Caroline Bird & Rachel Long

Advance tickets for this event are now available for MLF Get Closer Members to buy. Memberships start at £25 per year - for full details of membership benefits and buying options click HERE. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday 14 August at 10am.

Join us for a joyful, irreverent, and moving evening of poetry celebrating love in all its glorious forms. Poets Caroline Bird and Rachel Long launch their new anthology, Something New: Alternative Poems for Alternative Weddings — a vibrant collection of fresh, funny, and unconventional poems you won’t find in a frantic Google search.

Whether the big day involves a yurt, a registry office, or a karaoke machine, this anthology has the perfect poem from a myriad of poets who challenge tradition and embrace the beautiful chaos of love. Come and hear Caroline and Rachel read poems that celebrate love in all its complexity, honesty, and joy.

Caroline Bird is an award-winning poet known for her inventive and vivid poetry. Her collections include Ambush at Still Lake, The Air Year (winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection) and the Selected Poems collection Rookie.

Rachel Long is founder of the Octavia Poetry Collective for Women of Colour at London’s Southbank Centre. Her debut collection My Darling from the Lions was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Costa Poetry Award.

Presented in partnership with Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Wheelchair Users and those with other access needs requiring a free Essential Carer ticket should contact the Quaytickets Box Office on 0161 876 2015 to purchase tickets.