An evening with Joelle Taylor and Friends

After a stunning performance at The Coast is Queer in 2023, Polari and T.S. Elliot Prize winning writer, Joelle Taylor returns to read from her glorious 2024 novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet. Joining Joelle will be Keith Jarrett, an award-winning poet, teacher and slam champion, and Ollie O’Neil, Barbican Young Poet 2019-20.

Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize, and the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBT authors. C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. She is a co- curator and host of Out-Spoken Live at the Southbank Centre, and tours her work nationally and internationally in a diverse range of venues, from Australia to Brazil. She is also a Poetry Fellow of University of East Anglia and the curator of the Koestler Awards 2023. She has judged several poetry and literary prizes including Jerwood Fellowship, the Forward Prize, and the Ondaatje Prize. Her novel of interconnecting stories The Night Alphabet was published by Riverrun in Spring of 2024. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year. Her most recent acting role was in Blue by Derek Jarman, which was directed by Neil Bartlett and featured Russell Tovey, Jay Bernard, and Travis Alabanza. Blue sold out its run across the UK and more dates are expected for the future.

Ollie O’Neill is a writer and lesbian feminist from London. She is the author of two pamphlets (Ways of Coping with Out-Spoken Press and Be/Coming with Blown Rose Books), as well as a full length collection (What We Are Given with Write Bloody UK). She has had singular poems occur in issues of Magma, Bath Magg, Fourteen Poems, and And Other Poems and has read at venues such as The Institute of Contemporary Arts, Royal Festival Hall, Soho Theatre, and on BBC Radio London. Her work is concerned with lineage, lesbianism, and the female experience. In 2023, she graduated with an MA in Writing from The Royal College of Art having produced a series of texts and text-based visual works on these topics. She is currently working on a new poetry collection.

Keith Jarrett’s work explores Caribbean British history, religion and sexuality. A multiple poetry slam champion, he was selected for the International Literary Showcase as an outstanding LGBT writer. His poem, ‘From the Logbook’, was projected onto St. Paul’s Cathedral. His play, Safest Spot in Town, was performed at the Old Vic and aired on BBC Four. Keith has been widely anthologised, writing across poetry, fiction and essay forms. He appeared in the first series of Benjamin Zephaniah’s BAFTA-winning show Life & Rhymes and has featured in documentaries on Black queer history. He is a Lambda Literary and an Obsidian Fellow, and holds a PhD from Birkbeck University, where he was awarded the Bloomsbury Studentship. He currently teaches at New York University in London. His collection, Selah, debuted in 2017; his next is forthcoming in 2026.