Verbose at The King’s Arms

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
Luke Samuel Yates
Luke Samuel Yates

Verbose at The Kings Arms, Chapel Street 27 November 2023 Entrance is free — Visit now

One of Manchester’s longest-running monthly spoken word and live literature events, Verbose welcomes two invited headliners to the stage each month, plus a selection of open mic performers. For November, it’s Luke Samuel Yates and Thomas D Lee in the guest slots.

Under new ownership since the start of 2023, Lisa O’Hare, Ilaria Robinson-Passeri and Alicia Fitton are now firmly at the helm, four iterations in since the heady Fallow days began in January 2015. The latest Verbose hosting trio are carefully curating and shepherding headliners plus various open mic performers on the fourth Monday of each month, and you can expect poetry, prose, play snippets and everything in between, plus a real community vibe that welcomes all newcomers.

About the headliners…

Luke Samuel Yates’s debut collection, Dynamo, won the 2022 Poetry Business International Book and Pamphlet Prize, and was longlisted for the 2023 Laurel Prize. He has also published three pamphlets; Thinking Inside The Box, his first, was the result of a writing residency he did in 2009 at the Philadelphia Institute of Advanced Study, where he performed and launched the book from inside a large box. His other pamphlets are The Flemish Primitives (Smith/Doorstop), winner of the Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition 2015, and The Pair of Scissors That Could Cut Anything (The Rialto). He has been a Poetry Society Foyle Young Poet four times, and was selected for the Aldeburgh Eight. He has recently had poems published by magazines including Poetry Wales, The Rialto, Anthropocene, Ambit and The North, and he has performed at Aldeburgh, Ledbury, Kendal Calling and on BBC Radio 4. He lives in Manchester and is a lecturer in sociology, teaching and researching political movements, technology and consumption.

Thomas D Lee is a Sunday Times bestselling author of historical and fantasy fiction – his bestselling debut novel Perilous Times was published in May 2023. In 2019 he completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing and he is now pursuing a PhD there, specialising in queer interpretations of the Arthurian myths.

There will also be performances from various open mic acts, established and emerging. If you’d like to read on the open mic, get in touch with Verbose direct to put your name on the list (or waiting list).

Luke Samuel Yates Dynamo cover
Luke Samuel Yates Dynamo cover

Verbose at The Kings Arms, Chapel Street 27 November 2023 Entrance is free Visit now

Where to go near Verbose at The King’s Arms

Salford
Restaurant
The Egerton Arms

This old school pub not only offers a great selection of drinks and food, but also live music nights and a lively atmosphere.

The International 3
Chapel Street
The International 3

The International 3 is an exhibition and project space producing a year round programme of new commissions, solo shows, group exhibitions by emerging and established artists.

Manchester
Restaurant
Menagerie

Based in Salford, Menagerie is a bar and restaurant with a focus on luxury and theatrical thrills.

The Mark Addy riverside pub in Salford
Manchester
Bar or Pub
The Mark Addy

Was once pub dining at its very best. Modern British, locally inspired and sourced by acclaimed chef Robert Owen Brown.

Salford
Restaurant
Black Friar

Salford’s Black Friar has one of the most impressive Sunday roast options in the North.

What's on: Literature

Naomi Alderman
LiteratureManchester
Naomi Alderman at Manchester Central Library

Manchester Literature Festival has largely finished for 2023, but this Bookend event welcoming Naomi Alderman “in conversation” joins a couple of others for an extra sprinkling of book magic.

from £10.00
Poet Suzanne Batty. Courtesy Bloodaxe
LiteratureYork
Rise Up! at The Bluebird Bakery York

A monthly celebration of poetry with invited guests and ‘lucky dip’ open mic. This month, hosts Nicky Kippax and Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell welcome Suzanne Batty, Yvie Holder and Katy Mahon.

from £10.00
Writer Nicholas Royle. Photo by Zoe McLean
LiteratureManchester
Ghosts at the Old Library

Levenshulme Old Library has commissioned brand-new festive ghost stories from six writers for three special atmospheric lantern-lit reading events after hours in the Carnegie building.

from £10
LiteratureWest Yorkshire
Poetry at the Dusty Miller

Poetry at the Dusty Miller is a brand-new night with invited readers, organised by Carcanet-published Carola Luther and Judith Willson in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub.

free entry

Culture Guides

Music in Manchester and the North

Spotlighting global artists who all, in one way or another, break the mould, we preview the best gigs happening this side of Christmas and beyond.