Lighting the Fire officially opens the festival with four of Gloucestershire’s finest poets stepping into the glow: Alison Brackenbury, Kate Potts, Zoe Brooks, and Jason Conway. These are poets who forge language into poems of exceptional resonance. We will also be revealing and crowning the inaugural Dobunni Bard - cultural witness, myth-maker, festival mascot - in a playful ceremonial moment to launch the celebrations.
Held at Lansdown Hall. Lansdown, Stroud GL5 1BB.
Alison Brackenbury has published ten poetry collections, enriched by Gloucestershire’s hills, horses, hares and history. Her poems have received two major awards, and frequent broadcasts on Radio 4. Her latest collection is Thorpeness, (Carcanet). Alison’s new non-fiction prose book, ‘Village’, which Nicola Chester, (Guardian Nature Diarist), calls ‘wonderful’, features a legendary Gloucestershire villager, speaking perfect Anglo-Saxon...
Kate Potts is a poet, mentor, editor and founder of online poetry community Poetical Workshop. Feral (Bloodaxe 2018) was a PBS recommendation and a Telegraph Poetry Book of the Month. Her latest book Pretenders (Bloodaxe 2025) is a multi-voice exploration of imposter feelings. She has taught creative writing for Oxford University, Royal Holloway, Arvon, The Poetry School and elsewhere.
Zoe Brooks is a writer and performer of poetry from Gloucestershire, where she is a director of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival. Zoe’s latest collection Something In Nothing (IDP) weaves together the lives of various fairytale characters in a contemporary setting to explore difficult issues.
Jason Conway is a professional daydreamer, director of the Gloucestershire Poetry Society, and editor of Steel Jackdaw magazine. His work is published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Dreich, Poetry Bus, Ink Sweat and Tears, The Phare, and on BBC Upload. Jason's Debut collection is The Wash of Hours (Black Eyes Publishing UK, 2025). He has an MA in Creative Writing (Bath Spa), is an Arts Council funded poet, and a member of the Word Space 2024-25 cohort.
Lighting the Fire officially opens the festival with four of Gloucestershire’s finest poets stepping into the glow: Alison Brackenbury, Kate Potts, Zoe Brooks, and Jason Conway. These are poets who forge language into poems of exceptional resonance. We will also be revealing and crowning the inaugural Dobunni Bard - cultural witness, myth-maker, festival mascot - in a playful ceremonial moment to launch the celebrations.
Held at Lansdown Hall. Lansdown, Stroud GL5 1BB.
Alison Brackenbury has published ten poetry collections, enriched by Gloucestershire’s hills, horses, hares and history. Her poems have received two major awards, and frequent broadcasts on Radio 4. Her latest collection is Thorpeness, (Carcanet). Alison’s new non-fiction prose book, ‘Village’, which Nicola Chester, (Guardian Nature Diarist), calls ‘wonderful’, features a legendary Gloucestershire villager, speaking perfect Anglo-Saxon...
Kate Potts is a poet, mentor, editor and founder of online poetry community Poetical Workshop. Feral (Bloodaxe 2018) was a PBS recommendation and a Telegraph Poetry Book of the Month. Her latest book Pretenders (Bloodaxe 2025) is a multi-voice exploration of imposter feelings. She has taught creative writing for Oxford University, Royal Holloway, Arvon, The Poetry School and elsewhere.
Zoe Brooks is a writer and performer of poetry from Gloucestershire, where she is a director of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival. Zoe’s latest collection Something In Nothing (IDP) weaves together the lives of various fairytale characters in a contemporary setting to explore difficult issues.
Jason Conway is a professional daydreamer, director of the Gloucestershire Poetry Society, and editor of Steel Jackdaw magazine. His work is published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Dreich, Poetry Bus, Ink Sweat and Tears, The Phare, and on BBC Upload. Jason's Debut collection is The Wash of Hours (Black Eyes Publishing UK, 2025). He has an MA in Creative Writing (Bath Spa), is an Arts Council funded poet, and a member of the Word Space 2024-25 cohort.
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