Vanessa Kisuule

Vanessa Kisuule is a writer and performer based in Bristol. She has won over ten slam titles, including The Roundhouse Poetry Slam, Hammer & Tongue National Slam and the Nuyorican Poetry Slam. She has been featured on BBC iPlayer, Radio 1, Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Blue Peter, Don’t Flop and TEDxVienna.

Kisuule has performed around the world, including at an array of festivals, and was Glastonbury Festival’s resident poet in 2019. Her poem ‘Hollow’ on the historic toppling of Edward Colston’s statue was viewed more than 750,000 times in the aftermath of BLM protests in 2020.

Her two poetry collections are published by Burning Eye Books, and her work was highly commended in The Forward Book of Poetry 2019. She has written for publications including The Guardian, NME and Lonely Planet and was the Bristol City Poet, 2018 – 2020.

In 2024 she published her debut non-fiction book Neverland: The Pleasures and Perils of Fandom, an ardent love letter to the music we adore and an unflinching look at the costs of hero worship. Since 2021 Kisuule has served as one of the tutors for our New Poets Collective, alongside fellow poet Will Harris.