New global network aims to connect poetry performance researchers and practitioners

A new international network dedicated to the study and practice of poetry performance is set to launch next month, creating a space for researchers and practitioners working across spoken word, performed poetry and related fields to connect globally.

H-Poetry-Performance has been established on H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences Online in response to what its organisers describe as a growing desire for more sustainable connections between practitioners and scholars of poetry performance and greater transcultural exchange within the field.

The network is intended to bring together scholars, researchers, teachers, educators and creative-critical practitioners from around the world, providing a central space in which research, opportunities and resources can be shared.

Its ambitions extend beyond information-sharing. Organisers hope the network will support transnational collaborations and encourage intersectional approaches to the study of poetry performance, bringing academic research into closer conversation with the people making and performing the work.

Bringing poetry performance into conversation

Poetry performance occupies a space across several disciplines. Spoken word, poetry readings, slam, live literature and performance poetry can be approached through literary studies, performance studies, linguistics, sound studies, cultural studies and other fields, while the work itself continues to develop through live practice.

H-Poetry-Performance's international focus creates an opportunity to consider those practices comparatively, rather than treating individual poetry scenes or performance traditions solely within national boundaries.

That emphasis is reflected in the network's inaugural programme, which will take place online on 8th and 9th October 2026.

Three keynote speakers from universities in Europe and the United States will approach poetry performance from different perspectives, examining identity and authenticity, listening practices, and the relationship between festivals and their audiences.

Three perspectives on performed poetry

The launch begins on Thursday, 8th October, from 12pm to 2pm BST, when Julia Lajta-Novak of the University of Vienna delivers a keynote on Authenticity and Identity in Spoken Word Poetry. The subject places spoken word itself at the centre of the network's opening conversations, considering questions that have long accompanied performed poetry: the relationship between speaker and persona, the presentation of identity on stage, and the expectations of authenticity that can surround first-person performance.

Later that day, from 8pm to 10pm BST, Marit MacArthur of UC Davis presents Slow Listening, Distant Listening & Poetry Performance. Her session shifts attention from the performer towards the act of listening, offering another route into the study of poetry as an auditory and performed form rather than solely a written text.

The inaugural programme will conclude on Friday, 9th October, from 1pm to 3pm BST, with Peter Howarth of Queen Mary University of London, whose keynote, Poetry at Festivals and Audience Participation, turns to the spaces in which poetry is encountered and the role audiences play within them.

Together, the three sessions move between performer, listener and performance environment, providing different approaches to understanding what happens when poetry leaves the page and enters a shared space.

An invitation to researchers and practitioners

The launch is also designed to give participants an opportunity to introduce their own work. Each session will include a keynote lecture and question-and-answer discussion, alongside an introduction to H-Net. Participants can also apply to give a five-minute presentation introducing their own research into poetry performance to the network. The short presentations are intended to help researchers and practitioners identify shared interests and make connections with others working in the field internationally.

Proposals are open until 1st October 2026 and will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants can also register for the launch without submitting a presentation.

Beyond the launch

The project is intended to continue beyond its two-day inaugural event. Online discussions will take place through the H-Poetry-Performance network following the Zoom sessions, allowing those unable to attend the live programme to participate and providing a permanent space for conversations generated by the event to continue.

That longer-term element distinguishes the initiative from a standalone conference. As part of H-Net, an independent non-profit scholarly association, the network is being established as an ongoing academic and professional community rather than simply a two-day gathering.

For the wider spoken word and performance poetry sector, the development is significant because it creates a dedicated international forum for examining the form as an area of research in its own right.

Spoken word communities are often built locally through open mics, poetry nights, slams, festivals and independent organisations. Academic work examining those practices can meanwhile be dispersed across different disciplines, institutions and countries. A network explicitly concerned with global poetry performance has the potential to bring some of those conversations into the same space.

Its success will ultimately depend on the community that develops around it. But its starting point is clear: poetry performance is not simply a way of presenting a written poem. It is a field in which questions of voice, identity, listening, audience, place and cultural exchange can themselves become subjects of sustained research.

The H-Poetry-Performance launch takes place online on 8th and 9th October 2026, with research proposals due by 1st October. Those unable to attend the live sessions will be able to participate in subsequent discussions through the H-Poetry-Performance network.

BND Blog