Join us for the Manchester Launch of Simon Maddrell’s debut collection, lamping wild rabbits, from Out-Spoken Press.

This event is in aid of George House Trust which provides HIV support & services across Manchester and Liverpool. Simon is supported by Manchester City Poet, Nóra Blascsók. Plus, a Q&A with Paul Fairweather, George House Trust.

‘A fine, fierce collection.’ – Neil Bartlett

lamping wild rabbits is a polyvocal and multifaceted debut which is unafraid to confront the shame and stigma of HIV, while never allowing the poems to lose shape or pace, altering the lens to bring the reader’s attention to birdsong and the queer body in nature.

Maddrell has achieved a distinct and totally convincing sound through the literary geography of lamping wild rabbits, one that gives the impression it’s been everywhere and returned because it survived.

‘A queer odyssey, an exquisite and arresting chronicle of the journey from shame to belonging. The skin of these poems are stretched thin and beneath them we glimpse a crystalline world of courage wrought from fear. Bold, surreal, surprising and elegant; this is a breathtaking debut.’
– Joelle Taylor

‘Loss and candour categorise Maddrell’s debut collection. The speakers feverishly recall desires often accompanied by the contrapositive of shame…The prize of age is wisdom – “the captive live longer than the wild” – and moments here silence the reader to introspection.’
– Oluwaseun Olayiwola, The Guardian.

‘Generous, questing, irresistible, these miraculous poems root deep to grow towards the sun, transforming their underworlds of loss into an enduring radiance of life.’
– alice hiller

‘Each poem is a glare against the sea, guiding us through the rocky shores of reclamation in the face of erasure…Maddrell’s ghosts of siblings, lovers and languages haunt every line, startling and unashamed…poems of endurance, of looking to a new world, dragging our feet in the dirt as we go.’
– Jasmine Gray, Spring Bulletin 2026, Poetry Book Society.

‘A feral, ferocious debut…Simon Maddrell’s collection is a work of intimacy, honesty and invention. It’s also a journey of the soul, full of life, reflections, risks and fears. It’s human and rooted, aware, full of awe and piss-takingly funny.’
– James Hartley, The Madrid Review

Simon Maddrell

Simon Maddrell is a writer, editor & educator who appears in Gutter, Magma, Poetry Wales, SAND, Southword, Stand, The Gay & Lesbian Review, The London Magazine, The Moth, The Rialto, Under the Radar.

Pamphlets include: Queerfella, The Rialto, 2020; The Whole Island, Valley Press, 2023. Isle of Sin, a finger in derek jarman’s mouth, Patient L1 (Polari Press, 2023/24/25). Simon’s debut collection is lamping wild rabbits (Out-Spoken Press, Feb 2026).

Nóra Blascsók

Nóra Blascsók is a Manchester City Poet and a 2025 New Northern Poet. Her debut pamphlet was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2022. Her poems can be found in The Poetry Review, Propel Magazine and PEVERSE. She has performed her work in the UK and abroad, including at literature festivals in Manchester, Ilkley and Barcelona.