ELLIE'S 2025 festival blog
Héloïse de Satgé works at the Poetry Pharmacy. She also runs both a regular poetry night and co-runs a monthly poetry workshop. Her first pamphlet is Rein It In (Broken Sleep).
There I was, cuddled up in a corner of The Cross Keys with a pint of soda water and another pint of cider (balance). Really, how could I resist? The cider here in this sleepy seaside town is delicious, particularly now the sun has gone, and I’m clinging onto the concept of summer. It is here where I reflect on my first twenty-four hours in Aldeburgh. Of course, I was not riding solo in Suffolk to review Adnams – but, more excitingly, to take in a weekend of poetry. As a poet myself, this is a dream come true, and at this point it felt fitting to reflect on an inspiring and community-driven day.
Thursday, 6 November
I was collected from Saxmundham by the wonderful Sally, a local festival organiser, who set me at ease and took me to where I would be staying.
I arrived part-way through Annie Freud’s poetry reading which followed a reading from the Suffolk Poetry Society. What immediately struck me was the warmth and energy that were palpable in the Jubilee Hall – the main stage for the festival’s events. As an outsider looking in, I could see that folks knew one another, but that didn’t make me feel any less included. I immediately felt welcomed into a rich community of poets and poetry lovers, but was half mortified, half flattered to find my picture and name on the wall, signposting me as the Blogger in Residence for the weekend.
Annie Freud’s set was filled with sprawling, magnetic poems packed with details. One poem in particular that struck me was ‘Hiddensee’, which paid homage to her grandmother, who fled Germany in the 30s, and told the story of how she ended up settling in Suffolk.
Next, Mike Sims and Julia Bird are a duo who work collaboratively and are experts on all things Keats. Their early evening performance began with a warm introduction given by Tamar Yoseloff, poet and chair of the festival’s committee. Julia and Mike adore Keats, and this adoration was infectious. They breathed life into his work in this interactive, fun, whimsical and historical performance, connecting the poet with the sea, fitting perfectly with the setting of the festival. I left that performance feeling well informed and in love with Keats. I found myself sitting next to three lovely women who were on the same train carriage as me on the way here; and afterwards they told me how much they adore the festival. I was starting to see why.
After a brief window, I found myself back at the Jubilee Hall for a festival preview with the programming team. Hearing from the committee, who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, about what they were looking forward to over the weekend added depth to a rich programme. Speaking with the poet Bohdan Piasecki afterwards, we agreed that having this event given by the committee added another layer to the festival – this is something I’d never seen before at a poetry festival and now I’ll look out for it at any future festivals I attend. One particular highlight was Rishi Dastidar reading one of Bohdan’s poems, as Bohdan sat in the audience – something I don’t think Rishi was anticipating. Another highlight was hearing what this year’s theme, Beyond the Book, means to the committee members and how they have found space for Bohdan, Jasmine Gardosi and Hannah Silva, three renowned performance poets, as well as inter-disciplinary artists such as Caroline Bergvall and Eileen Pun.
Thus concluded my first day in Aldeburgh, which meant only one thing – to catch the end of the Celebrity Traitors final with my lovely host, Anne, who I finally met that evening. She has kindly opened her home to a scrappy, nervous poet, excited for what the weekend is bringing already.
Friday 7 November
The following morning, I could only be woken by the sound of my alarm clock – no chance of sirens here, just fresh air and a new day. Soon I was back at the Jubilee Hall, this time in the role of host; it was an honour to introduce the Bound Unbound Collective. These six poets are seriously talented and are writing on a range of themes – from grief, to experiences of racism, to their observations on the world. The way the opening poet, bitemarks, used sound and rhyme was a joy to hear: ‘snap atoms up like bubble wrap’ – delicious to the ear! Gabrielle Cracknell talked about her writing process of observing people on trains – a process I share in my practice. We then heard from Sarah Hudis, whose eco poems had such a deft economy of language; I was profoundly in awe and I could almost hear the ‘pollen-heavy bees’ in one of their pieces buzzing around the Jubilee Hall. Sarah was followed by Karl Knights – breaking everyone’s hearts with tender, grief-filled poems for a deceased partner. Following Karl was Ming Ming, a fresh voice writing on her experiences as a Chinese British woman. There was a particularly compelling piece about fetishisation of Asian women that was important and exposing in equal parts. Cameron Tricker closed the event, dedicating his poems to his fellow Collective members. This was touching, and the ways in which these poets are working together and building their practices alongside and inspired by one another was palpable. Cameron’s poems were tender and beautiful, one in particular being about a friend who passed away. Cameron defined the purpose of writing with a list poem; one definition that particularly struck me was ‘to make others feel less alone’.
Bound/Unbound Collective
Jeni Smith with Michael Laskey
Next up was ‘Michael Laskey 9x9: celebrating Michael’s 81st’, in honour of the founder of the original iteration of this poetry festival. This event opened with a reading from Anne Berkeley from her new collection Object Permanence, published by Michael’s Suffolk-based Garlic Press. The book explores the personal and political present through engagement with the past, charting losses in the changing countryside and offering precisely detailed descriptions of childhood in a vanished world. These are deeply felt, visceral poems – as she described wet trousers, it was almost as if I could feel them on my legs. Then Michael, a much loved and lauded Suffolk poet, performed his own work. What struck me initially was his wit and charisma, evident from the moment he stepped on stage. This is a poet who is deeply interested in language and words and takes enjoyment from them. At points he had the whole room laughing out loud. It was important that Michael was there, representing the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival of the past, as well as reminding us of his own unique poems full of love, tenderness and humour. The readings were followed by a mass writing workshop led by Michael and his collaborator Jeni Smith. This was energetic and engaging and I was drawn into the atmosphere they created, as everyone in the room took part in the exercises and shared ideas.
Anne Berkeley
The next event I had the joy of attending was a reading by ignitionpress, a poetry publisher founded at Oxford Brookes University, who have been publishing phenomenal writers since their start in 2017. I respect their love of the pamphlet form and the close attention they focus on it. The reading was introduced by the Director of the Poetry Centre at Oxford Brookes, Claire Cox. It was joyful to hear readings from Eve Ellis, Alycia Pirmohamed and Clementine Ewokolo Burnley. The way Eve embodied her work was inspiring, bringing the audience into the intimate world of her poems. Alycia’s poems are packed full of stunning imagery. One line, “I tilted a page with my body”, speaks perfectly to how much of the self is necessary to give to a poem. Clementine brought work that was arresting and poignant, travelling through time and cultures, with a focus on movement. She read one particularly moving piece about her cousin who was diagnosed with cancer. I left this event wanting to buy all of the work ignitionpress put out.
Eve Ellis, Alycia Pirmohamed and Clementine Ewokolo Burnley with Claire Cox
Friday evening’s offerings leant more into the possibilities of performance poetry. The evening began with Caroline Bergvall, a poet who the festival committee were particularly excited about hosting. Working closely with musician Jamie Hamilton, Caroline performed a selection from her longer piece Nattsong, creating an immersive poetic journey, weaving different languages, sound and darkness. To me it felt like a plunge into memory – half-recalled thoughts, feelings, conversations – and how these are digested by the mind and seep through into the present. The piece demonstrated what is possible when you push boundaries, in language, in performance, in the music of words.
Caroline Bergvall
It was unsurprising to learn that Caroline Bergvall is an influence for Hannah Silva and her work as an artist. In the performance that followed, Hannah Silva, Jasmine Gardosi and Bohdan Piasecki took to the stage. I was thrilled to see these poets, two of whom I know through the Birmingham Poetry community. Jasmine never fails to amaze me with how they incorporate beatboxing, sound and music in their poetry. It was especially lovely to see them perform ‘Dancing to music you hate’ with their backing track, as the full track has just been released on Spotify. Bohdan was up next. He mixes Polish and English and plays with subtle sounds and internal rhymes: this is inspiring, and it was wonderful to see him performing again. Hannah Silva’s set was a masterclass in how language slips and shifts and how using sound systems and loop pedal can layer sound and meaning. Seeing these three iconic poets whose work I deeply admire was a wonderful way to round off Friday evening.
