Joelle Taylor

Joelle Taylor is the author of four collections of poetry. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 TS Eliot Prize and the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBTQ+ authors. C+NTO is currently being adapted for theatre with a view to touring. She is a co-curator and host of the popular spoken word and music Out-Spoken here at the Southbank Centre, and tours her work nationally and internationally in a diverse range of venues, from Australia to Brazil.

She is also a Poetry Fellow of University of East Anglia and was curator of the Koestler Awards 2023. She has judged several poetry and literary prizes including Jerwood Fellowship, the Forward Prize, and the Ondaatje Prize. Her debut novel of interconnecting stories, The Night Alphabet, was published by Riverrun in 2024.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year. Her most recent acting role was in Blue by Derek Jarman, which was directed by Neil Bartlett and featured Russell Tovey, Jay Bernard and Travis Alabanza.