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.
Satellite Of Love Previous Headliner Pete Bearder is an award-winning spoken word poet, author and comic. His work has been featured on BBC Radio 4, The World Service, and Newsnight. He is a former National Poetry Slam Champion and has performed around the world with organisations like The British Council. Pete recently released his third book ‘Garden of Madness’, described by Tom Hirons as a ‘word-heaven of praise poetry’.
Emma Purshouse is a poetry slam champion and performs regularly at spoken word nights and festivals far and wide, sometimes using her native Black Country dialect. She was the Poet Laureate for the City of Wolverhampton. Her appearances include, The Cheltenham Literature Festival, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Much Wenlock Poetry Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, Latitude, and Womad. She has supported the likes of John Hegley, Holly McNish and Carol Ann Duffy.
In 2017 Emma won the ‘Making Waves’ international spoken word competition which was judged by Luke Wright.
Her children’s poetry collection ‘I Once Knew a Poem Who Wore a Hat’ (Fair Acre Press) won the poetry section of the Rubery Book award in 2016. Her most recent poetry publication ‘Close’ (Offa’s Press) was shortlisted for the same award in 2018.
Her debut novel ‘Dogged’ is published by Ignite Books.
She is one third of the poetry collective ‘Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists’ who run spoken word events, workshops, and poetry projects across the Midlands.
Emma’s poem ‘Catherine Eddowes Tin Box as a Key Witness’ came 3rd in the National Poetry Competition in 2021.
“A whirlwind of wit and humour” – Write Out Loud.
Steve Pottinger
Steve Pottinger is part of the ‘Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists’ poetry collective, and has performed his poetry all over the UK, in pubs, clubs, and festivals.
Poet Tom Sastry grew up in Buckinghamshire and has lived in Bristol since 1999. After being chosen by Carol Ann Duffy as one of the 2016 Laureate’s Choice poets, his debut pamphlet Complicity (2016) was a Poetry School Book of the Year and a Poetry Book Society pamphlet choice. Since then, he has published two collections, both with Nine Arches Press: A Man’s House Catches Fire in 2019, which was highly commended in the Forward Prize and shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize, and his new book, You have no normal country to return to, which came out this year. Tom has been described by Hera Lindsay Bird as “a magician of deadpan” and praised by Carol Ann Duffy for how he “navigates the mysterious everyday…making friendships and love affairs new and strange”.
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