We had a wonderful night at our Belfast Book Festival poetry slam last night, with a packed audience there to enjoy some excellent live poetry and honour the memory of a Belfast poetry pioneer, Brian Bailey.

After three high-quality and close scoring rounds, one person emerged victorious... congratulations to David Braziel, our Slam Champion 2017 and inaugural winner of the Brian Bailey Memorial Cup!

David saw off fierce competition in the final round from Patricia Devlin-Hill, Nathan Armstrong and Anthony Ferguson, who each put in a brilliant display over the three rounds.

A big thank you to our receptive and loving audience, our guest judges Peter Francis Fahy, Charmain J Porter and Bill Jeffrey, along with Jane Bailey and Fred Van't Sand for their moving tributes to Brian on the night. Many thanks also to the amazing, hard-working festival team at Crescent Arts Centre for all their support and assistance!

The Belfast Book Festival is almost upon us, and once again, Poetry NI is presenting the annual Book Festival Poetry Slam.

This year, in addition to being crowned Slam Champion and receiving the inaugural Brain Bailey Memorial Cup, we are delighted to announced that Poetry NI will also consider a pamphlet-length manuscript by the winning poet to be released by our publishing wing, Pen Points Press. So that's just one more reason to book your ticket and enter!

In additional, many thanks to everyone who attended our workshop and showcase reading for the NI Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. Poet Peter Adair, who read at the event, has done a recap of the readings for Lagan Online.