Kerry Darbishire was raised in a wooden house by the River Brathay at the foot of the Langdale valley. She spent her childhood exploring her surroundings, especially the river and the nearby woodland. This has been the source for most of her writings. She will read from River Talk (which won the Wordsworth Prize for Literature and Poetry in the Lakeland Book of the Year Awards 2025) and her latest poetry pamphlet What Love Is (Hedgehog Poetry 2026).

Kelly Davis grew up in London and moved to Maryport in 1989, where she works from home as a freelance editor. Her poems have been published in Mslexia, Magma, and London Grip, and she has three times been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. She collaborated with Kerry Darbishire on their pamphlet Glory Days (Grey Hen Press, 2021) and her first solo collection, The Lost Art of Ironing, was published in 2024. She will be reading from her latest collection, Portrait of My Father as a Snail (Palewell Press 2026).

Event starts at 7pm.