Northern Poets Collective

Part of Leeds Lit Fest 2026. See the full programme at https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/

Northern Poets Collective is a group of five acclaimed, Yorkshire-based writers and performers, formed after they appeared together at the BBC Contains Strong Language festival in Bradford, 2025: Nabeela Ahmed, Rachel Bower, Antony Dunn, Testament and Emily Zobel Marshall. 

They offer a compelling mix of poetry, performance and conversation, exploring what on earth they mean when they describe themselves as 'northern'. And, indeed, as 'poets'. They sit at a crossroads, meshing the personal and political, critical and creative, using poetry to provoke, to resist - and to help us fall in love again, with others, with ourselves, with the natural world. 

Meet them for their world premier as a collective! 

_________

Nabeela Ahmed is a writer, multilingual poet and spoken word artist. Her debut poetry collection is From Kashmir to Yorkshire. She featured on Radio 4 with Michael Rosen and delivered two bilingual anthologies for City of Culture 2025. She was the Travelling Poet for Word Up North and is Poet in Residence at the People Powered Press, Bradford.

Rachel Bower is the author of It Comes from the River (Bloomsbury) and three poetry collections, including Bee (Hazel Press). Rachel edited Family Lines with Simon Armitage (Faber & Faber) and her poems and stories have been widely published, including in The Guardian, The London Magazine and The Rialto. Her work is represented by Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown.

Antony Dunn has published four collections of poetry, most recently Take This One to Bed (Valley Press). His fifth is due in autumn 2026. He has been Poet in Residence at Ilkley Literature Festival, the University of York and the People Powered Press, Bradford. He is a regular tutor for The Poetry School online, and in York, Saltaire and Leeds, where he lives.

Testament is an award winning writer, rapper and world record breaking beatboxer with performances on BBC TV, Sky Arts and BBC Radio 1 amongst others. Testament's work includes the acclaimed plays Black Men Walking and Orpheus In The Record Shop and he is currently host of live poetry show The Adverb on BBC Radio 4.

Emily Zobel Marshall is a poet, activist and Professor of Postcolonial Literature at Leeds Beckett University. Of French-Caribbean and British heritage, she researches African diasporic cultures, trickster folklore and Caribbean carnival. She has published several academic monographs and two poetry collections with Peepal Tree Press, Bath of Herbs (2023) and Other Wild (2025).