Write Out Loud hosted its monthly open mic this May, continuing its mission to make poetry accessible and fulfilling for a wider audience. Set in the Bolton Socialist Club—a historic home to working-class revolution—the venue provided a fitting backdrop for a night of creativity, community, and candid expression.
The evening featured a guest performance from poet and musician Katherine Horrex, whose debut collection Growlery explores the power of poetry at a grassroots level. Currently a finalist for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize at Queen’s University Belfast, Horrex's work has appeared in The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, Poetry London, and the Morning Star. Leaving school at 13, she found solace in literature—reading all of Philip Larkin’s personal letters by the age of 14. Now based in Manchester, she continues to blend songwriting and poetry, drawing inspiration from voices like Don Paterson, Ted Hughes, and Elizabeth Bishop.
Growlery, her first collection, takes inspiration from Charles Dickens’ Bleak House and explores the theme of internal space in a 21st-century setting—how it can feel both connected and disjointed. First published in 2020, the book paints a world of flooded villages, broken ankles, and ovarian health—examining civic tensions in the twilight zone between city and country. Though the collection spans a ramshackle array of topics, its heart lies in sharp observations of everyday life and their wider resonance in society.
During her open mic set, Horrex—despite her experience—spoke candidly about how nerves can still surface in the most unexpected moments. She reflected that we never truly grow out of them, no matter the setting. Her poem Loom Houses was rooted in her time in Middleton, a place she once disliked but came to see as a source of creative inspiration. With lines like “a lack of light,” “whitewashed interior,” and “a thread of day and night,” the poem conjured a vision of a northern town weighed down by past, present, and future—the legacy of the Industrial Revolution lingering amid modern consumer life.
