Prize-winning poets Penelope Shuttle and Katrina Naomi present an evening of poetry including readings from their upcoming publications.
Penelope Shuttle will read a selection of poems from her acclaimed 2021 collection Lyonesse and from History of the Child, which will be published by Bloodaxe in February 2026. History of the Child is an exploration of childhood, memory, and imagination, blending personal and historical perspectives. The collection’s themes include parenting, grief, nature, emotional recovery and connections to the past, guided by the idea of childhood as a transformative and rebellious space.
Katrina Naomi will read from her award-winning 2024 collection Battery Rocks, and from dance as if, which will be published by Verve in September 2025. Composed following a collaboration with the dancer/choreographer Kyra Norman, dance as if is a celebration of the body and a quest for the euphoria of movement. It draws on a variety of poetic forms to capture a joyful re-engagement with the physical.
Penelope Shuttle is a poet and novelist who has made her home in Cornwall since 1970, with the county’s mercurial weather and rich history providing continuing sources of inspiration. Shuttle is an Honorary Trustee for the Causley Trust. Her 2021 collection Lyonesse was Poetry Book of the Month in The Observer in July 2021 and was longlisted for The Laurel Prize. Other recent publications include a collaboration with Alyson Hallet, Lzrd: poems from the Lizard Peninsula and Will You Walk A Little Faster?, which was Poetry Book of the Month in The Observer in July 2017. A new collection, History of the Child, appears in February 2026, from Bloodaxe.
Katrina Naomi grew up close to the sea in Margate and now lives in Penzance, where she combines her love of writing with sea swimming and a passion for wild places. She is an award-winning poet, performer, mentor and judge. Her latest full collection, Battery Rocks, published by Seren in 2024, received the Arthur Welton Award from The Society of Authors, and she was the 2021 winner of the Keats-Shelley Prize. Her poetry has appeared on Poems on the Underground, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and Poetry Please, and in the TLS, The Poetry Review and Modern Poetry in Translation. She has a PhD from Goldsmiths, tutors for Arvon and the Poetry Society and chairs the Society of Authors’ Poetry and Spoken Word Group.