Lyrical Mehfil

Ralph Dartford’s first pamphlet, Cigarettes, Beer and Love was published by Ossett Observer Presents in 2013. His next collection, Recovery Songs, was published by Valley Press in 2019, and Hidden Music followed in October 2021. In 2024, his 3rd collection for Valley Press, House Anthems’ was published to great acclaim and completed a trilogy of themed work.
Ralph is the poetry editor at northerngravy and is currently studying for a Creative Writing PhD at the University of Huddersfield that focuses on the tensions between ‘performance poetry’ and ‘page poetry’. For an honest living, Ralph is a project manager working within criminal justice for the National Literacy Trust.’

Maria Ferguson is a writer and performer. Her poetry has been widely anthologised and published in literary magazines such as Magma, The Rialto, The North and The Poetry Review. She was a finalist of the Montreal International Poetry Prize 2024 and her debut collection, Alright, Girl? (Burning Eye, 2020), was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. On the stage, her one-woman show Fat Girls Don’t Dance (Oberon, 2017) won the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show; Essex Girl (Oberon, 2019) was shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award and won Show of the Week at VAULT Festival. She has been commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts, Stylist magazine, The Bronte Parsonage and BBC Radio. Her work has been featured in The Guardian and on Radio 4’s The Verb and Woman’s Hour. She is the Associate Producer of LIVEwire Poetry and teaches creative writing in a variety of settings. Her second poetry collection, Swell was published in 2025 by Penguin Random House.

Tasneem Hassan is an Urdu poet and health professional based in the North of England. Her debut poetry collection, Yaaft (2024), showcases a distinctive style that blends classical and contemporary Urdu, marked by strong, lyrical diction. Her work has been published widely, and she has performed at literary festivals and mushaira events both in the UK and internationally. She also serves as vice chair of the Yorkshire Adabee Forum, promoting Urdu literature across the region.

Khadijah Ibrahiim is a literary activist, theatre maker and writer from Leeds. She is the founder and artistic director of Leeds Young Authors, and executive producer of the documentary ‘We Are Poets’. She and her work have appeared on BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. Hailed as one of Yorkshire’s most prolific poets by the BBC, her work appears in multiple university journals and poetry anthologies, as well as in her own collections with publishers such as Peepal Tree Press.

Michael Symmons Roberts is a poet and librettist. His eight books of poetry have received accolades including the Forward Prize, the Costa Poetry Award and the Whitbread Poetry Prize. His words for music have been performed in concert halls and opera houses around the world. He is also an award-winning broadcaster and radio dramatist. Born in Preston, Lancashire, he is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Jo Bell is a poet and writer based in Macclesfield. Formerly a professional archaeologist, she is the author of two poetry collections and co-author of How To Be A Poet, has been frequently featured on BBC radio, and was director of National Poetry Day in the UK.