Coin Laundry at Midnight, is forthcoming with Button Poetry in spring 2026.

To enter the draw for a limited open mic slot, please email us on verbosemanchester@gmail.com between 1st and 6th May.

Tickets are pay what you can from the link

Verbose: Monday 18th May 2026

Kings Arms, Bloom Street Salford 7.30pm to 9.30pm

Find us on Instagram and Facebook at @verbosemcr