Poetry evening at Kemptown Bookshop (Brighton)

Tickets (£3): https://events.humanitix.com/poetry-reading

Location: Kemptown Bookshop, Brighton

Join us on the evening of Thursday 16th April to hear three contemporary poets – Simon Maddrell, Ken Evans and Keith Jarrett – read from their collections.

Simon Maddrell appears in & Change, AMBIT, Acumen, Gutter, Magma, MODRON, Poetry Wales, SAND, Southword, Stand, The Gay & Lesbian Review, The London Magazine, The Moth, The Rialto, Under the Radar, and others. Simon will be reading from his debut collection, lamping wild rabbits (Out-Spoken Press, Feb 2026)

Ken Evans’ second collection with Salt, ‘A Full-On Basso Profundo’, was published in 2025.

Ken’s poems appear in Magma, Acumen, Orbis, Under the Radar, The Interpreter’s House, Poetry Scotland, the Frogmore Papers, The High Window. He was a runner up in the Daily Telegraph poetry competition 2026.

His poems appear in anthologies such as ‘Masculinity’ (from Broken Sleep); ‘Echoes’ (Write Out Loud) and a Human Rights anthology.  In 2018, Ken won the Kent & Sussex Poetry Prize; he was runner-up in last year’s AUB poetry competition.

Keith Jarrett is a poet, fiction writer and educator from London. His poetry addresses issues including identity, race and sexuality and takes its power from a sense of inquiry rather than polemic. He is a former UK Poetry Slam Champion and won the International Slam Championship at FLUPP in Rio in 2014. His play, Safest Spot in Town, was performed at the Old Vic and on BBC Four in 2017 as part of the Queers series.

There will also be the opportunity to ask questions to the poets.

NB: We apologise for the inconvenience but our bookshop is currently not wheelchair accessible.

The toilets are located on the ground floor.

The event space/bookroom café is located at the top of a staircase (17 steps).

Please do get in touch if you’d like to know more details to plan your visit ahead.

Email is: salomee@kemptownbookshop.co.uk