Are you a poet, spoken word artist or writer aged 18-30 and living in South East London? Are you interested in connecting with other young creatives and being part of Spread the Word’s Poetics Lab?
What is Poetics Lab?
Poetics Lab is a poetry programme for young people living in South East London. The programme will work towards an end-of-programme showcase in November 2025 and create work for the 2026 Deptford Literature Festival.
13 sessions with different expert writers will help you develop your poetry writing skills and understand the publishing industry and the career opportunities available to poets.
Some of the writers you’ll be working with are:
- Pascale Petit, an award-winning poet of French, Welsh and Indian heritage. Pascale’s work has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection and for Wales Book of the Year, won the inaugural Laurel Prize, Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize (for work that evokes a strong sense of place), and been the Poetry Book Society Choice.
- Malika Booker, a poet and multi-disciplinary artist of Guyanese and Grenadian Parentage. Malika is the founder of poetry collective Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. Her work has been shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize and the Forward Prize.
- Victoria Kennefick, an Irish poet, writer and teacher from Shanagarry, Co. Cork. Her work has won the Seamus Heaney Prize for Best First Collection and The Dalkey Literary Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award, and been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, The Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and more.
- Alycia Pirmohamed, a Canadian-born poet based in Scotland, winner of the Nan Shephard Prize for her nonfiction debut, a member of nature writing project ‘field notes collective’, co-founder of the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, co-organiser of the Ledbury Poetry Critics Programme, and a teacher on the Creative Writing master’s programme at the University of Cambridge.
- Richard Scott, a poet, his debut collection, Soho was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Polari First Book Prize. He teaches poetry at the Faber Academy and is a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London
- Nii Ayikwei Parkes, a Ghanaian-British writer, editor, socio-cultural commentator and performance poet who has won acclaim as a children’s author, poet, broadcaster and novelist. Nii has won Ghana’s national ACRAG award for poetry and literary advocacy. His work has been translated into Italian, French, Chinese, Dutch, German and Arabic.
- Anthony Anaxagorou, a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. His work has won the RSL Ondaatje Prize, has been shortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. He is artistic director of Out-Spoken, a monthly poetry and music night held at London’s Southbank Centre, and publisher of Out-Spoken Press.
- Caroline Bird, an English poet and playwright who published her first poetry collection at just 15 years old. Her work has won the Forward Prize for Best Collection and been shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Prize and the Polari Prize. Bird’s work is celebrated for its masterful use of imagery, wit, and voice.
- Fiona Benson, an English poet whose three collections have all been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Her work has also won the 2015 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry’s Prize for First Full Collection, the Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Forward Prize for Best Collection.
- Ariana Benson is a southern Black poet born in Norfolk, Virginia. They have received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Furious Flower Poetry Prize, the Porter House Review Poetry Prize, the Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets, and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
More names will be announced soon.
These award-winning, successful writers will help you to develop your own creative work as well as guide the cohort towards the end of programme showcase in November, and the later presentation at Deptford Literature Festival in March 2026.
Who is Poetics Lab for?
Poetics Lab is open to anyone aged 18-30 living in South East London. As we’re based in Deptford in Lewisham, we’re especially interested in young creatives living in Lewisham, Bromley, Greenwich or Southwark.
It is for you if you…
- Are interested in creating poetry and spoken word or telling stories
- Want to have your voice heard on issues that matter to you
- Are only just starting to write, are thinking about starting, or already have some experience writing and/or performing
Why take part Poetics Lab?
As well as the opportunity to work directly with award-winning poets and writers, if you take part in Poetics Lab you will:
- Meet other young people interested in writing
- Learn new techniques to improve your poetry, writing and performance skills
- Become more confident in your voice as a poet, writer or spoken word artist
- Become part of a supportive creative community
- Get an insight into building a creative career
- Have your voice heard
- Take part in Deptford Literature Festival 2026
- Have fun and make new connections
When and where will Poetics Labs take place?
Poetics Labs sessions will run on Wednesdays from 6pm-8pm, alternating between in-person sessions at the Albany in Deptford, and online sessions. The address for the Albany is: Douglas Way, London, SE8 4AG.
Sessions will start on Wednesday 3 September and run weekly until Wednesday 26 November 2025.
Pizzas and refreshments will be provided at in-person sessions.
The end of programme showcase will take place on Wednesday 3 December. The Deptford Literature Festival event will take place on 28th March at Deptford Lounge.
Sign up to take part
If you’d like to become part of the Poetics Lab, please sign up using this form by 5pm on Tuesday 5 August 2025. We’ll be in touch with you by Friday 15 August 2025 to let you know about your place.
Access
If you need to request any adjustments to the application process or have any access requirements to take part in Poetics Labs, please get in touch with Courtney: [email protected].
A BSL video of this page will be made available shortly. If you’d like us to send it directly to you, please send a note to Courtney: [email protected]
The Albany has fully accessible toilets, a lift, and there is limited disabled parking is available as well. You can find more information about access in the building on their website. If you have any questions about access at the Albany, you can get in touch with their Venue and Events team. Marissa, Chris and Nicole and can be contacted by calling 020 8692 4446 or emailing [email protected].
Costs and travel bursaries
The Poetics Lab programme is free to take part in. If you need any financial support to attend, for example, to cover travel costs, please get in touch with Courtney: [email protected].
Lewisham, Borough of Literature
Poetics Labs is part of Spread the Word’s campaign to make Lewisham the UK’s first Borough of Literature. To find out more about the campaign and how you can take part, please visit the Borough of Literature project page.
Photo: a young writer performing at Deptford Literature Festival 2024, captured by Hayley Madden.
class="post-75024 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news"London Writers Awards Alumni nominated for two Society of Authors Awards
Tom Newlands’ novel, Only Here, Only Now, has been shortlisted for two prizes at the Society of Author Awards. It’s the only book to receive a double nomination.
Published in June last year, Only Here, Only Now has had praise heaped on it. This January the novel was also shortlisted for the 2025 Gordon Burn Prize.
Tom is an alumni of the London Writers Awards: he completed the programme in 2021. The London Writers Awards is our annual writer development programme that aims to increase the number of writers from underrepresented communities being taken up by agents and publishers.
The annual Society of Authors’ Awards recognises the best and most promising literary voices of the year. Only Here, Only Now is on the shortlist for the ADCI Literary Prize, which encourages greater positive representation of disability in literature, and the McKitterick Prize, for a first novel by an author over 40.
The winners will be announced on Wednesday 18 June at Southwark Cathedral and will share a prize fund of over £170,000.
Congratulations and good luck Tom!
class="post-74964 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news"London Writers Award alumna Natasha Brown among 2025 Orwell Prize finalists
London Writers Award alumna Natasha Brown has been named among the finalists for this year’s Orwell Prize.
Natasha’s latest novel, Universality, is described as a “a fabulous fable about the politics of storytelling” by the Guardian, that “examines what it means to be truthful – and who really benefits when facts come to light.”
Natasha’s debut novel Assembly, developed during her time on the London Writers Award programme, was Foyles Fiction Book of the Year, shortlisted for several awards, and translated into 17 languages. She was a 2023 Granta Best of Young British Novelist and a 2021 Observer Best Debut Novelist.
The Orwell Prize is awarded for writing that meets the spirit of George Orwell’s own ambition “to make political writing into an art.” This year’s finalists are:
- Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
- heart be at peace by Donal Ryan,
- Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn,
- Precipice by Robert Harris,
- The Accidental Immigrants by Joe McMillan,
- The Harrow by Noah Eaton,
- There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak,
- and Universality by Natasha Brown
The winners of the 2025 Orwell Prize will be revealed on the 25 June 2025.
Huge congratulations Natasha!
class="post-74946 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-opportunities"Volunteers needed to help tell our story
This year, Spread the Word turns 30! We’re looking for two volunteers who can help us tell the story of the organisation during the last 30 years.
We have an extensive archive which includes lots paper records from our earlier years. We need your help to go through the artefacts and documents we have, to identify interesting stories and create a digital record of the many incredible writers, artists and partners we have collaborated with over the years. This work will support a donations campaign that we will run later in the year to raise funds to support the future of the organisation.
If you are interested in literature, writing and reading, enjoy digging into archive material, searching for exciting stories and looking for links between the past and present, this role is for you.
Volunteer Archivist
Commitment: one day per week during July and early August (from the week commencing 30 June to the week commencing 11 August).
As the archive is in our office at the Albany, this work needs to be done during office hours, from Monday – Wednesday, 10am to 6pm. In the application form we ask you which days and times of day are best, so we can create a project schedule that fits with your existing responsibilities.
An allowance for travel and lunch will be provided.
If you are interested in helping Spread the Word tell our story, please complete the application form and the Equal Opportunities form linked at the end. The deadline to express interest in the role is midday on Monday 16 June 2025. We will be in touch by Thursday 19 June and will organise relaxed conversations with a shortlist of volunteers to check there’s a good fit for the role.
Apply now to be one of our archive volunteers
If you have access needs and would like us to make any reasonable adjustments to the application process, please get in touch via [email protected].
Thank you!
Image: A Night in Sign at Deptford Literature Festival 2025, captured by Kashif Haque.
class="post-74938 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news"Thank you to Youth First Legacy Fund
We’d like to extend a huge thank you to the Youth First Legacy Fund and the Youth First trustees for supporting Spread the Word.
Youth First provided youth services to the borough of Lewisham. These services have now been brought into the council as the Lewisham Youth Service.
As Youth First wound down their operations, they offered grants to organisations delivering work in line with their purpose and mission: to guide young people to develop their ambition and achieve their potential whatever their background or circumstances; to be attractive and inclusive for all; and to focus on those in society who are most vulnerable, discriminated against and under-privileged.
We’re delighted to have received funds from, and the confidence of Youth First to continue their legacy of impactful youth work in Lewisham. This is not the first time we’ve collaborated with Youth First. In August 2020 we teamed up to deliver creative care packages to young people across the borough who were struggling with their mental health and feeling isolated, restless and anxious due to the pandemic. The programme was launched by our Young People’s Laureate for London at the time, Theresa Lola. In 2022 and 2023 we collaborated again for Deptford Literature Festival. Youth First young people, with the support of Young People’s Poet Laureate Cecilia Knapp, filmmaker Mmoloki Chrystie and artist Kobi Essah Ayensuo, created short films which premiered at the festival.
The money we receive from the Youth First Legacy Fund will be directed towards creative programmes for young people as part of our Lewisham, Borough of Literature campaign. Stay tuned to find out more!
Photo: Young Writers Collective at Deptford Literature Festival 2025, captured by Maddmann Photography.
class="post-74820 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news"London Writers Awards Alumni shortlisted for Jhalak Prize
Ashani Lewis is a novelist and short-story writer based in London. Ashani was a winner of the London Writers Awards 2021, in the literary fiction category. Her writing has won the Tower Poetry Prize and the Alpine Fellowship Writing Competition, as well as being featured in Harper’s Bazaar and Joyland.
Ashani’s second novel, Everest, has been shortlisted for the Jhalak Prose Prize 2025. The winners will be announced on 4 June.
Congratulations Ashani!
The Jhalak Prize awards seek to celebrate books by writers of colour in the UK and Ireland. Find out more about the prize and other shortlisted and longlisted authors on the Jhalak Prize website.