Raise the Bar returns with UK Poetry All-Stars 2.0, bringing together some of the UK’s most exciting poets, storytellers and wordsmiths for one big night at Bristol Beacon. With headline names including Harry Baker, Hollie McNish, Grace Nichols and Travis Alabanza, there’s plenty to discover.
Read on for more info about all the artists joining the lineup:
Harry Baker
World Poetry Slam Champion Harry Baker is a poet, a maths graduate, and a new father. His work has connected with millions online, from being shared on TED.com to making people cry through their TikTok and Instagram feeds, but he thinks it is even better in person. His previous collection Wonderful was accompanied by a 40-date sellout UK tour two years in a row, including headlining the Poet’s Revival at the Royal Albert Hall. His new collection Tender was published with Canongate in March 2026, and was a Sunday Times Bestseller.
Hollie Mcnish
Hollie McNish is a poet and author based between Cambridge and Glasgow. She was the first poet to record at Abbey Road Studios, London and won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry for her poetic parenting memoir – Nobody Told Me – of which The Scotsman stated ‘The World Needs this Book’. She has published five further collections of poetry – Papers, Cherry Pie, Plum, and Slug and Lobster, both Sunday Times bestsellers, with translations in French (Je Souhaite Seulement Que Tu Fasses Quelquechose De Toi) and Spanish (Cosas Que Mis Abuelas). Her latest collection is Virgin. She loves writing.
Grace Nichols
Acclaimed Guyanese poet Grace Nichols has published numerous adult collections including the ever popular ‘The Fat Black Woman’s Poems’ and ‘I is a Long-Memoried Woman’ which won the 1983 Commonwealth Poetry Prize as well as many books for children. Her new book The Tracks of My Name will be published by Bloodaxe later this year. She is a fellow and Vice-President of the Royal Society of Literature. Considered a literary national treasure, she is one of the poets who has been widely studied on the GCSE syllabus. She was awarded The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry by Her Majesty, the Queen in 2021.
Nikita Gill
Nikita Gill is an Irish-Indian poet, playwright, writer and illustrator based in South England, with an emphasis on Hindu and Greek mythology and folklore from around the world. She has written and curated eight volumes of poetry, and uses social media to engage her audience of 850,000 followers on Instagram, one of the most popular poets on the platform.
She will be reading from her brand new, forthcoming verse novel Styx. Beginning a generation before Hekate (Sunday Times bestseller 2026), Styx sings the story of the goddess of the underworld river that bears her name.
Travis Alabanza
Travis is a writer, performer and theatre maker from Bristol. For stage, Travis wrote and performed in their debut show BURGERZ which won the Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, sold out at Southbank Centre and Traverse Theatre and toured internationally. It was also voted one of The Guardian Readers Top Shows of The Year. The text is published by Oberon Books. In January 2026, the show will be remounted in Australia at the Sydney and Melbourne theatre festivals.
Their play Overflow, which premiered at and streamed from The Bush, was met with critical acclaim including numerous four-star reviews and was shortlisted for the George Devine Award. Their latest theatre commission, Sound of the Underground, premiered as part of the Royal Court’s new season in 2023 to critical acclaim.
Georgie Jones
Performer by nature and poet by trade, Georgie Jones has been praised for her ‘formidable stage presence and compelling way with words’ (Reviews Hub). Roundhouse Poetry Slam finalist turned Resident Artist and BBC Words First alum, Georgie has toured her work across the UK and gathered millions of views online.
Her debut collection And The World Spins Anyway is a love letter to real life, however it shows up; an exploration of the exquisite messiness of modern existence in which Georgie, with her signature wit and warmth, makes the chaos feel actually quite comforting.
Michael Pedersen
Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish author, Edinburgh’s Makar / Poet Laureate, and the former Writer in Residence at Edinburgh University. He writes across fiction (Muckle Flugga), non-fiction (Boy Friends), and poetry (The Cat Prince). Pedersen has won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship and the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Best Poetry, as well as being shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prizes, the Scottish National Book Awards, the Indie Book Awards, and more. A Sunday Times Critics Choice, his work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Estonian, and beyond, with praise garnered from the likes of Stephen Fry, Bernardine Evaristo, Ocean Vuong, and Kae Tempest.
Dr Safiya Kamaria Whitaker
Dr Safiya Kamaria Whitaker is a choreopoet and scholar known for her compelling live-literature performances. As part of her research Safiya reimagined dance notation for the Black diaspora, created an editing technique that brings movement and literature together for both page and stage, and created a new creative methodology in ethnography for the Black diaspora. Her debut poetry collection, Cane, Corn & Gully (2022), was shortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize and Felix Dennis Forward Prize for best first collection. It won the 2023 Barbados ‘Gine On’ People’s Choice Award for best book and is housed at the National Museum of Barbados. Safiya’s work has appeared in journals including POETRY, Callaloo, Wasafiri, Poetry London, and The Caribbean Writer. She is also the first alumna of the Obsidian Foundation.
