Welcome to the Festival with Henry Normal & Friends

Andrew Graves has been featured on Cerys Matthews’ BBC 6 Music show and BBC 4’s documentary Evidently John Cooper Clarke. Often cited as “The hardest working poet in the East Midlands”, his works is raw and gritty, containing a dose of adroit comedy that champions the underdogs and underclass. A truly troubled poet for troubled times. he has also supported The Sleaford Mods.
Following the release of his first Burning Eye Books collection Light at the end of the Tenner, he is now touring with his latest book and Sabotuer Award shortlisted show, God Save the Teen

Georgina Wilding is Nottingham’s Young Poet Laureate. She grew up in a working-class family with Irish Catholic roots and is one of 13 grandchildren. Her current work in poetry has a focus on gender and expression. Alongside this, she is the founding editor of Nottingham based poetry publishing house, Mud Press, which recently saw the launch of their newest anthology WOMAN.
She has been commissioned by organisations such as the BBC to write and perform for both radio and TV, has toured her poetry across the UK and Germany, and recently performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has a first-class degree in Creative and Professional Writing from the University of Nottingham, and began her career in poetry working within the Nottingham-based spoken word collective, Mouthy Poets.

Michelle Hubbard is a performance poet, story teller, script writer, African drummer, cultural arts practitioner, workshop facilitator, and founding member of spoken word open mic event BlackDrop. Michelle has been developing her one woman show Cutting Edge which is an honest exploration of FGM and other violations bestowed upon women around the world. She has two published books and her poetry is published in various anthologies.

Pete is a poet, designer, sculptor and artist. He used to perform regularly on Terry Christian’s Radio Derby show and has performed at the Edinburgh Festival for BBC Radio 4. He also appeared on BBC 3’s Whine Gums poetry series. Pete has performed at poetry and cabaret venues all over the UK including the Nottingham Literature Festival in 2015.
Pete has had two books of poems published; Strike and Personal Vendetta (the latter under his pseudonym, John Bitumen.

Kev Fegan is author of 10 collections of poetry and over 50 stage plays, plus several plays and drama serials for BBC Radio 4 and storylines for “Coronation Street”. Kevin was interviewed recently by Sara Cox on BBC Radio 4’s “Loose Ends” about 4 new stage plays, all of which premiered in Sept last year. One of those plays, “Bess the Commoner Queen”, about Bess of Hardwick, will be touring nationally in Spring 2019.
“A true poet of the people”(Adrian Mitchell)
“Britain’s most innovative playwright” (Plays International

Leanne Moden has performed her poetry all across the UK, including recent sets at WOMAD, the Edinburgh Fringe, TEDx UCL, the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, and Bestival on the Isle of Wight. Leanne facilitates a number of live literature events in Nottinghamshire including the Crosswords spoken word open mic nights, and the poetry stage at the Gate to Southwell Music Festival.
She is primarily interested in words as a tool for creative self-expression and social inclusion.