McGowin Library

Upcoming events at McGowin Library

Community

Getting Started with Poetry

Whether you’ve never written a poem before, have just started to write, or aren’t sure if what you’re writing is poetry, this monthly workshop is a chance to carve out some time for writing. In each workshop, we’ll read a poem together, and use it as our starting point. We’ll suggest some prompts you could take from the poem, and ideas you might like to borrow. There will be plenty of time to write, and plenty more prompts if you get stuck. At the end of the session, you’ll be able to share what you’ve written in a supportive environment. All you need to bring is yourself – these workshops are here for you to enjoy writing and build confidence in your voice. The workshop is open to anyone aged 16+. Tell us you’re coming by booking your free ticket here. The Oxford Poetry Library is an accessible space but please do contact us in advance if you have specific requirements. You can email us about this or with any questions about the workshop at

Mon 13 Apr19:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

Write Space

What is it? Write Space is a pop-up space for you to work on your creative writing projects in the company of other local writers. Come and write with us in a friendly low-key environment. When is it? 12-2pm on the third Friday of each month (currently booking to June 2026). Where is it? The Event Space at the Community Works, Park End Street (access through Lula’s). Who is it for? Writing can be a lonely business and sometimes it can be hard to protect time for yourself to write when life weighs in. Write Space is for anyone writing creatively (poetry, fiction, drama, creative non-fiction…) who values this space. Write Space is facilitated by OPL volunteers. How do I take part? Book your spot in advance via the Eventbrite link below – any donation is welcome from 1p to £££s to support the work of Oxford Poetry Library. Do I have to come for the whole time? It’s up to you! There is a writing prompt available at the start for those who wish, or you can settle straight into your own project. We take a short break half -way to chat about what you’re working on, discuss an aspect of writing life or just stretch your legs and grab a drink. What should I bring? Bring what you’re working on and what you like to write on/ with. Bring your own drink or buy one at Lula’s.

Fri 17 Apr12:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

LIT Reading Group- April

Got started with poetry but not sure where to go next?  Need some support and feedback for a specific piece of writing that is bugging you right now? Just looking for a friendly, low-pressure space to hang out and chat with folks who love words as much as you do? Why not join us at LIT? We are a reading and writing group for cis and trans women, trans men, non-binary people, and people of other minority genders to share their own work and the work of others. We take the broadest, most inclusive interpretation of what this means- if you feel like you might fit with us, you probably do! We are a group of writers who host monthly friendly sessions around different themes. We meet in person and online. For more information about us, you can read our statement of aims and values on our group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/223789834941256 or email to request to join our WhatsApp group.

Mon 20 Apr19:30McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

The Hip Crowd open mic

Hey! The rumours are true. It’s… The Hip Crowd Open Mic! Oxford Poetry Library and Makespace Oxford bring you an open mic event especially for folks with babes-in-arms, but also open to all and everyone. If you’re feeling like daytime is the right time for you to entertain or be entertained, join us at The Community Works on the last Friday of every month. The action , but performers please do arrive from 11am to sign up for your turn on the stage. We welcome poetry, music, storytelling, comedy and whatever else you think might dazzle in a 5-minute slot The entire event will be baby friendly and baby welcoming, with lots of floor space at the front, changing facilities, buggy parking area outside, and clear walkways to exit the performance area easily if needed.  There will also be that most beautiful and warmly appreciated of gifts: free tea and coffee provided. The event is non-ticketed, but costs £5 to spectate (£2 for concessions) and is totally free to performers. Be there or be square.

Fri 24 Apr11:30McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

Drafting Table - featured poet session

Welcome to Drafting Table, where we share our emerging poems with each other and provide feedback in a safe and inclusive environment. Maybe you have been attending the Getting Started sessions and feel ready to edit your work and develop your ideas. Maybe you’re an experienced but unpublished poet who wants to take those next steps in your poetry career. Just bring a willingness to receive and provide feedback with the whole group! Once a month, we invite a published poet to join us. There will be a short reading of their poems followed by a workshop where attendees can learn more about the creative process, get an insight into what it means to be a poet, and share our work with them. Stay tuned for details of April’s poet! Feel free to email any queries to

Sun 26 Apr13:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

Drafting Table - workshop session

Welcome to our poetry drafting group, where we share our emerging poems with each other and provide feedback in a safe and inclusive environment. Maybe you have been attending the Getting Started sessions and feel ready to edit your work and develop your ideas. Maybe you’re an experienced but unpublished poet who wants to take those next steps in your poetry career. If you feel you’d like to join us, please bring along at least one unfinished, unpublished work-in-progress that you’re willing to share with the whole group. We are normally able to hear and give feedback to around 6 or 7 poets per session. Regular attendance is encouraged, to help us build a trusting and collaborative community. Feel free to email queries to We meet: 1-3pm First Saturday of every month at The Community Works – enter via the side entrance for the Event Space 21 Park End Street OX1 1HH

Sat 2 May13:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

This is Just to Say: spoken word open mic

Oxford Poetry Library presents a spoken word open mic night! Join us in the library on the first Tuesday of every month to enjoy all manner of word-weaving, story-sharing, and spell-casting. We welcome poets, storytellers, and writers of all kinds to share their work (or the work of others) in a safe, supportive, and inclusive space. Slots are 2-3 minutes long, and performers sign up on the door – first come, first served and slots fill up quickly so we recommend arriving in good time for 7pm! At OPL we want everyone to feel comfortable and has space to enjoy the night. That’s why we have a few basic guidelines that we ask everyone to follow: Please refrain from using discriminatory language or harmful content in your performance. If you are unsure about your performance, speak to the host when you arrive. You should aim to read something that’s around one page or 2-3 minutes – this ensures that everyone has enough time to read. Every month we feature a performer with a slightly extended set and this month’s featured performer to grace our stage will be Erica Hesketh. Erica is a poet and editor, originally from Japan and Denmark, now based in London. Her debut collection In the Lily Room was published by Nine Arches Press in 2025, and her pamphlet To an Unknown Receiver: Sonnets & Cascades will be published by Guillemot Press in June.

Tue 5 May19:30McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

The Shape of Poetry

Note that these sessions will take place online – links to the Zoom sessions will be circulated to those who have registered in advance of these events. Many of us feel intimidated by formal poetry: Some of us consider it too restrictive and governed by rules, while others write exclusively in form. This workshop is an invitation to all writers of poetry, whether you’re just starting out or have been writing for years, to explore the creative potential of poetic forms. Our monthly sessions happen on the second Saturday of the month from 2pm til 4pm. During each of our workshops, we will look at the conventions of a particular form such as the sonnet, ghazal, or haiku, read example poems, and write our own versions. This workshop will be a collaborative space for us to explore how experimenting with limitations or restrictions in our writing can give us whole new ways of expressing ourselves, and open unexpected doors! Whether you’ve never written a poem before, have just started to write, or aren’t sure if what you’re writing is poetry, this monthly workshop is a chance to carve out some time for writing. In each workshop, we’ll read a poem together, and use it as our starting point. We’ll suggest some prompts you could take from the poem, and ideas you might like to borrow. There will be plenty of time to write, and plenty more prompts if you get stuck.

Sat 9 May14:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

Getting Started with Poetry

Whether you’ve never written a poem before, have just started to write, or aren’t sure if what you’re writing is poetry, this monthly workshop is a chance to carve out some time for writing. In each workshop, we’ll read a poem together, and use it as our starting point. We’ll suggest some prompts you could take from the poem, and ideas you might like to borrow. There will be plenty of time to write, and plenty more prompts if you get stuck. At the end of the session, you’ll be able to share what you’ve written in a supportive environment. All you need to bring is yourself – these workshops are here for you to enjoy writing and build confidence in your voice. The workshop is open to anyone aged 16+. Tell us you’re coming by booking your free ticket here. The Oxford Poetry Library is an accessible space but please do contact us in advance if you have specific requirements. You can email us about this or with any questions about the workshop at

Mon 11 May19:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

Write Space

What is it? Write Space is a pop-up space for you to work on your creative writing projects in the company of other local writers. Come and write with us in a friendly low-key environment. When is it? 12-2pm on the third Friday of each month (currently booking to June 2026). Where is it? The Event Space at the Community Works, Park End Street (access through Lula’s). Who is it for? Writing can be a lonely business and sometimes it can be hard to protect time for yourself to write when life weighs in. Write Space is for anyone writing creatively (poetry, fiction, drama, creative non-fiction…) who values this space. Write Space is facilitated by OPL volunteers. How do I take part? Book your spot in advance via the Eventbrite link below – any donation is welcome from 1p to £££s to support the work of Oxford Poetry Library. Do I have to come for the whole time? It’s up to you! There is a writing prompt available at the start for those who wish, or you can settle straight into your own project. We take a short break half -way to chat about what you’re working on, discuss an aspect of writing life or just stretch your legs and grab a drink. What should I bring? Bring what you’re working on and what you like to write on/ with. Bring your own drink or buy one at Lula’s.

Fri 15 May12:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

The Reading Circle

People who never read poetry don’t write poems that are worth reading – Wendy Cope If you’re keen to find a way in to reading and appreciating poetry, discover new writing, and open your mind to the world of poetry, welcome to The Reading Circle. Come to OPL’s poetry reading group where we’ll share and discuss contemporary poems (and occasionally poems from the late 20th century) in a relaxed and inclusive peer-led environment. Questions we’ll be asking include: What makes a poem ‘work’? Why do we like a poem? Why don’t we? Is there such a thing as a fashionable poem? Does it matter? Can we love a poem we don’t fully understand? What makes mystery different to obscurity? What might we learn from other poets that can help us enrich our own craft? The Reading Circle meets on the third Saturday of each month, 2-4 pm in The Community Works. We suggest a donation to attend each session: £5 for general admission (£10 for those able to donate a bit more) and registration is required here. Donations are optional and shouldn’t be prohibitive to you attending, but all proceeds go to the running costs of the Oxford Poetry Library and our ability to continue providing these sorts of sessions.

Sat 16 May14:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

LIT Reading Group- May

Got started with poetry but not sure where to go next?  Need some support and feedback for a specific piece of writing that is bugging you right now? Just looking for a friendly, low-pressure space to hang out and chat with folks who love words as much as you do? Why not join us at LIT? We are a reading and writing group for cis and trans women, trans men, non-binary people, and people of other minority genders to share their own work and the work of others. We take the broadest, most inclusive interpretation of what this means- if you feel like you might fit with us, you probably do! We are a group of writers who host monthly friendly sessions around different themes. We meet in person and online. For more information about us, you can read our statement of aims and values on our group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/223789834941256 or email to request to join our WhatsApp group.

Mon 18 May19:30McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

Unravelling History & The Material of Living

Join four poets for a reading that delves into the myriad personal and collective worlds, where you find stories of survival and loss; of ecological crisis and the material of living; memories of the sensous in all its skin and glitter; and the complexity of our inner selves. On Saturday 23 May at The Community Works at 7pm, poets Mona Arshi, Troy Cabida, Nina Mingya Powles and Jennifer Wong will be sharing work from their recent collections. Tickets are £5 (£2 concessions) – please book tickets in advance here! The building is accessible, but if you have any specific access needs, please drop us an Arshi’s debut poetry collection, Small Hands, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2015. Her second collection, Dear Big Gods, was published in 2019 and her novel Somebody Loves You in 2021. She has been appointed as Honorary Professor at the University of Liverpool and Fellow in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and is also co-editor of an anthology of nature poetry, Nature Matters: Vital Poems from the Global Majority (Faber, 2025). Her third collection of Poetry Mouth was published in 2025 by Chatto. Prior to her career in poetry, she worked as a human rights lawyer, often representing refugees and women fleeing domestic violence. Troy Cabida is the author of Neon Manila (2025), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Sat 23 May19:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

The Hip Crowd open mic

Hey! The rumours are true. It’s… The Hip Crowd Open Mic! Oxford Poetry Library and Makespace Oxford bring you an open mic event especially for folks with babes-in-arms, but also open to all and everyone. If you’re feeling like daytime is the right time for you to entertain or be entertained, join us at The Community Works on the last Friday of every month. The action , but performers please do arrive from 11am to sign up for your turn on the stage. We welcome poetry, music, storytelling, comedy and whatever else you think might dazzle in a 5-minute slot The entire event will be baby friendly and baby welcoming, with lots of floor space at the front, changing facilities, buggy parking area outside, and clear walkways to exit the performance area easily if needed.  There will also be that most beautiful and warmly appreciated of gifts: free tea and coffee provided. The event is non-ticketed, but costs £5 to spectate (£2 for concessions) and is totally free to performers. Be there or be square.

Fri 29 May11:30McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

Drafting Table - featured poet session

Welcome to Drafting Table, where we share our emerging poems with each other and provide feedback in a safe and inclusive environment. Maybe you have been attending the Getting Started sessions and feel ready to edit your work and develop your ideas. Maybe you’re an experienced but unpublished poet who wants to take those next steps in your poetry career. Just bring a willingness to receive and provide feedback with the whole group! Once a month, we invite a published poet to join us. There will be a short reading of their poems followed by a workshop where attendees can learn more about the creative process, get an insight into what it means to be a poet, and share our work with them. Stay tuned for details of May’s poet! Feel free to email any queries to

Sun 31 May13:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

This Just To Say: spoken word open mic

Oxford Poetry Library presents a spoken word open mic night! Join us in the library on the first Tuesday of every month to enjoy all manner of word-weaving, story-sharing, and spell-casting. We welcome poets, storytellers, and writers of all kinds to share their work (or the work of others) in a safe, supportive, and inclusive space. Slots are 2-3 minutes long, and performers sign up on the door – first come, first served and slots fill up quickly so we recommend arriving in good time for 7pm! At OPL we want everyone to feel comfortable and has space to enjoy the night. That’s why we have a few basic guidelines that we ask everyone to follow: Please refrain from using discriminatory language or harmful content in your performance. If you are unsure about your performance, speak to the host when you arrive. You should aim to read something that’s around one page or 2-3 minutes – this ensures that everyone has enough time to read. Every month we feature a performer with a slightly extended set and this month’s featured performer to grace our stage will be announced nearer the time. The session (performers are advised to arrive from 7pm), at The Community Works (21 Park End St, OX1 1HU). £5 entry (£2 concessions), performers free. The building is accessible, but if you have any specific access needs, please drop us an email at beforehand!

Tue 2 Jun19:30McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

Drafting Table - workshop session

Welcome to our poetry drafting group, where we share our emerging poems with each other and provide feedback in a safe and inclusive environment. Maybe you have been attending the Getting Started sessions and feel ready to edit your work and develop your ideas. Maybe you’re an experienced but unpublished poet who wants to take those next steps in your poetry career. If you feel you’d like to join us, please bring along at least one unfinished, unpublished work-in-progress that you’re willing to share with the whole group. We are normally able to hear and give feedback to around 6 or 7 poets per session. Regular attendance is encouraged, to help us build a trusting and collaborative community. Feel free to email queries to We meet: 1-3pm First Saturday of every month at The Community Works – enter via the side entrance for the Event Space 21 Park End Street OX1 1HH

Sat 6 Jun13:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

Community

Getting Started with Poetry

Whether you’ve never written a poem before, have just started to write, or aren’t sure if what you’re writing is poetry, this monthly workshop is a chance to carve out some time for writing. In each workshop, we’ll read a poem together, and use it as our starting point. We’ll suggest some prompts you could take from the poem, and ideas you might like to borrow. There will be plenty of time to write, and plenty more prompts if you get stuck. At the end of the session, you’ll be able to share what you’ve written in a supportive environment. All you need to bring is yourself – these workshops are here for you to enjoy writing and build confidence in your voice. The workshop is open to anyone aged 16+. Tell us you’re coming by booking your free ticket here. The Oxford Poetry Library is an accessible space but please do contact us in advance if you have specific requirements. You can email us about this or with any questions about the workshop at

Mon 8 Jun19:00McGowin Library

via McGowin Library

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