My Poetic Journey (so far)…
I have been writing and performing poetry since 2011 when I first started appearing at Glasgow’s open mics, making the jump to be a professional full-time artist at the end of 2016. Poetry has been my passion since I first discovered Scotland’s vibrant spoken word scene of which I’m proud to say I’ve become an integral member - shaping the artform and the infrastructure for future generations.
I have published five books of poetry, with my most recent - Anxiety Music - released by Verve Press and promoted via a 22-date tour of the UK and Europe. I am the Stirling Makar, the poet laureate of the city, creating work to commemorate civic events and engaging the wider community in the life-changing possibilities of poetry. I am also a UNESCO City of Literature Writer in Residence 2025 for Prague, spending two months in the city creating a new poetry cycle exploring the city’s history of Brutalist architecture and the human stories behind it.
I have performed my poetry all over the world, from Hollywood to East Kilbride, including major festivals (BBC 6Music Festival, Glastonbury), Fringes (Edinburgh, Toronto, Vancouver), literary festivals (Edinburgh International Book Festival, Verve Poetry Festival, Paisley Book Festival, WOW) as well as large scale tours of the UK, Europe, Canada and the US.
I have performed headline/feature sets for the likes of Evidently (Manchester), Find The Right Words (Leicester), Raise The Bar (Bristol), Say Owt (York), Chelping (Leeds), Lingo (Dublin), Spoken Weird (Halifax), A Lovely Word (Liverpool), Spork Poetry (Exeter), Born Lippy (Newcastle), Word Wise (Derby), Milk (Bristol), Word Central (Manchester), Tubthumping (Leeds), Attic Stories (Huddersfield), La Violette Società (Liverpool), Express Yourself (Stockport), Speakin’ Weird (Aberdeen), Nine Lives Poetry (Sheffield), Poetry in Motion (Munich) and countless others. I have also supported artists and public figures such as Akala, Saul Williams, George the Poet, Jackie Kay, Liz Lochhead, Sage Francis, The Silencers and Jeremy Corbyn MP.
Alongside Cat Hepburn, I co-founded spoken word events organisation Sonnet Youth, which promoted regular monthly shows in cities across the country, digital performances, theatre productions, podcasts and education initiatives. During lockdown I founded digital writing collective The Scribbler’s Union - a weekly workshop series that went on to become a diverse poetry community boasting members all over the globe and helped launch the careers of a new generation of talented performers. Since then I have started The Verse Foundry, a new in-person poetry workshop series bringing my knowledge of the artform to a new cohort of aspiring writers.
