Quay Words presents Julia Copus & Fathima Zahra: Poetry in Conversation

About Julia Copus

Julia Copus is a poet, biographer and children’s writer and has published ten books, including four collections of poetry. Girlhood (Faber 2019) was winner of America’s inaugural Derek Walcott Prize for best collection by a non-US citizen. Other awards include the Forward Prize for ‘Best Single Poem’, First Prize in the National Poetry Competition, and a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors. Her most recent book, This Rare Spirit: A Life of Charlotte Mew, was described by John Carey in The Sunday Times as ‘a triumph of precise scholarship and imaginative sympathy’ and was chosen by Sir Andrew Motion as a book of the year in The Spectator. Julia teaches poetry for the Faber Academy and was 2023-24 Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

About Fathima Zahra

Fathima Zahra is an Indian poet, performer and facilitator based in London. Her poems have won the Bridport Prize, Wells Fest Young Poets Prize and the Asia House Poetry Slam. She has performed her work at festivals across the UK including Hay, Latitude and VERVE. Her debut pamphlet ’sargam / swargam’ was selected as the Poetry Book Society’s Pamphlet Choice. Fathima was the Quay Words writer-in-residence for the Autumn 2024 season, exploring the theme of ‘Routes’.

Picture credit: Abi B.

This event will be in-person at Exeter Custom House. You can find out more about the accessibility of the Custom House here: https://quaywords.org.uk/about/access/

If you have any access needs you’d like to discuss with before the event you can contact the team on quaywords@literatureworks.org.uk. They can offer free carer tickets if you need help to support you to attend.