The Craft

Manchester is a UNESCO City of Literature - home to world-class poets, established literary organisations and countless open mics. But we have noticed a gap in spaces that centre learning how to edit your work.

The Craft brings the intimacy of a workshop with the energy of a live event, offering insight into the editing process and a chance for poets to learn new skills. Each event will be followed by a Q&A to gain insight from two local writers who've been active in the industry for 10+ years.

Structured in a fishbowl learning style:

Attendees put their name in the fishbowl on arrival for a chance to be live-edited. The hosts then pull a select number of names from the bowl and live-edit these poets. The audience observes this process — watching, listening, and learning from the detailed craft decisions as they unfold.

This will be a relaxed atmosphere with drinks and snacks available on our bar.

The Hosts:

Carson Wolfe is a Stretfordian poet and Grand Prize Winner of The Disquiet Literary Program (2024). They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University, and their work has appeared in POETRY, The Rumpus, The Common, and Rattle. In 2023, they won New Writing North’s Debut Poetry Prize, received awards from The Aurora Poetry Prize and The Edward Thomas Fellowship, and were longlisted for The Poetry Society’s National Competition. Their second chapbook, Coin Laundry at Midnight, is forthcoming with Button Poetry in spring 2026.

Amy is a Mancunian poet, English teacher, and professional celebrant who believes poetry belongs to everyone. Self-taught and stage-trained, her work is rooted in working-class experience and shaped by years on Manchester’s spoken word circuit. Her debut collection 'Bedtime for Overthinkers' features her most famous poem 'My Kind of Heaven' - which has been printed as a Glastonbury Festival postcard. As a celebrant, Amy writes bespoke wedding poems for couples across the world, and is co-host of Dead Good Poetry, a local event exploring grief through poetry.