Jazz Poetry Returns!

After the sell-out success of last years event and due to popular demand Jazz Poetry is back and even bigger! Taking to the Cowdray Hall are three of Scotlands brightest poets and performers Hannah Lavery, Colin Bramwell and Aditya Narayan.

Responding to their poems through jazz improvisation will once again be award-winning saxophonist Matthew Kilner, pianistNeil Birse and drummerGreg Ironsfor another unforgettable night!Matthew Kilneris an award-winning saxophonist who's latest album, Lives Move Like Circles, follows 2025's The Space in Between .

He regularly performs at festivals and jazz clubs around the UK and abroad including Ronnie Scotts in London, Birmingham's Symphony Hall and the 2023 Regensburg Jazz Festival.

In 2019, Matthew won the prestigious Ogston Performance Prize whilst attending the University of Aberdeen, and in 2023, he reached the final of BBC Radio Scotlands Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition.Hannah Lavery is an award-winning poet and playwright.

Her pamphlet, Finding Seaglass was published by Stewed Rhubarb and her poem, 'Scotland Youre No Mine' was selected as one Scotlands Best Poems for 2019.

The Drift, her highly acclaimed autobiographical lyric play toured Scotland as part of the National Theatre of Scotlands Season 2019 and in 2020, she was selected by Owen Sheers as one of his Ten Writers Asking Questions That Will Shape Our Future for the International Literature Showcase, a project from the National Writing Centre and the British Council.

Her second lyric play 'Lament for Sheku Bayoh' premiered at Edinburgh International Festival in 2021.

She was also appointed Edinburgh Makar in November 2021 for a three year term.

She is an associate artist with the National Theatre of Scotland and one of the winners of the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Award 2022.

Her first two poetry collections, Blood Salt Spring and Unwritten Woman were published by Polygon in 2022 and 2024, respectively.Colin Bramwell is a writer and translator, mainly of poetry.

He was born in Ayrshire, grew up in Fortrose on the Black Isle and lives in Edinburgh.

He writes his poems and prose in English and Scots.

Colin's writing has been published widely in magazines and periodicals, including the New Statesman, The Observer, Poetry London, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Review, Irish Pages, The London Magazine, PN Review, Magma, The Rialto, New Writing Scotland, Interpret, Wet Grain , and Poetry Scotland .

He was the runner-up for the 2020 Edwin Morgan Prize.

His first book of translations into Scots, Fower Pessoas (Carcanet 2025), won the Highland Book Prize and the Oxford Weidenfeld Translation Prize, and was shortlisted for best book at the Scots Language awards and selected as one of The TLS Best Books of 2025.

Colin's debut collection of poems, Fetch , was published by And Other Stories in September of 2026, and is a Poetry Book Society Autumn 2026 Recommendation.Aditya Narayanis an award-winning spoken word poet based in Scotland.

He is the 2025 Roundhouse Poetry Slam winner, the 2025 Loud Poets Grand Slam Champion, and the 2025 Scottish National Poetry Slam winner.

His debut pamphlet, My Name is a Two-Person Sport explores immigration, identity, and the comedy of moving between cultures.