Carcanet Poetry Showcase at Seesaw

A night of Carcanet Poetry showcasing some of the best new work we have published over the last year.

Are you a poet in the city, or do you just love discovering new literature? Come and get to know Manchester's longest running poetry press, publishing since 1969.

Featuring poetry readings, a panel discussion about the writing/editing lives of Carcanet poets, and an audience Q&A. Why not try one of our ticket + surprise book bundles to have our team handpick a Carcanet book for you to discover when you arrive?

Featuring:

• Joe Carrick-Varty (Before Violence, 2026)
• Martina Evans (Drunken Driving, 2026)
• Matthew Welton (Small Birds Singing, 2026)
• SuAndi (Leaning Against Time, 2025)

About the press: 

Carcanet Press started life in 1969. It has become a literary publisher with a world-class list of modern and classic poetry and related titles in English and translation. Based in Manchester, UK, Carcanet publishes around thirty titles a year, and six issues of the bi-monthly journal PN Review. In 2019, our 50^th anniversary, we were named Northern Small Press of the Year in the British Book Awards. We have been shortlisted every year since. 

About the poets: 

Joe Carrick-Varty is a British–Irish poet whose work has appeared in the New Statesman, Granta and POETRY. His debut book, More Sky, was named a Best Poetry Collection of the Year by The Irish Times, won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, and was shortlisted for both the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. His second book, Before Violence, is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Martina Evans is an Irish poet and novelist. She grew up in County Cork and is the author of thirteen books of prose and poetry. American Mules (2021) won the Pigott Poetry Prize. The Coming Thing (2023) was shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Poetry Prize and PEN/Heaney Prize. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and reviews poetry for the Irish Times. Her forthcoming collection Drunken Driving (2026) is a Poetry Book Society Summer Choice.

Matthew Welton was born in 1969 in Nottingham, where he now lives and teaches at the University. He is the author of four previous books with Carcanet, and a number of pamphlets from smaller presses. His poems take a playful approach to poetic form, and much of his writing has been made in collaboration with composers, artists and other poets.

SuAndi is a writer, poet and arts practitioner born and raised in Manchester. She is the recipient of an OBE, a Doctor of Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University and a Doctor of Letters degree from Lancaster University. Her awards include the Windrush Inspirational Award, Winston Churchill Fellowship, Hope & Inspiration Award for Work Supporting Black History Month, NESTA Dream Time Fellowship, Big Issue in the North Individual Inspirational Award and the MBMEN Lifetime Award. In 2023 SuAndi was the recipient, in her hometown, of the Manchester Culture Special Recognition Award. In 2024 SuAndi was named an Honorary Fellow as well as awarded the Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature, in recognition of ‘conspicuous service to literature’.