Women’s poetry today: impact & innovation

 Chaired by Professor Lucy English, with panellists Aki Schilz, Jennifer Lee Tsai, Jane Commane, Vanessa Kisuule and Sophie Dumont, we will explore the creative, cultural and structural impact of women’s poetry.

 There will be short readings and provocations to highlight the challenges and opportunities in the sector, before opening up the discussion to the audience.

 Aki Schiltz is a writer, poet, editor and director the Literary Consultancy, the UK’s first editorial assessment service. She is the current vice chair of English PEN. In 2023, Aki was signed in as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, for services to literature.

 Jennifer Lee Tsai is a poet published by Bloodaxe. She was a winner of the Rebecca Swift Foundation Women’s Poet Prize. She is a fellow of The Complete Works, a Ledbury Poetry Critic, and a former contributing editor to Ambit. 

 Jane Commane is the editor of Nine Arches Press and is published by Bloodaxe. She was awarded  a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship in 2017-18. In 2025 she received a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors,

 Vanessa Kisuule is a poet and performer. She hosted the Radio 4 programme The Poetry Detective. She is published by Burning Eye Books and was Highly Commended in the Forward Poetry Prize 2019.

 Sophie Dumont is a Bristol based poet and was a Bristol Harbourside Boat Poet in 2022. Her 2025 debut collection Sculling was reviewed in The Guardian.

 Lucy English is a novelist, poet, educator and Professor of Creative Enterprise and The Spoken Word at Bath Spa University. She is published by Burning Eye Books.

 Aki Schlitz and Sophie Dumont are graduates from the Bath Spa University MA in Creative Writing programme.

 The event is free for Women Poets’ Network members and students and staff at Bath Spa University. Details of how to access the recorded event will be available later.