That's What She Said feat. Theresa Lola

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"The biggest spoken word night in London for women" (Evening Standard) and shortlisted for Best Spoken Word Night in the UK (Saboteur Awards, 2017), is back from our summer break at The Royal Albert Hall and Edinburgh Fringe. That's What She Said showcases the best new writing and performance by women, featuring iconic and emerging authors with a mix of performance, poetry, storytelling, slam and more.

Speaking on the night:

Headliner Theresa Lola (@ theresa_lola) is a British Nigerian Poet. She was joint winner of the 2018 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the 2017 Bridport Poetry Prize. She has appeared on BBC Woman’s Hour and BBC Radio 4, and was invited to read at the unveiling of Millicent Fawcett’s statue alongside Mayor of London Sadiq Kahn at Parliament Square. She runs, FourHubs, a lifestyle magazine for writers. She is part of Octavia Poetry Collective lead by Rachel Long.

Emma McGordon (@emmamcgordon) is an award winning spoken word artist and poet. in 2018 she was long listed by the Saboteur Awards as a UK best spoken word performer and in 2017 she was the winner of the Julia Darling Fellowship which allowed her to carry out a research project in San Francisco. She has been a writer in residence at Shakespeare and Company bookshop, Paris and the St Endellion centre in Cornwall. She is published by Tall Lighthouse and features in a number of UK anthologies.

Liz Ward (@lizmaryward) is an advocate, activist and spoken word artist who takes inspiration from the stories around her. Working in the youth sector, many of her poems deal with the issues young people face every day - crime, exploitation, gangs and feeling lost in the world. Her aim is to shed light on narratives we sometimes ignore, weaving honesty, hope and humor together.

Hannah Smith (@hansplat) is an actress and a writer who has been “writing” a play called ‘Conversations with van Gogh’ for the Edinburgh Fringe for two years and is as close to taking it to Edinburgh this year, as she was last. A sometimes-freelance journalist, she has written about her depression, her desire to find a dead body in the Thames and doing Glastonbury sober, amongst other things, for Refinery 29 UK, Time Out, The Quietus and The Independent.

Caroline Macaulay (@carolinamacmac) writes literary fiction and creative non-fiction. She has performed her work at the National Portrait Gallery and various London spoken word nights; been commissioned to write for performance art shows at the V&A museum and the International Festival of Burlesque; and was an editor for The Mechanics’ Institute Review in 2006 and 2017. She completed her MA Creative Writing at Birkbeck University.

Open mic walk ups on the evening are welcomed but with limited places it might be advisable to email paul@forbookssake.net if you have a burning desire to speak 
out and speak up.

Get your tickets for only £7 now while you can, or come along on the night for £10 on the door. 

And remember - For Books' Sake is a volunteer led, community organisation so all your pennies will be going back into championing women writers!

WHAT THEY SAY...

"To put it bluntly, I'd never come across a spoken word night with such a fantastic lineup. 'How have I never come across this before?', I kept asking myself, 'this is everything I've ever wanted from a night out...'

I was blown away. I left feeling inspired, with renewed confidence in my own abilities, and almost missed my tube stop on the way home trying to write down scraps of poetry and prose.

Not only is That's What She Said a great place to see talented literary performers, for everyone and not just women, but it provides a space for women to shout and scream their anger, their frustrations, their desires; a space without censorship, without objectification and without the dreaded “it must be her time of the month” quip. I think For Books’ Sake is doing some really important work." (Thanks SexyVeg for this recent review of one of our London shows!