Join us for an evening of poetry, conversation, and community with The Poetry Lighthouse. Meet fellow poets, readers, translators, and friends, discover new voices, and celebrate the power of poetry together.
We're delighted to welcome Pat Farrington as our guest, who will introduce her collection Only One Earth, followed by readings from poets published by The Poetry Lighthouse.
Readers:
Pat Farrington spent her formative years in West Africa, experiencing close encounters with scorpions, locusts and snakes and being balefully eyed up by vultures. Exiled to England for school, she went on to work as an assistant editor in educational publishing, three years as a primary teacher and then nearly 20 years as a director/producer for BBC Schools Television where, among other things, she wrote song lyrics for young children. After leaving the BBC, Pat worked for a charity, bringing writers into schools for residencies and then, apart from taking up environmental activism, she retired to an allotment where she provided ‘meals for pests’, which she later recognised as being an essential part of most ecosystems. Her two grandchildren, Rosa and Ada are a joy to her and allow her to revisit the natural world through a child’s eyes.
Mariam Saidan is a Specialist Advocate for Women’s Rights and has worked as a Children’s Rights Advocate, studied Human Rights Law at Nottingham Universality and Creative Writing at Kent University. She is Iranian, based in London and has lived in Iran, France, and the UK. She wrote her first journal at 8 years old during the Iran-Iraq war.
Sian Maciejowski is a writer and poet based in London. She has been writing for catharsis for as long as she can remember, but only began to call it poetry in 2019. Her work explores embodiment, transformation, and the spaces between undoing and becoming—often through the lens of motherhood, neurodivergence, and the complexities of being mixed race. She is particularly drawn to themes of generational inheritance—what we carry, what we choose to keep, and what we’re still learning to put down. You’ll usually find her scribbling in the margins of parenting, drinking coffee gone cold, and obsessing over the right word for a feeling she hasn’t yet named.
Johnny Day: is a poet, guitarist and ESL teacher based in London, England. They've loved and written poetry since they were around ten years old, and to this day it’s the best tool they have for apprehending and comprehending themselves, others, and the world.
Ellie Spirrett is a poet and member of Spread the Word’s Young Writers Collective. She writes about disability, ableism, friendship and the loneliness epidemic. Ellie is the self advocacy coordinator at Lewisham Speaking Up, an organisation that supports people with learning disabilities to campaign for their rights.
And a few more participants to be confirmed.
Host: Erwin Arroyo Perez
Other titles available for sale:
