Portsmouth Voices Take on the Solent at LitFest26
This March, some of the city's most exciting spoken-word voices will take to the stage at Mayflower Studios as part of ArtfulScribe LitFest26: Acts of Resistance- a major three-day literary festival running from 13th–15 March 2026.
While the festival boasts an impressive programme of writers, thinkers and performers from across the country, one event has Portsmouth written all over it!
LitFest26 is all about the power of words — how writing can challenge, provoke, comfort and disrupt. Across the weekend there will be talks on activism, creative workshops, poetry showcases and performances exploring resistance in all its forms. It's ambitious, wide-ranging and unapologetically serious about literature's role in shaping society. But amid all that, Sounds of the Solent delivers something more immediate and more local: writers responding directly to place.
Sounds of the Solent: Poetry Rooted in Pompey
Sounds of the Solent brings together commissioned writers from across the region, including Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester, the Isle of Wight, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. For this event, Portsmouth's contribution has been specially curated by Pompey Poetry Party and John Sackett of The Front Room, a familiar name to anyone who's spent time in the city's grassroots poetry scene. They have brought together a group of Pompey poets and writers to create new work rooted in the coastline, culture and contradictions of life along the Solent — work shaped by dockyards and estates, humour and hardship, pride and perseverance.
In a festival themed around Acts of Resistance, Portsmouth's writers bring a perspective that doesn't need dressing up. Resistance, after all, is something this city understands instinctively.
Queer Uni-Verse: Big Names, Bold Voices
Sounds of the Solent sits perfectly within the wider LitFest26 programme, which showcases just how broad and exciting contemporary poetry has become. A stand-out moment on Saturday afternoon is the VERVE Poetry Showcase – The Queer Uni-Verse, featuring acclaimed poets Mukahang Limbu, Max Wallis, M.L. Walsh and Bradley Taylor reading from their recently published collections. Together, they bring some of the UK's most recognised queer voices to the festival stage, delivering work that opposes bigotry, embraces identity, and delivers powerful, entertaining poetry with unforgettable presence.
There's also Poetry Myth Busting, a refreshingly straight-talking session with Stuart Bartholomew from VERVE Poetry Press that lifts the lid on the poetry publishing world — from how to navigate submissions to how to handle rejection and get your work seen.
And then there's Mystic Melodies, a spellbinding Sunday performance celebrating the songs and poetry of the Bauls of Bengal with international artist Papia Ghosal — a soul-stirring blend of music and spiritual verse that travels far beyond the Solent.
Poetry for Everyone
What makes LitFest26 even more striking is its commitment to accessibility. All performances, including Sounds of the Solent and the VERVE Queer Uni-Verse showcase, are Pay What You Can Afford. Workshops are modestly priced, but the heart of the festival remains open, welcoming and rooted in community.
A Big Stage for Pompey Talent
For Portsmouth performers, appearing as part of LitFest26 is no small thing. This is a respected regional platform, housed in a major cultural venue, attracting audiences who may never have set foot in a Pompey poetry night before. It's a chance to show what our city's writers can do when given space, time and trust.
Matthew West, Artistic Director of ArtfulScribe says, "ArtfulScribe is excited to welcome four fantastic writers, Jackson Davies, Han Newton, Faye Smith, and Bash Amuneni to Mayflower Studios on Saturday 14th March to take part in Sounds of the Solent, a live performance event with a theme, Acts of Resistance. This showcase will include writers from Winchester, Bournemouth, Isle of Wight, and Southampton, with a headline set from the bubble-wrapped anarchist, Jonny Fluffypunk. Audiences can expect word bombs, phrase grenades and poetic firepower that offer an alternative to the destructive forces at play in the world, changing hearts and minds on a transformative evening that celebrates the Solent's writers."
As LitFest26 unfolds across Southampton, Portsmouth's poets will be carrying their city with them — its rhythms, its resistance and its unmistakable voice.
Sounds of the Solent takes place at Mayflower Studios on Saturday 14th March, Doors 7.30pm, Pay What You Can Afford ticket pricing.
For more information and tickets visit: https://www.mayflower.org.uk/whats-on/artfulscribe-litfest-2026/