Poetry Evening - Emma Conally-Barklem and Charlie Parker

Event information

Emma Conally-Barklem is a Bradford-born author, poet and yoga teacher based in North Yorkshire. In 2023, she was New Northern Poet for Ilkley Literature Festival. Her collection ‘The Ridings’ was curated into an exhibition in her hometown, Bradford. ‘Hymns from the Sisters’ was written after a residency at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Emma won the Black in White Poetry Prize 2024. Her first novel, ‘Yoga Homicide’ was shortlisted for the 2024 Book Edit Writers’ Prize. Her first full collection, ‘Emily Brontë’s Hawk’ will be published by The Black Cat Poetry Press in 2026. She is a core poet for the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Poetry Festival for Bradford 2025.

The Ridings : Emma Conally-Barklem
The Ridings, from the Old Norse Þriding or Þriðing: “a thirding”
In this beautiful, evocative collection, poet Emma Conally-Barklem reflects on the county of Yorkshire and its three ridings, conveying the everyday happenings of its towns, villages and cities against a wider societal context with the Moors and countryside acting as a bas-relief.
Broadly autobiographical, it is couched in the writer’s own working-class background and holds grief, identity and human connection at its heart.
“Leaves you wanting to hold the book tightly, close to your own heart.” - Sharena Lee Satti
“Skilfully crafted, poignant and memorable.” - Natalie Scott

Charlie Parker Poet
https://www.instagram.com/charlieparkerpoet/

“It's Like This.” Charlie Parker
“Heartfelt, witty and subtly political anthems of everyday life.”
- Lee Pollard, Sheffield Hallam University Department of Social Work and Social Care

In this collection, poet Charlie Parker breathes life into working-class youth and upbringing, seeking to defy the belief that the written word – and poetry itself – is only for those who understand poetry.

Much like life itself, it is something for all to enjoy: to share our sorrows and highs, our loves, our politics, sex and mutual experiences. A snapshot of both the intimate day-to-day lives and the great pressing issues of our current English climate are on display, from tales of Northern family life, teenage laughs and angst to first jobs, dilapidated town centres and hard conversations – It’s Like This provides an unflinching look at modern England.

“These poems are urgent dispatches from a divided island; an England of culture wars, widening inequality, and sinking prospects. This is working-class writing that looks to the past but is of the moment – one foot on the university campus, the other in the council estate, at home in neither... lays bare the state of the nation but hints at what the country might become with a little compassion, care, and solidarity. Charlie Parker is an angry young man, but he’s a hopeful one, too.”
- Professor David Forrest, Film and Television Studies, The University of Sheffield

NB Toilets upstairs, the performance room is accessed via two steps. Food available at the venue, parking on and off Crowgill Road.