Finding the Words LIVE with poets Deborah Alma, Carole Bromley, Max Wallis and guests

Come and listen to some of the best poets from Yorkshire and beyond at Finding the Words, our relaxed and welcoming poetry event. 

Finding the Words is celebrating ten years on the poetry scene in York. As part of our anniversary year, we are delighted to bring you this special, two-hour, live edition of Finding the Words during York Literature Festival. It features Deb Alma, founder of The Poetry Pharmacy, which will open a branch in York in 2026, and Max Wallis of The Aftershock Review. They will be joined by York poetry icon and  Finding the Words curator, Carole Bromley, together with several other poets, for a dazzling afternoon of poetry in the Marriott Room at York Explore.  

Deborah Alma is a UK poet, editor and co-founder of the Poetry Pharmacy in Shropshire with her partner the poet James Sheard. Her books include Emergency Poet, an anti-stress poetry anthology, #Me Too – rallying against sexual harassment - a women’s poetry anthology, The National Trust Nature Poems and she co-edited, with Dr Katie Amiel, These Are the Hands-Poems from the Heart of the NHS and Poetry Projects to Make and Do published by Nine Arches Press. Her first full collection Dirty Laundry is also published by Nine Arches Press. She is co-author of The Poetry Business School with Mark Constantine & Kate Downey-Evans, 2025 from Harper Collins and edited the Poetry Prescription series with Pan Macmillan in 2025.

The Poetry Pharmacy is an apothecary-styled bookshop and creative space where poetry is prescribed for the heart, mind and spirit. Through personalised consultations, pill-bottle poems and curated anthologies, it celebrates poetry as a gentle, transformative companion in everyday life.



Carole Bromley lives in York and is the Poetry Society’s Stanza rep. She has three collections from Smith/Doorstop: A Guided Tour of the Ice House, The Stonegate Devil and a collection for children, Blast Off! Winner of a number of prizes including the Bridport Prize for Poetry, the Hamish Canham Award and the Caterpillar Prize for children’s poetry, Carole also has poems in many anthologies and journals, most recently The Poetry Pharmacy’s Joy anthology, Aftershock Review and MacMillan’s Space anthology. She is currently working on a collection of poems about York.

Max Wallis is a poet, editor, and founder of The Aftershock Review, the UK’s most talked-about new poetry movement. His work explores queerness, love, intimacy, and the long aftermath of trauma. He is the author of Well Done, You Didn’t Die (Verve, 2025) and his poems have appeared in The Rialto, Poetry Scotland, The Spectator, Vogue, Poetry London, Magma and Fourteen Poems. His previous books include Modern Love (shortlisted for the Polari Prize) and Everything Everything.

Wallis built The Aftershock Review while in recovery from addiction and following a diagnosis of complex PTSD and severe ADHD, transforming that experience into a national platform for bold, emotionally resonant writing. He has been featured on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, in The Guardian, and in The Bookseller. Born in Chorley, he lives in Lancashire and is currently completing both a novel and a memoir, The Name of Things.

The Aftershock Review
Described by The Guardian as “a jolt to the mainstream,” The Aftershock Review is a survivor-led, trauma-informed poetry magazine founded in Lancashire by editor-in-chief Max Wallis. In just two issues it has become a phenomenon, uniting major poets with groundbreaking new voices across themes of survival, queerness, class, madness, grief, and deep emotional witness.
Aftershock brings poetry out of traditional spaces and into public life - through billboards, bus-stop posters, workshops, and an ever-growing digital community. It has been featured on BBC Radio 4, supported by Arts Council England and the T. S. Eliot Foundation, and reached readers across four continents. More than a magazine, Aftershock is a movement built on radical care, craft, and creative defiance. In April 2025, The Aftershock Review was awarded full funding by Arts Council England.

Accessibility
• Step free access
• Wheelchair accessible toilets
• Accessible parking for 2 vehicles and check for more spaces at www.york.gov.uk/accessible-parking.<br />• See also https://www.accessable.co.uk/city-of-york-council/access-guides/york-explore-library
If you have any questions relating to the event or any access needs, please get in touch with us by email at the following address: arts@exploreyork.org.uk

At Explore we keep all our events free or low cost to enable everyone to attend. When you book your place, if you can, please make a donation to help with Explore's costs and enable us to continue running events like this one.