We’re proud to share that Tom Ramsden took home second place for Manchester City of Literature at the Slamovision 2026 grand final.

Dubbed ‘the Eurovision of spoken word,’ Slamovision is the UNESCO Cities of Literature global poetry slam. 21 cities took part this year, making it the biggest competition to date. The final was hosted by the 2025 winner, Iowa City, and live-streamed from the James Theatre on 1st November.

Tom’s moving and powerful poem ‘Dead Language’ received a whopping 311 points, with each participating city scoring all the other contenders. The winner for 2026 was Heather Rose from Edinburgh City, with her poem ‘Tongue Twisters.’

Manchester has a fantastic track record at Slamovision, and we’re proud to continue to be a tough contender on the global spoken word scene.  Tom was chosen as our representative in 2026 following an open call and selection by a panel of previous Manchester Slamovision competitors.

The cities participating in 2026 were: Angoulême (France), Bremen (Germany), Dublin (Ireland), Edinburgh (Scotland), Exeter (England), Gdańsk (Poland), Gothenburg (Sweden), Heidelberg (Germany), Hobart (Tasmania), Iowa City (USA), Kraków (Poland), Kutaisi (Georgia), Lyon (France), Manchester (England), Nottingham (England), Odesa (Ukraine), Quebec City (Canada), Taif (Saudi Arabia), Tartu (Estonia), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Wroclaw (Poland).

A recording of the 2026 final is now available on the Iowa City of Literature YouTube channel, and you can watch all 21 submissions on the Slamovision website.

Once again, a massive congratulations to Tom, to Edinburgh on their win, and to all the poets who took part. We are already looking forward to 2027’s competition.