Poetry Club: Karen Mccarthy Woolf & Richard Scott

We are thrilled to welcome Karen McCarthy Woolf and Richard Scott for a spellbinding evening of poetry in our intimate candlelit bar, as part of our ever-popular Poetry Club.

Multi-award winning poet Karen McCarthy Woolf will read from Top Doll, her genre-defying verse novel inspired by the life of heiress Huguette Clark and narrated by a chorus of antique dolls. Stylishly inventive, polyvocal and darkly playful, Top Doll traverses centuries and continents in a rich exploration of identity, desire, and the stories objects hold.

Richard Scott, whose debut Soho was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot, Costa, and Forward Prizes, returns with poems from his luminous new collection That Broke into Shining Crystals. With lyrical precision and emotional force, Scott traces a journey through trauma, memory, and recovery – interweaving classical form with raw personal truth.

Books will be available for purchase and signing in the bar after the reading, where all are invited to stay for a drink and conversation with the poets.

Karen Mccarthy Woolf

Karen McCarthy Woolf was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022. She was born in London to English and Jamaican parents. Karen’s radio credits include Night Shift, a reworking of Homer’s Odyssey for R4 Book of the Week; Miss Birdie’s Letter, a music/poetry travelogue for R3 Between the Ears; and a collaborative adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando which was a BBC Drama of the Week. She is currently working at the Promise Institute for International Human Rights Law as a Fulbright Scholar, co-presenting R4’s Poetry Please, lecturing in China and collaborating with various techno music producers for events across London. Top Doll is her debut novel.

“If you read one novel this year, let it be Top Doll. This is innovative, exquisitely crafted storytelling at its finest” – Malika Booker

Richard Scott

Richard Scott’s remarkable second collection, That Broke into Shining Crystals is a Poetry Book Society Choice. Published in February by Faber, it concerns trauma and vulnerability – violation and aftershock – explored within a framework of self-determination and radical queerness, through still-life paintings.

Richard Scott was born in London in 1981. His debut collection Soho was shortlisted for The TS Eliot Prize, The Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and The Polari First Book Prize among other awards. He is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

“Richard Scott’s Soho is the most gripping portrayal of queer lives I’ve read so far” – Daljit Nagra, The Guardian