Poetry Double: Hrabal & Mcguire

As well as being vigorously local to East Leeds, Chapel FM takes great pride in its
international connections, in particular with Leedss twin cities, including our sister
city in The Czech Republic: Brno.Inverze Festival in Ostrava hosted Chapel FM Director of Words Peter Spafford last
year. Chapel FM extends the same hospitality to its organiser, Ondej Hrabal and
Scots poet Colin McGuire.
Ondej Hrabal is a Czech poet, the winner of the 2018 national poetry slam championship,
author of three collections of poetry, and one childrens book. He performed his poetry at
the largest demonstration in the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution, attended by
300,000 people.
Colin McGuire is a Glaswegian poet living in Edinburgh. He won the Out-Spoken Prize for
Best Poem and Film for The Glasgae Boys in 2018. An excerpt from his memoir features
in the Scottish Queer anthology Fierce Salvage. His new collection Ultraviolet is out with
Bad Betty Press in 2026.