Oxford Poetry Library

Next week! Our Getting Started with Poetry workshop takes place at The Community Works Event Space (21 Park End St, OX1 1HU) on Monday.

Join us from 7-8.30pm for a relaxed, accessible session designed to help you move forward with your writing.

The workshop is open to anyone aged 16+. It’s free!

Next week! Don't miss Alex Corrin-Tachibana and Catherine Redford reading from their latest collections - 19 September at 7.30pm in The Community Works!

We're shining a light on each of the readers in the run-up to the event, and next up is Alex Corrin-Tachibana. Alex is a Forward Prize and Pushcart nominated poet and author of Sing me Down From the Dark (Salt, 2022). Her poems have appeared in P.N. Review, The North, Magma, Pennine Platform, Poetry Wales and The Pomegranate London. This year she won the February Verve Poem of the Month and came 3rd in the Kent and Sussex competiton, judged by Mimi Khalvati. She teaches for The Poetry School and The Poetry Business. Of her new collection, Skinship, Jennifer Wong wrote: 'these poems gleam with knowledge and haunt'.

Get your tickets now -

Oxford Poetry Library Reading: Catherine Redford & Alex Corrin-Tachibana Hear award winning poets Catherine Redford and Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana read from their new collections.

LAST CALL! This week, join Jay Gao, Nathaniel Chew, Mary Jean Chan, and Theophilus Kwek for a spell-binding evening of poetry!

Four poets gather at the Oxford Poetry Library on Friday, 11 September at 7pm, to celebrate new books by Jay Gao (The Dead One) and Theophilus Kwek (Odeon). Join them, alongside Mary Jean Chan and Nathaniel Chew, to hear some of their latest work, with echoes of the many cities they’ve called home – including Edinburgh, Hong Kong, New York, Singapore, Oxford and beyond.

Tickets are £5 (£2 concessions, £10 to pay a little more to support the work we do):

Thundering In Your Ear Join Jay Gao, Nathaniel Chew, Mary Jean Chan, and Theophilus Kwek for a spell-binding evening of poetry!

Want to discover new writers, share recommendations, or discuss contemporary poetry in a friendly group?

Reading Circle is back on Saturday 19th September from 2-4pm at The Community Works in Oxford. Come along and join Oxford Poetry Library's monthly reading group, headed by knowledgeable facilitators Vanessa Lampert, Alan Buckley, and Carl Tomlinson.

Questions we'll be asking include:

Can we love a poem we don’t fully understand?
Why do we like a poem? Why don’t we?
Where is a poem's heart?

Register in advance here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-reading-circle-tickets-784392989547?msockid=2076410aba236b4b059e5603bbf66a33

Next week! Don't miss our exclusive event with Jay Gao, Theophilus Kwek, Mary Jean Chan, and Nathaniel Chew!

On Friday, 11 September at 7pm, to celebrate new books by Jay Gao (The Dead One) and Theophilus Kwek (Odeon). Join them, alongside Mary Jean Chan and Nathaniel Chew, to hear some of their latest work, with echoes of the many cities they’ve called home – including Edinburgh, Hong Kong, New York, Singapore, Oxford and beyond.

We've been shining a light on each of these wonderful writers in the run-up to this event, and our final spotlight is on Jay Gao. Jay is a poet and writer from Edinburgh, Scotland, living in New York City. His second poetry collection The Dead One, The Unconscious One, Thundering in Your Ear, Thriving Slumber is forthcoming in Fall 2026 from Nightboat Books and Carcanet Press. His debut collection Imperium (2022) was a winner of the 2023 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize, an Eric Gregory Award and a Somerset Maugham Award. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in English at Columbia University.

Snap up your tickets here:

Thundering In Your Ear Join Jay Gao, Nathaniel Chew, Mary Jean Chan, and Theophilus Kwek for a spell-binding evening of poetry!

Three years ago, we launched our daytime open mic The Hip Crowd alongside . Although all are welcome, this was created as a space to centre new parents, a group of people often excluded from these kinds of creative spaces due to child-unfriendly hours, a lack of childcare, venue restrictions.

We've loved making this a baby-welcoming space and seeing all the amazing performances folks have brought to the room. Unfortunately, it's time for this chapter to end, but we'll be back for one last instalment at the end of this month!

Join us on 25th September from 11:30am to 1pm at The Community Works, 21 Park End Street. Tickets are £5 cash on the door, with free entry for performers (arrive from 11am to sign up).

Bring your babies (if you have them), plus your songs, poems, stories, comedy, or anything else that will fit in a five minute slot. We'd love to say goodbye to The Hip Crowd with you!

NEXT WEEK, Oxford Poetry Library is back, and so is The Shape of Poetry!! If you've been missing us all summer, you definitely want to join this workshop!!

The Shape of Poetry is all about understanding poetic form using examples, and you even get the chance to experiment and write your own! It's open to all poets, no matter how experienced you are, and you can share what you've written or learned in a safe and supportive environment.

We'll be online from 2pm - 4pm 📆
Grab your tickets below!!
🎟️ https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-shape-of-poetry-workshop-series-tickets-886344429047

On 19 September, two very talented poets are joining us at the library to read from their new collections. Don't miss Catherine Redford and Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana in The Community Works at 7.30pm!

In the run-up to the event, we'll be spotlighting each of these excellent writers and first up is Catherine Redford. Catherine's Forward-nominated debut collection, The Way the Water Held Me (The Emma Press, 2026), explores the caring, grief, loss, and love experienced by a young widow. A Magma Selected Poet, Catherine’s work has also been published in Under the Radar, Propel, New Welsh Reader, and Lighthouse. She is an editor at Dust Poetry magazine, a Nine Arches Press Dynamo Poet, and a Writing West Midlands Room 204 Writer.‘Catherine Redford is a luminous writer and her poems will touch your heart’ (Liz Berry)

Get your tickets now!

Oxford Poetry Library Reading: Catherine Redford & Alex Corrin-Tachibana Hear award winning poets Catherine Redford and Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana read from their new collections.

After a long, hot Summer...Oxford Poetry Library is back, and so is The Shape of Poetry! ☀️

COMING UP THIS SATURDAY: The Shape of Poetry, OPL's premier formal poetry workshop where we look at everything poetic form. We cover everything, from haikus to sonnets, ghazals and ballads! Every month we gather online to look at a specific poem, pick it apart to understand its form, and then you get to experiment with writing your own. 🔥✒️

This workshop is collaborative and supportive - all poets are welcome, no matter how experienced you are! At the end of each session, you can share what you've written or learned in a low-pressure environment.

We will be online this Saturday, from 2pm to 4pm. We also have flexible pricing for our tickets!

Grab your tickets at the link below - see you on Saturday!!

🎟️ https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-shape-of-poetry-workshop-series-tickets-886344429047

Our inclusive workshop for carving out poetry time and learning new skills is coming up!

Getting Started with Poetry takes place at The Community Works Event Space on September 14, 7-8.30pm.

Join us for a relaxed, accessible session designed to help you move forward with your writing. It's free!