Are you ready for the finest spoken word artists across twenty one UNESCO Cities of Literature to go head to head?

Known affectionately as the “Eurovision for Spoken Word,” Slamovision is the UNESCO Cities of Literature global poetry slam. This year is set to be the biggest and most competitive edition yet, with twenty one cities taking part, many for the first time.

Each finalist has gone through a local heat or selection process for the chance to represent their city, and the grand final will be live-streamed from the James Theater in Iowa City at 8pm GMT (2pm local time). Iowa are hosting after winning Slamovision 2025 with ‘Jack in the Box’ by Henry Morray.

The event will be live-streamed from Iowa City of Literature’s YouTube Channel. 

Manchester’s entry is Tom Ramsden, with his poem ‘Dead Language.’

The participating cities are: Angouleme (France), Bremen (Germany), Dublin (Ireland), Edinburgh (UK), Exeter (UK), Gdansk (Poland), Gothenburg (Sweden),Heidelberg (Germany), Hobart (Australia),  Iowa City (US), Krakow (Poland), Kutaisi (Georgia), Lyon (France), Manchester (UK), Nottingham (UK), Odesa (Ukraine), Québec City (Canada), Taif (Saudi Arabia), Tartu (Estonia), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Wroclaw (Poland). Many cities are performing in their Mother Language, including a first time Irish language entry from Dublin. 

John Kenyon, Director, Iowa City of Literature says:

“We were thrilled with Henry’s win last year and are proud to be hosting this year’s final event.  Now that we have a feel for how to run things, we would love to be home to the winner for a second year in a row, but do wish all of the poet’s the best of luck. We look forward to the continued growth of this international showcase for all of the slam poets in our network.”

To see the full list of poets participating in Slamovision 2026 see the official website here: https://slamovision.com/