It has been a while. Manchester’s celebrated spoken word night Bad Language will sets the stage alight with a special live literature open mic in October.

Our line-up of poets, novelists, storysmiths and word wranglers will include stars of the Manchester writing scene – and you can sign up now for four-minute open mic slots if you fancy a spot under the stagelights.

Bad Language was twice voted the UK’s Best Regular Spoken Word Night. This is Bad Language’s first open mic event since before lockdown. Hosts Joe Daly and Fat Roland will return to host, with all the energy of the complicated love children of Ant & Dec and Beavis & Butthead.

Students and non-students are welcome alike: entry is free, and there will be a bar. Get your free ticket now.

This event is run in collaboration with the Anthony Burgess Foundation, home of the notorious author of A Clockwork Orange.This event is part of The Cultural Welcome – a week of events designed to help students discover the creative and cultural spaces of Manchester’s Knowledge Quarter. Find out more.

Open mic sign-ups

Sign up for an open mic spot now by emailing badlanguagemcr@gmail.com. Here is how it works:

🎤 Just email us and ask. No need to send us your work. We trust you.

🎤 Open mic slots are 4 minutes long. Do not go over or we will glare at you.

🎤 We welcome fiction / micro-fiction / prose as well as poetry: in fact, we encourage it.

🎤 Slots will be randomly allocated: they are not on a first-come basis.

Bad Language open mic | The Culture Welcome 2025
Wednesday 8 October 2025 | 7.30pm doors, 8pm start | International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Cambridge Street, Manchester | Entry is free – sign up for tickets here

Please note this month’s Bad Language has been CANCELLED in the light of the current pandemic. It’s with deep regret we’ve had to make this decision, but other Manchester spoken word nights have taken similar action and it feels like the right thing to do. We’ll see you again soon!

This month’s Bad Language turns its attention to creative non-fiction as Iain Maloney launches his new memoir The Only Gaijin In The Village.

The last time Iain headlined Bad Language, Iain was in the process moving from the big city lights to a rural village in his native Japan. This new memoir, published in March 2020 by Polygon, tells the story of his life in the countryside as he attempts to fit in, be accepted and fulfil his duties as a member of the community, despite being the only foreigner in the village. A story of culture shock, amateur farming, venomous snakes, potential missile strikes and bees the size of small birds. The Japan Times hailed The Only Gaijin In The Village as a “thought-provoking, lively examination of one immigrant’s quest to create a new home”.

Aberdeen-born Iain Maloney is the author of three novels and a poetry collection. He has been shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize and the Guardian Not The Booker Prize. We are delighted to welcome Iain back to the Bad Language stage.

And of course, we have our open mic. We release spots on Tuesday 10th March 2020. Open mic spots are four minutes long including plugging and preamble. There will be ten open mic spaces available, five of which are reserved for people who have never performed with us before. From Friday 10th March (and no earlier!), email openmic@badlanguagemcr.com to ask for a spot.

Wednesday 25 March 2020, 7.30pm at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester. Admission: pay what you feel – support this event by donating in advance here. Venue details here. Join our Facebook event here.

In February, we’re putting on a special Bad Language in memory of a man who was a regular face on the spoken word scene, Dave Murray a.k.a. @QuietManDave.

Our headline spot month will be taken up by friends of Quiet Man Dave, including Tania Hershman and Kate Feld, judges of the brand new QMD Prize writing competition set up in Dave’s honour.

Bad Language is a pay-what-you-feel event. This month, all audience donations will go towards QMD Prize sponsored entries, which make prize entry available for those who might not otherwise be able to take part.

We’ll have our usual fabulous open mic, of course. You can sign up for a four-minute spot of story or poetry from February 10th (and no earlier – them’s the rules!). First-come, first-served, and we reserve half of our ten spots for BL newcomers. All you need to do is email openmic@badlanguagemcr.com. Full open mic details here.

Come and be part of this very special Bad Language!

Here are our open mic names. Step forward Amanda Steele, Andy N, Anna Percy, Antonia Fusaro, Emma Roy-Williams, Lisa O’Hare, Nadia Purcell, Sam Smith, Sarah Jasmon and Ste Brown!

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About QuietManDave:

Dave Murray entertained and informed many through his blog http://www.quietmandave.co.uk. He was a keen theatre critic, performed poetry at open mic sessions and loved flash fiction. He embraced writing relatively late in life but did so with a passion.

About the QMD Prize (details here):

The QuietManDave Prize, named in honour of his memory and achievements, will seek to enable and promote new writing. The QuietManDave Prize has been supported through the generosity of family and friends of Dave.

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Wednesday 26 February 2020, 7.30pm at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester. Admission: pay what you feel  – all donations pay for QMD Prize sponsored entries. Venue details here. Join our Facebook event here.

We start 2020 with an old friend of Bad Language and the writer of one of the best poetry books of 2019.

Ian Humphreys wowed everyone with his debut collection Zebra (Nine Arches Press, 2019), which was longlisted for this year’s Portico Prize. He has been widely published in journals including The Poetry Review, The Rialto and Magma. Ian has won the Hamish Canham Prize and his work has been highly commended in the Forward Prizes for Poetry. A fellow of The Complete Works, his poems feature in Ten: Poets of the New Generation (Bloodaxe, 2017).

Ian will be reading from his work on January 29th alongside our brilliant open mic. If you want a place on the open mic, we release spots on Friday 10th January 2020. Open mic spots are four minutes long including plugging and preamble. There will be ten open mic spaces available. Five of those spaces are reserved for people who have never performed with us before. From Friday 10th Jan (and no earlier!), email openmic@badlanguagemcr.com to ask for a spot.

Praise for Zebra:
“In all of its magnificent bounty Zebra must be one of the poetry collections of 2019.” – Yorkshire Times
“A powerful, moving, original body of work.” – Jean Sprackland
“Glorious in every sense of the word, this is an important book.” – Clare Shaw

Open mic list for this month: Antony Szmierek, Benjamin Lilley, Bonnie Hancell, Christine Sanders, Chris Stairmand, Greg Watson, Hilary Robinson, Miles Hadfield, Rachel Davies, Rob Steventon

Wednesday 29 January 2020, 7.30pm at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester. Admission: pay what you feel. Venue details here. Join our Facebook event here.

Our last event of 2019 will be a superb stunning sublime sterling stupendous splendiferous superlative synonym-stretching celebration of spoken word.

And as ever, half of our performers have never read with us before. Never! Ooo!

Join us on November 27th for a bumper open mic special for our last event of the year. We’ve had an amazing 2019 — fabulous open mic acts, loads of first-timers and the return familiar faces. You can see some of our 2019 headliners and open mic acts pictured in this month’s event photo.

Who will be joining us in November? You, we hope. Let’s pack Gullivers to the rafters. Joining us in a special bumper open mic will be: Anna Percy, Annie Jackson, Antony Szmierek, Bryony Whitehead, Colin Bennett, Darren Lea-Grime, Jodie Brooksbank, Laura Bagnall, Nadia Purcell, Oliver East, Rana Kadiri, Sam Smith, Tahia Rehman, Tina Tamsho-Thomas.

Your hosts will be Fat Roland and Joe Daly. Catch them for one last time before Christmas bulldozes everything and we snooze our way into 2020.

Wednesday 27 November 2019, 7.30pm at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester. Admission: pay what you feel. Venue details here. Join our Facebook event here.

Our headliner this month is Lenni Sanders, a well-known face on the Manchester scene as a poet, Writing Squad alumni and as half of the duo Dead Lads. We’ll be celebrating Lenni’s debut pamphlet Poacher available on the wonderful Emma Press.

Our open mic superstars will be David Bond, David Hartley, Jess Smith, Lucy Holt, Megan Holland, Rose Proudfoot, Steve Mingle, Sul Mulroy, Terry Caffrey – plus a special spot from Johnny Payne.

Your hosts will be Fat Roland (the one with the cartoons) and Joe Daly (the one who always always complains about his trousers).

Wednesday 30 October 2019, 7.30pm at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester. Admission: pay what you feel. Venue details here. Join our Facebook event here.

 

Our next Bad Language is on September 25th with Jean Sprackland.

Jean Sprackland is winner of the Costa Poetry Award and the Portico Prize for Non-Fiction in 2012. Her books have also been shortlisted for the Forward Prize, the TS Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award. She teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Arvon Foundation. She is also Chair of the Poetry Archive, the world’s premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work.

Open mic applications are closed for this event. Watch this space for the names of this month’s wonderful open mic performers.

“‘These poems are exact and well-made, their lightness of touch often given drive by a fierce vocabulary.’ – Peter Scupham, The Literary Review on Green Noise

Wednesday 25 September 2019, 7.30pm at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester. Admission: pay what you feel. Venue details here. Join our Facebook event here.

It’s hot, but summer is about to come crashing to an end – all the more reason to say goodbye to August with a BAD LANGUAGE OPEN MIC SPECTACULAR.

Yes, we’re late organising this because Fats has been in Edinburgh and Joe has been learning water polo in the fountains of Piccadilly Gardens.

We have a TONNE of open mic places to give away. Do you fancy a four-minute spot of poetry or prose? Email openmic@badlanguagemcr.com right away.

We especially welcome applications from under-represented voices (and yes, on the open mic scene, that includes women!). Tell your networks.

Don’t want to read – come along and be part of our ever-fabulous audience. Let’s have a summer-ending sun-exploding super-literary social!

Wednesday 28 August 2019, 7.30pm at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester. Admission: pay what you feel. Venue details here. Join our Facebook event here.

Bad Language is back with the last show before Fat Roland goes to the Edinburgh Fringe. So we’ll have a couple of extra open mic acts plus Fats doing some Fringe preview stuff. Sound good?

Bad Language is a literature organisation based in Manchester dedicated to the promotion and development of new writing. Every month we feature a bunch of brilliant open mic people doing fiction and poetry – and half of those people will be brand new to our stage.

Doors 7.30pm, with all the wordy fun happening from 8pm until 10pm. Admission: pay what you want.

(Next month, it will be a guest co-host with Joe, like Have I Got News For You.)

Wednesday 26 June 2019, 7.30pm at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester. Admission: pay what you feel. Venue details here. Join our Facebook event here.

We are very excited to welcome Glen James Brown as our headliner for May. His Orwell Prize-longlisted working class novel Ironopolis was described as ‘nothing short of a triumph’ by The Guardian.

Glen was born in County Durham in 1982 and studied English at Leeds Becketts University. In 2013 he won an AHRC scholarship to study for an M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, where he graduated with distinction and the Kate Betts Memorial Award. Ironopolis is his first novel. He lives in Manchester.

Ironopolis is set on a sprawling fictional council estate that is being demolished and rebuilt by a housing association, the working-class community being split up and scattered forever. It takes the form of 6-interconnected narratives across three generations and 60 years. All the people in the book find themselves haunted by a creature called Peg Powler, who is a ‘real’ bit of Teesside folklore.

Our open mic names will follow shortly.

Wednesday 29 May 2019, 7.30pm at Gullivers, Oldham Street, Manchester. Admission: pay what you feel. Venue details here. Join our Facebook event here.