Clementine Ewokolo Burnley and Tim Relf plus Open Mic
Online
Monday 7th December 2026
We end our 2026 programme of online lounges with two poets with highly anticipated debut collections.
Clementine Ewokolo Burnley grew up in Cameroon. She has lived between Scotland, Italy and Germany for forty years. She was joint winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize in 2024, and her first book-length collection, Belling the Leopard (Bloodaxe Books, 2026), is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her pamphlet Radical Pairings (Ignitionpress, 2023) was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Award.
In Belling the Leopard Clementine Ewokolo Burnley asks what remains after once-familiar places and people have gone. The poems criss-cross the Atlantic, beginning in the 1850s. The voices of Caribbean returnees to the west African coast mingle with those of west African recaptives, German missionaries, and kidnappers. They witness the changes in family life through the generations as villagers or townsfolk are uprooted or stay put or uproot themselves, defying expectations by leaving or returning.
Tim Relf’s debut poetry collection, Not Even October (Salt Publishing) has been described by Richard E. Grant as “incisive and moving”, it traces how we make sense of memory, mortality, place and home. His work has been published in most of the UK’s leading poetry journals, and he is a former poet-in-residence at Leicester Botanic Garden.
Tim’s most recent novel, published by Penguin, was translated into more than 20 languages, as well as being turned into an audiobook starring Emilia Clarke and Charles Dance. He is also a journalist and has written on book-related topics for the national, regional and local media.
There will be an open mic at this event. To book an open mic slot (1 poem lasting not more than 2 minutes) please choose an open mic ticket. Please note there is no need to also buy a general audience ticket.
If the open mic slots are sold out, we will start operating a reserve list. We often find that people on the list do get to read, so it is well worth putting your name down. Follow the instructions on the booking page.
The Poetry Festival is entirely reliant on ticket sales and donations to fund our work. Our tickets are pay-what-you-want, please be generous.
Clementine Ewokolo Burnley grew up in Cameroon. She has lived between Scotland, Italy and Germany for forty years. She was joint winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize in 2024, and her first book-length collection, Belling the Leopard (Bloodaxe Books, 2026), is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her pamphlet Radical Pairings (Ignitionpress, 2023) was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Award.
In Belling the Leopard Clementine Ewokolo Burnley asks what remains after once-familiar places and people have gone. The poems criss-cross the Atlantic, beginning in the 1850s. The voices of Caribbean returnees to the west African coast mingle with those of west African recaptives, German missionaries, and kidnappers. They witness the changes in family life through the generations as villagers or townsfolk are uprooted or stay put or uproot themselves, defying expectations by leaving or returning.
Tim Relf’s debut poetry collection, Not Even October (Salt Publishing) has been described by Richard E. Grant as “incisive and moving”, it traces how we make sense of memory, mortality, place and home. His work has been published in most of the UK’s leading poetry journals, and he is a former poet-in-residence at Leicester Botanic Garden.
Tim’s most recent novel, published by Penguin, was translated into more than 20 languages, as well as being turned into an audiobook starring Emilia Clarke and Charles Dance. He is also a journalist and has written on book-related topics for the national, regional and local media.
There will be an open mic at this event. To book an open mic slot (1 poem lasting not more than 2 minutes) please choose an open mic ticket. Please note there is no need to also buy a general audience ticket.
If the open mic slots are sold out, we will start operating a reserve list. We often find that people on the list do get to read, so it is well worth putting your name down. Follow the instructions on the booking page.
The Poetry Festival is entirely reliant on ticket sales and donations to fund our work. Our tickets are pay-what-you-want, please be generous.
