One of Manchester’s longest running spoken word events, Verbose, returns on Monday 30th March 2026 at the Kings Arms.

Verbose has a proud history of bringing together a vibrant mix of live literature from poetry, prose and everything in between. Verbose welcomes new talent to the open mic alongside established writers and performers wanting to showcase new material, giving audiences the chance to hear work that is on its way to be published or perhaps feature at festivals including Glastonbury, Edinburgh Fringe and many more.

Introducing our headliners for March…

Heidi Hinda Chadwick is a writer, performer, and a Trauma-Informed Educator & Artist, based in Manchester, UK. She writes short stories, novellas, and essays exploring the macabre, and the psychological intricacies, and contemporary anxieties, of human experience, often drawing on folklore, psychology, body horror, femgore, and twisting traditional fairytales.
She adores the dark feminism of Mona Awad, Bora Chung, Sayaka Murata, Mariana Enriquez and Ottessa Moshfegh. Think ordinary people in odd worldly situations.

Her debut novella, The Story of the Deer Woman, was published in February 2026 via Lemon Jelly Press and has been shortlisted twice. She’s been published in Agave, SheHub, Conscious Dancer, GoDates, The Solitude Diaries, and Elephant Journal, where she is also a writing mentor. She has contributed to The Covid Life Book and The Journaling Book (Routledge) and writes regularly on Substack.

She is also a Tarot reader.

Amy Williams is a Liverpool based poet, spoken word artist and mum who combines all of these things to deliver works with honesty, warmth and humour. Her work is regularly highlighted by perinatal mental health charities such as PANDAs and was featured just last year on BBC Women’s Hour to discuss the impossible standards of healing in new motherhood and how it turned her own experience into a viral spoken word piece.

To enter the draw for an open mic slot, please email verbosemanchester@gmail.com between 1st and 6th March.

Find us on Instagram and Facebook at @verbosemcr