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The Natural Way Book Launch 6th March

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Just a few photos from last Sunday's gorgeous VERVE day at @bhamlitfest, celebrating poetry in many forms 💚

@sabeen.chaudhry @amorbackwards @ellorarosesutton @rupinderkw @jtaylortrash @jobellboater @rachellongx @luckyflowerhowe @monaarshipoetry taken in Royal Birmingham Conservatoire by @amorbackwards

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3 days ago

So chuffed award-winning poet @amorbackwards is entertaining audiences pre- Fri & Sat's performances of Close Enough To Touch @watersidearts_
Come down and check them out 🎟#linkinbio

Roma Havers is a queer poet, theatre-maker and unsolicited go-go dancer – from your hometown but living in Manchester with their partner, allotment and every stone they’ve ever pocketed.

Commissioned by Orchestra’s Live, Manchester City of Literature and Manchester Museum, among many others, they are known for their ‘joyful, communal and tender’ work. They have been published in Ink Sweat and Tears, Verve Poetry Prize (Shortlisted), The North and Under the Radar. Alongside their poetry work, they have produced writer development programmes, mentored many poets and produced work for performance including their show LOB, which toured the North West and Belfast in 2022, with their play Helmet with Laughter Lines being longlisted for the Bruntwood Playwriting prize the same year.

They were winner of the 2024 Northern Writers’ Award for Poetry with The Natural Way, their first collection with @carcanetpress.

📸 Roma smiling in the sunshine

#closeenoughtotouch #theatre #romahavers #poetry taken in Red Ladder Theatre Company by @amorbackwards

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5 days ago

This weekend it’s Birmingham Literature Festival, with lots of poetry goodness going on for the VERVE Sunday takeover 💃💃💃

You can catch me reading with Roma Havers (their debut The Natural Way was published by @carcanetpress earlier this year and it is such a hoot!) and Rupinder Kaur Waraich (Tigress with Wings published by @serenbooks and it is so so fierce) at VERVE Debutants. I’m so excited!! ☺️

Also! I was interviewed by lovely @timrelfwriter for the latest issue of Poetry News, all about having my debut collection published. So I guess that makes me a fully-qualified debutante! I’m still pinching myself that I get to do things like this—readings, interviews—alongside poets whose work I genuinely and deeply respect. To be on the same page (or stage) as these gems is something I’ll never take for granted 💖 taken in Birmingham, United Kingdom by @amorbackwards

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11 days ago

Can't wait for this fantastic event in Birmingham, on Sunday, where I'll be reading alongside @ellorarosesutton and @rupinderkw, amazing line up as usual! I'll be reading from The Natural Way as per! taken in Birmingham Conservatoire by @amorbackwards

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11 days ago

Join us for an evening of Carcanet poetry, as part of the Didsbury Arts Festival!🌸
Tomorrow at 7pm, hear from local poets Rebecca Hurst, Christine Roseeta Walker, and Roma Havers at Withington Public Hall.
Tickets and more info via link in bio.🔗 by @amorbackwards

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4 months ago

Congratulations to @joecarrickvarty, @weltonmatthew, @amorbackwards, @dugdalesasha, and Sinéad Morrissey who have been longlisted in various categories of the @forwardprizes!⭐

The longlist was announced last week and saw:
Joe Carrick-Varty and Matthew Welton nominated for the 2026 Forward Prize for Best Collection,
Roma Havers nominated for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection,
and both Sasha Dugdale and Sinéad Morrissey nominated for the Forward Prize for Best Written Single Poem, with poems from PN Review.

Well done to our poets, and all the other longlisted poets and publishers! 🎉 by @amorbackwards

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4 months ago

Trousers by Roma
Photos by Ruth
Garden by house
#cedarpants by @amorbackwards

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5 months ago

Polari is coming to HuddLitFest 2026… and it shouldn’t be missed! 🎉

We’re thrilled to have our regulars, the iconic LGBTQ+ literary salon Polari at HuddLitFest especially as part of our 20th anniversary celebrations. Expect a vibrant, powerful night of storytelling, spoken word and unforgettable voices.

Hosted by founder Paul Burston, Polari brings together some of the most exciting LGBTQ+ writers and performers for an evening that is bold, moving and full of heart. Whether you’re a long-time fan or discovering it for the first time, this is one of those events you’ll be talking about long after the Festival ends.

Make a day (or weekend!) of it… Why not explore more:

Thinking of writing yourself? Then What’s Your Story? - Writing Workshop with Paul Burston is perfect for anyone wanting to develop their voice, share their story, and gain insight from one of the UK’s leading literary figures.

If movies are more your style then 3000 Lesbians Go to York - Film Screening is a joyful, funny and deeply relatable film celebrating community, identity and connection.

Together, these events create a brilliant mini-strand celebrating LGBTQ+ creativity, stories and voices, on your doorstep in Huddersfield.

Don’t miss out, tickets via the link in our bio 🙌🏻

#HuddLitFest26 #Polari #LGBTQLiterature #Huddersfield #WhatsOnYorkshire #WritingCommunity by @amorbackwards

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6 months ago

Today’s episode is with Roma Havers, where we spoke about their new collection The Natural Way, astounding formats of poems in there, and, the difference between spoken word and page poetry.

Listen to this interview wherever good podcasts can be heard.

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all the cool kidz put a headphones and pencil emoji in the comments 🎧✏️ Image description: Roma, a white person with short brown hair. They’re wearing a purple/brown crew neck jumper, with translucent glasses while partially obscured by a bracken branch. Above them in black strips, the words ‘The Poems We Made Along The Way’ and underneath them, is their name Roma Havers. The background is a repeating pattern of two hands passing a pen between them. The background colour gradients from pick in the top left hand corner to grey purple in the bottom right corner. by @amorbackwards

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7 months ago

Some clips from last Friday’s launch of The Natural Way by @amorbackwards in the lovely @levyoldlibrary ⭐️

A fantastic evening of reading, discussion and questions! Thank you to everyone who participated.

Order your copy of The Natural Way via the Carcanet website now.🔗 taken in Levenshulme, Manchester, United Kingdom by @amorbackwards

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7 months ago

When you're not booking a ticket to my book launch this is who you're not booking a ticket to the book launch of

Tuesday 3rd March 7pm

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WJWbYeXHSHiNr0QRlEU-iw#/registration by @amorbackwards

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8 months ago

A wet and windy residency here last week on the wilds of Dartmoor @southcombebarn with visual artist @sarahjoy.ford , poet and play-write @amorbackwards and the poet @jane_campbell_poet and in collaboration with @cassinellimills to work on their long term, multidisciplinary lesbian world building project: Dykeland.

The residency explored dyke, lesbian and queer relationships to land, placemaking, rurality and ecological activism, through poetry, sketch, stitch and spell.

This residency was centred around spending time in the bogs of Dartmoor, reflecting on the bog as a magical place, somewhere to hide things, an archive of lost world, spending time in dark depths of the bog, sinking into the reeds, peat and puddles, burying offerings, singing spells.

Their work together began with Jane Cambell’s forthcoming, unpublished poetry collection: Dykeland and other secret islands, that intimately chronicles her experiences living on a Dykeland for nearly 25 years. Their dykeland is woven together from archival material, oral history, lived experience, memory, gossip and pure lesbian feminist fantasy. The project is an intergenerational and interdisciplinary love letter to the relationship between dyke poetry and dyke visual art, and how we make space for ourselves. Making space to dream up the ways in which the project can move forward, holding in mind the commitments and struggles we all have in our lives.

Dykeland borrows land from the bog (as explored in Roma’s monologue – The Fool, performed @outburstqueerarts Festival in Belfast in 2025). by @amorbackwards

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8 months ago