From Wordsworth to Blake, Keats to Tennyson, the British poetry canon is replete with influential literary figures, encountered for decades in classrooms across the globe. But who is enfranchised to appreciate, and take inspiration from, the great British poets of the past? What does this question reveal about this poetry’s relationship to privilege and power? And why and how are some poets coopted for nationalist ends?
In this event, presented by English PEN in partnership with Keats House, three contemporary poets will discuss their appreciation for British heritage poetry, how it has intervened in their lives, and how it has influenced their work. They will also reflect on the ways in which their reading of the canon is shaped, enriched, and complicated by the positions and contexts from which they read, and the complex ways the culturally constructed image of the writer and the reader intersect with notions of race and class.
Speakers:
Kit Fan is a poet, novelist and critic. He was born and educated in Hong Kong and now lives in the UK. His third poetry collection The Ink Cloud Reader (2023) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Forward Prize. His first novel is Diamond Hill (2021). He is a frequent contributor to The Guardian and The Times Literary Supplement. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Vice-Chair of Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), and Co-Chair of Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA). His second novel Goodbye Chinatown is forthcoming in 2026.
Awet Fissehaye is a poet, writer, and lyricist born and raised in Eritrea. He started to write poetry at an early age before studying English at the University of Asmara, Eritrea. Awet’s poems and articles have appeared in his native language and in English on different platforms. He was the first recipient of the National Poetry Prize for Students in 2000. In 2007, he was arrested by Eritrean government security forces, tortured and kept in inhumane conditions for 14 months. In 2014, Awet left Eritrea for Sudan before continuing toward Europe through the Sahara Deseret and the Mediterranean Sea. Awet is an Honorary Member of English PEN and in 2022 he became Executive Director of PEN Eritrea in Exile. He has lived in exile in the United Kingdom since 2016.
Fran Lock is a poet, essayist and editor; the author of sixteen books and numerous pamphlets, most recently Hag Stone (Dare-Gale Press, 2025). Hyena! (Poetry Bus Press, 2023) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2023 and the PEN Heaney Prize 2024. She is a Commissioning Editor at radical arts and culture co-operative Culture Matters. She lives between Cambridge and Kent.
Rachael Allen (Chair) is the author of God Complex and Kingdomland, both published by Faber. She works as an editor and lecturer in London.