WHO WE ARE

The Poetry Unlimited team got together as the result of a shared love of words and a desire to see poetry more out there in the Isle of Man. There's a great resurgence of interest in poetry going on at the moment, with spoken word billed as 'the new stand-up' and Bards popping up across the British Isles. At the moment we're pioneering three main projects: The Manx Bard, the annual Manx Litfest Poetry Slam and the Douglas open mic nights. Here's a bit about us...

bridge carter
poetry unlimited founder member
​chairman manx bard committee

​Originator of the Manx Bard concept, Bridge heads up the Manx Bard committee, supported by Hazel Teare and Di Benson. She was the winner of the inaugural Manx Litfest Poetry Slam in 2012. Her epic poem about the Manx Volunteers in WW1 was recorded onto CD by the Hon Noel Cringle OBE and sold to raise funds for the Manx Military Museum and Help For Heroes. A United Press featured author, she was a winner in the 2014 Manx Litfest Poetry Trail, and one of her Haiku poems was placed 10th out of around 30,000 entries into a global competition to send poems into space. Bridge is currently working on her first novel. 

Janet lees
POETRY UNLIMITED FOUNDER MEMBER

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Janet’s poetry has been published in journals including Magma, Poetry News and Popshot and won prizes in many competitions – most recently she was placed third in both the Bristol and Guernsey International poetry prizes. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including the Aesthetica International Creative Writing Award and the annual Templar anthology. In 2014 she was one of 72 Commonwealth nation poets to feature in BBC Radio’s Poetry Postcards project, and her poetry films have been selected for a wide range of international festivals and prizes. She won the Olive Lamming poetry prize in 2012 and was runner-up in 2014. Janet is qualified in Writing for Wellbeing and runs creative writing workshops at The Hub in Port Erin as part of the Southern Community Art Project, sponsored by Isle of Man Arts Council. ​

STACEY ASTILL
MANX BARD COMMITTEE MEMBER

As the first living Manx Bard, Stacey did a huge amount to promote poetry during her year as Bard, both at home and abroad. She took part in a cultural exchange with the US, where she worked with people in prisons and correctional facilities; she held special poetry events and workshops around the island, appeared on the radio; and gave talks in schools and at events such as TEDx Douglas. One of Stacey's poems features on the main window of the Henry Bloom Noble library in Douglas, which she officially opened in her role as Bard, and where she has hosted two wonderful evenings of poetry and prose to mark International Women's Day, in 2016 and 2017.  

Hazel teare
POETRY UNLIMITED FOUNDER MEMBER
​MANX BARD COMMITTEE member

As the 2014 winner of the Olive Lamming poetry prize, Hazel was one of 12 poets whose work featured on the Island’s buses as part of the Poetry in Motion project. She has been published in various anthologies and magazines, including This Island Now and Under the Hill. She has been shortlisted in several competitions including The Poetry Box Halloween Silver Cup, was a featured poet in Dark and Horror Poetry Magazine Monthly in 2014, and won third prize in the Flash 500 Humour Verse Competition, also in 2014. Having starting running poetry open mic nights in the Island five years ago, Hazel comperes the Douglas open mics and plays a key role in producing other spoken word events in the Island.
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Di BENSON
​MANX BARD COMMITTEE MEMBER

Di is a founder member of the creative writing group at The Hub in Port Erin, and has had her poetry published in Wildfire, an anthology of work by members of the group. She is a rising star on the Island’s performance poetry scene and most recently supported Michael Cowin AKA Pullyman of Manx Radio and Isle of Man Newspapers’ fame in ‘Pullyman & Friends’, a landmark spoken word event at Peel’s Centenary Centre which drew in a full house crowd of around 200 people. Di’s creative talents extend into a wide range of artistic pursuits, including quilting. She is always finding new ways to combine them and one day aims to incorporate poetry into her work.