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The Judges

 

 

Clive Birnie (Wales)

Clive Birnie is the man behind Burning Eye Books, arguably the most important spoken word publisher in the UK. In poetry, Burning Eye only publishes spoken word, interetested in exploring how to put performance on paper. He's won poetry awards and is himself a published poet, so the man's inarguably well placed to judge one of the toughest slams on the UK poetry circuit.

 

 

 

 

Eleanor Livingstone (Scotland)

 

Eleanor Livingstone is a poet, editor and Director of Stanza, Scotland's international poetry festival and one of the most important poetry festivals on the global calendar. She has used her directorship to raise the prominence of spoken word within poetry, inviting many of us to perform at Stanza and forge new working relationships with page poets. Well versed in both aspects of the poetry world, Eleanor Livingstone has been one of the key judges of the BBC Slam every year. 

 

 

 

 

Matt Panesh (England)

Matt Panesh is the Artistic Director of Spoken Word for the PBH Free Fringe, the largest section of spoken word anywhere on the Edinburgh Fringe. A winner of 9 international fringe awards for his own full-length spoken word shows, Matt is a world-renowned touring poet and has several published collections to his name. It'd be a challenge to find someone better placed to judge the genre of poetry most based on performance. 

 

 

And the person who will actually make it all work (our time keeper/score adder-upper/general hero).....

 

Fay Roberts

Slam Master behind Hammer & Tongue Cambridge, head of Allographic Press, creator of 5 star show Other Voices and phenomenal poet in her own right, Fay Roberts is the lynch-pin behind all of this happening on time, as it should, in a manner where the maths is right. 

 

 

 

 

 

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