Mark Grist, Tim Clare

Modern poetry is amazing, right?

Angry strangers shouting your own opinions back at you for money! Literature graduates competing to find the most complicated way of saying ‘I feel sad’! Mark Grist and Tim Clare have been part of this strangely unappreciated scene for years, and believe it’s now time for something different.

Using ground-breaking techniques of data collection and live feedback from the audience, they’re going to perform a series of experiments to determine: what is the most erotic line of verse possible? What would the perfect poem contain? And, most importantly: who is best – Mark or Tim?

Mark Grist went from being an English teacher to defeating a grime artist in a ‘student vs teacher’ rap battle that has attracted thousands of hits on YouTube. Since then he has been on the telly, toured across the country and been hailed as a “Poetry standout” (Financial Times), “YouTube sensation” (The Sun) to an “unlikely heart-throb” (Guardian).

Tim Clare is a uniquely original poet; author and musician described as “shrewd and funny” (The Scotsman). He is the creator of the world’s first Poetry Take-Away and the ambitious 101 Poems In A Day where he wrote and published online a 101 original new poems!