Versus Anthology - Buy Now

The Versus Poetry Anthology is now available to order via this blog - click the BUY icon to the right of this post to purchase it for three pounds, including P&P.

The print edition of the Versus Poetry Anthology features work and words from Anna Tuck, Fergus Evans, Gerry Potter, Jackie Hagan, Liam Johnson, Jonny Fluffypunk, Linda Lee Welch, Lydia Hirst-MacDonald, Mab Jones, Martin Dawes, Nicky Norton, Sophie McKeand, Sophie Willan, Dave Davies and Michael Oliver.

Keep clicking back here for further work from the featured poets and more...

The Carreglwyd Estate, Anglesey

Some photographs of The Carreglwyd Estate, the place we'll all go this weekend...

Liam Johnson at The John Tripp Awards

Mab Jones

I am a poet, comic, writer, and performer, under the umbrella title of "spoken word artist". Winner of the John Tripp Spoken Poetry Audience Award, and semi-finalist in the Funny Women and Radio 4 National Poetry Slam competitions, I am a performer who places emphasis on entertainment and audience enjoyment. I have supported many well-known poets and comics, amongst them John Hegley, Lucy Porter, Tony Law, and Joolz Denby. Funny and touching by turns, my work veers from the delightfully playful to the outrageously naughty; meanders cleverly through subjects social, amorous, irreverent, and relevant; is witty, satirical, saucy, dark at times, but always lively and infused with a sparkly sense of fun.

I have performed at company parties, music festivals, after dinner events, comedy nights, burlesque revues, literary evenings, charity galas, and more. I have read in pubs, theatres, night clubs, high class hotels, on a milk float, in a yurt, in a manor house, in a priory, on a double decker bus, and more. I have performed all around the UK, as well as in Japan and America, and can tailor my work to suit any event, whether it be private, business, social, or even anti-social!

Additionally, I write for satirical Cardiff magazine "The Cheek"; have had a play performed in the Wales Millenium Centre (August 09); have run poetry workshops in schools, prisons, and in the general community; was resident writer on the Welsh National Opera songbus project (Winter 08); run the "Eroticake & Tea" writing group; represented Wales at the prestigious Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC(Summer 08); and have been featured on BBC Wales, Radio 4, and ITV television.

I hold an MA in English Literature and accept literary commissions. My first book, "Welsh Wool", is out later this year. All enquiries welcome!

"Excellent" - Metro

"Hilarious" - The Western Mail

"A real creative force" - Evening Post

"Fantastic!" - Frank Hennessy, BBC Radio Wales

"Delightful comic verse, articulate and imaginative" - Three Weeks

Mab Jones will be performing at The Trip Festival this weekend.

To find out more about Mab click here

J Fergus Evans [ No More Productions / Twinhead Theatre ]

J. Fergus Evans is a shit-kicking, boy-kissing activist-in-training and performance poet. He studied Theatre Performance and Design at Georgia State University and appeared in multiple productions; his performance in ‘A Soldier Dreams’ earned him a nomination for the national Irene Ryan Scholarship for Excellence in Theatre. He is also the recipient of the Mark Lampertz Memorial Scholarship and the Georgia Thespian Society Scholarship for his work in theatre. Fergus has trained in Improvisational Theatre under Lance Krall and Chip Powell, and worked as Lighting Designer for Whole World Theatre in Atlanta for over two years.

He is a founding member of No More Productions/ Twinhead Theatre, where he first premiered as a performance poet to critical acclaim. He has also appeared as the ingénue in ‘Fruit of the Lord: A Drag Gospel Musical’. Since coming to Manchester, Fergus has worked extensively with a number of political and artists’ collectives including Get Bent and Kaffequeeria. His work focuses on radical politics, queer resistance, and the intricacies of being a small town boy in a pretty big world.

Click here for Fergus' website and catch him this weekend at Trip.

Eggs Collective at The Trip Festival

Eggs Collective members Anna Tuck, Sophie Willan, Lydia Hirst-MacDonald and Nicky Norton will be performing across the weekend at Trip Festival. Who are Eggs Collective? Eggs believe in creating and performing exciting and original new work, conceived and developed by the women involved.

Members of the collective are vastly diverse in their skills, artistic styles, experience, age and ethnicities, making Eggs events brilliantly unpredictable and unique. Artists include musicians, spoken word performers, actors, singers, new writers, story-tellers, MCs and theatre makers. Eggs are a group of talented women with an extensive bank of skills open to work with and support any artists interested in collaboration of any kind.


Launched over Easter weekend 2009 with two packed performances by five emerging artists, the aim of the Eggs Collective is to present fun events that promote female creativity without alienating men or stereotyping women. Interest in Eggs has grown rapidly, with the collective expanding to 14 members, performing fresh material and delivering workshops at festivals, in theatres and bars, in prisons, pubs and tents. Eggs believe in constantly pushing the boundaries of what and where performance collectives can be, bringing new theatre to non-traditional venues, breaking into youth groups, comedy clubs and hosting regular open mic nights to form the basis of work to be developed for structured showcase events.

The Eggs Collective website can be found right here

Welcome to the Versus Poetry Blog

Welcome to the Versus Poetry blog, an accompaniment to the Versus Poetry Anthology that has been produced to feature poets appearing at The Trip Festival 2010. Trip takes place in a beautiful private location near Holyhead on Anglesey, North Wales over the weekend of May 28th to 30th. Click here for more information about The Trip Festival and here for information about the poets performing.

We'll be updating this blog with poetic words and videos over the next few days - keep coming back for more or if you want to say hello, email yvonne @ thetripfestival dot co dot uk.