POET FOR PLACES

 

London’s Poet for Places programme is the first of its kind to offer a young non-professional writer the chance to engage with London’s heritage and stories. A year long programme open to London residents aged between 18-25, Poet for Places takes inspiration from the city’s heritage to bring historic buildings and monuments to life through poetry and spoken word. The poet receives a grant of £10,000 as well as year-long mentoring from Prof. Daljit Nagra MBE FRSL and Dr Emma Filtness of Brunel University of London.

 

Alongside producing their own creative work, the poet mentors other young people through workshops in schools and alternative provision organisations over the course of a year as part of our Proud Places programme. Poet for Places is run in collaboration with Brunel University with the support of the Caledonia Investments Charitable Foundation, and offers a rare opportunity for an upcoming writer to increase their body of work, develop their career, build their profile and inspire young people. 

 

Kira Nelson is London’s second Poet for Places. Given behind-closed-doors access to secret places and curiosities across every borough, Kira explores their history through her poetry - from street sculptures and statues, former grand houses, an 18th century grotto, the ancient plot of a Benedictine priory - interpreting sites and their stories in new ways.

 

Her first collection, A Stage for Ghosts, takes inspiration from the stories hidden inside HOLT’s projects, and was printed by HOLT and Brunel University in November 2024. You can read poems from her collection below.

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Praise for A Stage for Ghosts:

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"These brooding, menacing and thrilling poems constantly surprise with their daring leaps into images that are extravagant and darkly materialled." – Professor Daljit Nagra MBE FRSL, Chair of the Royal Society of Literature

 

“She has been totally dedicated and the results are just we as hoped – inspiring others to pause and consider what these places mean to them, what ‘other lives’ they might have had, and seen, and will see into the future.” – Dr. Nicola Stacey, Director of Heritage of London Trust

 

"These evocative poems offer the reader glimpses of London via a tour of its monuments, operating at the intersection of past and present, and filtered through the ekphrastic and lyric modes." – Dr. Emma Filtness, Lecturer in Creative Writing, Brunel University

 

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KIRA NELSON

 

Kira Nelson is an emerging voice in the London poetry scene. A young queer poet and screenwriter from Orpington, she has been performing at open mic events since 2021. Kira recently completed her BA in Creative Writing at Brunel University of London, and is working on her second collection of poems, to be published in 2025.

 

“Be honest, be emotional and don’t write blankly, there has always got to be something behind what’s on the page.”

 

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