Amy Acre is a poet and editor, born in London and living in Nottingham. Her debut collection, Mothersong (Bloomsbury, 2023) is shortlisted for the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, and was named a Book of the Year in The Telegraph, The Financial Times and California Review of Books. She runs award-winning indie publisher, Bad Betty Press.
Amy is the author of pamphlets, And They Are Covered in Gold Light (Bad Betty, 2019) and Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads (Flipped Eye, 2015), both selected as a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. She’s written for Radio 4 and featured on The Last Dinosaur’s 2020 track, ‘In The Belly of a Whale’. Her work has been selected as a BBC Pick of the Week and a London Review Bookshop recommendation.
Eryn McDonald is a multi-disciplinary artist from the South-West. They write a lot about gender, sexuality, politics and, more recently, health and burnout. They are currently co-creating a show about transness, masculinity and girlhood with Satellite of Love’s very own team members Aish Humphreys and Cal Wensley.
They recently completed a short poetry film commission for Apples & Snakes, and are the director of a short documentary on drag and gender identity called Queer Is A Tender Feeling.
They are driven by political rage, love for community, and a burning desire to infiltrate capitalism.
Eryn’s promotional picture was provided by Kathryn O’Driscoll
Jonathan Kinsman (he/him) is a bi, trans, polyamorous poet. He is a slam champion and has published three poetry pamphlets. Last summer, he did a full run of his debut solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe and his debut collection The Fireman’s Daughter is out now with Broken Sleep Books.
Jemima Hughes is a multi slam winning performance poet who will sweep you up and drag you through the “mindfield” of the unorthodox, swiftly spinning it into the ordinary. She brings you into the storm, pauses for breaks in the clouds, and sits with you in the aftermath to discuss how to rebuild. Jemima’s debut poetry collection ‘Unorthodox’, published with Verve Poetry Press in 2020, challenges perceptions of living with sexual trauma and mental health issues through personal experiences. Her new 2023 collection ‘Into The Ordinary’ aims to change perspectives on how we can make the world a more accepting, understanding and comfortable place for those living with these experiences.
Stand-up poet and lo-fi theatremaker Jonny Fluffypunk has been dragging his art around the UK and occasionally beyond for over 25 years, deafly fusing bittersweet autobiography, disillusionment and wonder into an act that has established him as a firm favourite at gigs, festivals and housing benefit offices everywhere. He has two volumes of poems, micro-fictions and threadbare philosophy published by Burning Eye, and his solo ‘no-fi’ stand-up spoken word theatre shows, including his latest, If We Just Keep Going, We Will Get There in the End, have toured extensively around theatres, pubs, garden sheds, summer houses, record shops and Britain’s other ad-hoc performance spaces in a blatant championing of homespun DIY culture. When not performing, Jonny runs workshops, putting shapes and colours into the minds of young and old alike. He’s a crucial third of Hip Yak Poetry Shack, ‘the south west’s favourite pop-up poetry event’, and also runs Mr Fluffypunk’s Penny Gaff, an alternative cabaret in his adopted home town of Stroud.
Kat is a Bristol-based writer and performer, working mainly in the field of spoken word poetry. They are the curent Bristol City Poet (2022-2024) and were nominated for the Jerwood Poetry in Performance Award 2022. Kat has performed at poetry events and festivals across the UK, including WOMAD, Shambala, Lyra: Bristol Poetry Festival 2020 and the Eden Project. Their poetry has been featured in Under the Radar, Ink Sweat & Tears and Bath Magg and their debut collection Love Beneath the Nails is published by Verve Poetry Press. Kat has recently finished their UK tour of Dry Season – a multi-year spoken word theatre show/project exploring age, identity and menopause.
Jenny Mitchell won the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize 2023 for a single poem, and the Poetry Book Awards 2021 for her second collection, Map of a Plantation, which is on the syllabus at Manchester Metropolitan University.
She’s won numerous competitions, is widely-published and has performed at the Houses of Parliament. Her latest publication is the pamphlet shared with Zoë Brigley and Roy McFarlane called Family Name.
Her Lost LanguageMap of a PlantationResurrection of a Black Man
Jemma Hathaway likes to put words next to one another and see if they hit it off. Her poems have been featured on BBC Radio Bristol, BBC iPlayer and she was the 2020 Hammer & Tongue slam champion for Bristol. She has supported Joelle Taylor, performed at the Royal Albert Hall and appeared on Sky Arts Life & Rhymes hosted by Benjamin Zephaniah. She is a Button Poetry Short Form contest winner and in 2021 self-published her first poetry pamphlet, January.
Last year she won the Hip Yak Poetry Shack slam at Frome Festival and performed her first festival set at WOMAD and this year she has been lucky enough to support Roger McGough.
Her poems are a sticky dancefloor for the ongoing dance-off between her head and her heart. She hopes you like her moves. She is currently working on her first full collection.
Three headline poets and open mic slots on board the John Sebastian Lightship
Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm start
Satellite Of Summer, a special event brought to the Lightship by Satellite Of Love Open Mic Poetry.
Toby Thompson
Previous Glastonbury Poetry Slam Champion Toby Thompson has written commissions for the RSC, The Royal Geographical Society and the National Portrait Gallery. He’s performed his work at The Natural History Museum; The Royal Albert Hall and The House of Lords. His one man poetry and music storytelling bonanza ‘For The Record’ won the Pleasance Indie Award for Best Theatre Show at at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018. His show ‘I Wish I Was A Mountain’ won the Victor Award for Best Theatre Show at Philadelphia’s IPAY Festival 2020. In 2022, Toby toured ‘I Wish I Was A Mountain’ to China for six months, and also to Ireland, where he received a 5 star review in The Irish Times.
‘Entrancing… The words tumble out of him like an extended jazz solo’ – The Guardian
‘Touching, captivating, and toe-tinglingly lovely, Toby’s work is a joy’ – Edinburgh Guide, 5 stars ‘…easily one of the most gifted young wordsmiths I have ever had the pleasure to encounter.’ – Akala
Iona Lee
Iona Lee is a poet, visual artist, music-maker, storyteller and spoken-word performer from Edinburgh. She has been a prominent member of Scotland’s live poetry scene for ten years, appearing on radio (The Verb, The Digital Human) and television (The Big Scottish Book Club), and has performed in venues and on festival stages all over the UK and Europe (Glastonbury, The World Slam Championships, the Edinburgh International Book Festival.) Iona has a BA in illustration from the Glasgow School of Art and a first class MFA in Art & Philosophy from DJCAD. Her pamphlet (Polygon, 2018) was shortlisted for a Saltire Award, and her upcoming debut collection, Anamnesis, was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. Iona’s writing has been described by Liz Lochead as “youthful, sexy, sharp, ferally female, and funny”.
Iona Lee’s photography credit goes to Laura Meek – www.laurameek.com
Ben Vince
Ben is a Bristol based poet and performer, whose work seeks intimacy above all else – be it with other humans, the more-than-human, or the spiritual. He has been published in Horizon, has edited for The Scores Journal of Poetry and Prose, and is both a commended Foyles Young Poet and winner of a Fresher’s Writing Prize.
T.S. IDIOT (Tom Stockley) is a lo-fi performer, writer, designer, organiser and semi-professional moron based in Bristol. Informed by a century of counter-culture, his practice is parasitic and flirts with the humour, beauty and sadness of every day life by any means necessary (including spoken word, DIY spaces and collaborative projects). In 2016 he appeared as a rock in an international theatre production and burnt his BA degree. In 2017 he appeared in a BBC3 Documentary. In 2018 he was selected for the UK Young Artists Residency Programme. Right now he lives in Bristol with some humans and reptiles, working on various projects with Uncollective.
His major influences include Genesis P-Orridge, Lady Gaga, Marcel Duchamp, Jeremy Deller, Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden, Angus Fairhurst, William Pope. L, Viva Hamnell, Viv Albertine, William Burroughs, David Lynch, Leigh Bowery, Monster Chetwynd, Daniel Johnston, Grayson Perry, Poly Styrene, Martin Creed, David Shrigley and George Lucas.
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