Rainham Poetry Festival

This new 2-day poetry festival for Rainham in the beautiful early English gothic church of St Margaret’s starts on Friday 28 April from 6pm; poets performing are Charlotte Ansell, whose book ‘Deluge’ was a 2019 Poetry Book Society Winter recommendation, and Jessica Mookherjee, whose book ‘Tigress’ was shortlisted as best second collection in the Ledbury Munthe Prize in 2021. 

They are supporting poetry legend John Agard. John is an internationally acclaimed poet, playwright, short story writer, and performer. In 2021, he was awarded the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement for his outstanding contribution to literature, and has previously been awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and is studied on the National Curriculum in GSCE English.

On Saturday 29 April, the church will host readings from the winners of Wordsmithery’s 2022 Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize, the topic was poems inspired by nature. Guest reader Jane Burn, a multi-award winning poet, will be joining in.

This will be followed by the ‘Four Poets’, a collective of Medway poets; Barry Fentiman Hall, the co-director of the festival, Maggie Harris who is an award-winning Guyanese poet, Sarah Hehir, poet, playwright and TV/radio writer for ‘The Archers’ and ‘Doctors’. Bill Lewis, one of the original Medway Poets, completes the lineup.

There is no booking required for this event, and it’s free!