Helen Cusack O’Keeffe is a writer and social worker based primarily in Paris since 2009. Publications can be found in the Bastille, Tightrope Press (Canada), Stoneskin Press (London), and Le Farming Times. Plays include Holey Tuscany, an absurdist maritime tragedy, Napoleon, Femme, Rhinocéros, a bilingual Surrealist extravaganza, and The Terrible Mystery of Ophelia Dupont-Cassé co-authored with poetic genius Vincent Chabany. She was an editor for Paris Lit Up magazine for issues 1-12. As a seasoned expert medico-legal witness, over the past 19 months she has interviewed many Palestinian families affected by the ongoing genocide.
Alex Dimitrov is the author of four books of poetry including, Ecstasy (forthcoming in April from Knopf), Love and Other Poems, Together and by Ourselves, Begging for It, and the chapbook American Boys. His poems have been published in The New Yorker, the New York Times, The Paris Review, and Poetry.Dimitrov has taught writing at Princeton University, Columbia University, and New York University, among others, and was also the Senior Content Editor at the Academy of American Poets, where he edited the popular series Poem-a-Day and American Poets magazine. He is the founder of the newly revived queer poetry salon Wilde Boys(2009-13, 2024-present), which brings together emerging and established writers in Manhattan. The first years of the salon were hosted in Greenwich Village. Wilde Boys is currently hosted at Kapp Kapp gallery in Tribeca. Dimitrov is also the co-founder of Astro Poets with Dorothea Lasky, and the co-author of Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac, as well as a forthcoming astrology book from HarperCollins. On X he writes the endless poem “Love” in real time, one tweet a day. Find him on Instagram at @wildeamericanboy.
Yann Rousselot is a writer and translator living in the Paris region, genetically from England and France but culturally from all over the place. Graduate of the Sorbonne (Language & Literature) and the University of London Institute in Paris (Translation), he is a regular performer at Paris Spoken Word and Culture Rapide, a juggler, a craftsman, and an avid consumer of anything that has a good enough storyline (SF/F in particular). His poetry collection Dawn of the Algorithm was released by Inkshares Press in 2015. You can find his work in print and online with The Bastille Magazine, Paris Lit Up Magazine, Canopic Jar, The Opiate, At Large Magazine, the Tampa Review, and his Substack An Ominous Mistake. Yann Rousselot https://linktr.ee/yesrousselot
Monalisa Maione is a Pushcart-nominated California poet who reflects on the ways human existence is fraught with contradictions and subterranean agendas.She writes dark, sometimes humorous poems that generally explore themes of power and control between individuals, institutions and the natural world in daily life.Poetry is her constant companion.
Edward Bell, writer, organiser and teacher, has written a spoken word Paris poem specifically for this feature at Spoken Word Paris: Paris is Parasite. Based in the City of Light for more than 12 years now, he has actively contributed to associative and literary life, been published in various places, and read deeply from the Book of Nature. Shortlisted twice for the Latin Poetry Prize in London, his poetry is as evocative as it is subtle, abundant as it is polished, witty as it is cheeky.
Jason Fisher is an American poet based in Cork. He’s been a featured performer at poetry events throughout Ireland – Winter Warmer Poetry Festival, Fingal Poetry Festival, and DeBarra’s Spoken Word. He also curates and co-hosts a long running poetry / music night called Prose & Woes. His themes includelife, death, love, loss, crisis, vices, and renewal.
Sadly AJ Dolman was sick and had to cancel at the last moment, but SpokenWord went ahead anyway with the theme of CONNECTION.
AJ Dolman’s (they/she) debut poetry collection is Crazy / Mad (Gordon Hill Press, 2024). They previously authored Lost Enough: A collection of short stories (MRP, 2017), and three poetry chapbooks, and co-edited Motherhood in Precarious Times (Demeter Press, 2018). Dolman’s poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. A bi/pan+ rights advocate and founder of Bi+ Canada, they live on unceded, unsurrendered Anishinaabe Algonquin territory.
Johny Brown lives in Hackney, London. He has been the vocalist and writer in the Band Of Holy Joy for the past 40 years. It is an ongoing passionate romantic brutalist commitment. He hosts a radio show on ResonanceFM called Bad Punk and sometimes writes plays, one of those plays, William Burroughs Caught in Possession of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, was performed at the Abbess theatre in Montmartre, but that was a while back, and he has been mainly on a very fine losing streak since then. The recently released Corpse Flower is his first singular book of prose poetry.
Catherine Ronan is an Irish, award-winning poet. She is published nationally and internationally. She performed at events including Electric Picnic, Cultivating Voices, Poetry Ireland and Soul Bone. Her chapbooks, Alchemy and Synchrodestiny were both highly commended in the International Fool for Poetry Chapbook Competition. Her Poetry collection, ‘Elemental Skin’, was published by Revival Press and nominated for the Heaney, Pigott and Forward Poetry Prizes.
Phil Lynch is a Dublin (Ireland) based poet and spoken word artist. His work has appeared in a range of literary journals and anthologies, on Podcasts and CDs and has also been featured on poetry and arts shows on national and local radio in Ireland. He is a regular performer at poetry and spoken word events and festivals in Ireland and he has also read at events in Belgium, France, the UK and USA. He has been involved in organising and hosting such events and is currently a coordinator of the Words by the Sea monthly open mic night in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin (under the auspices of ArtNetdlr). He was a co-founder of Lingo, Ireland’s first international spoken word festival. His latest poetry collection, Moving On (Salmon Poetry), was published in April, 2024. His previous collection, In a Changing Light, also with Salmon Poetry, was published in 2016.
Claudia Talbot, also known by her pseudonym Giselle Linder, is an Australian-born poet and actress currently based in Paris, France. Her debut poetry collection, “City Gothic”, was released by indie publisher Dark Thirty Poetry Publishing in September 2023, and was followed by a second collection, titled “Are You Having a Good Time Yet?”, on March 6th 2025. Her work has also been included in various publications, such as Querencia Press, Imperfect Zine, Version Originale and Bread and Butter Magazine. Since moving to Paris she has graduated from the Cours Florent school of theatre and performed in Alchemy Theatre’s productions of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” and Hannah Coyle’s adaptation of Chekov’s “Three Sisters”, as well as featuring in their recent Tapis Theatre scratch night with a self-devised horror monologue. She is heavily inspired by confessional poetry of the 50s and 60s, gothic literature and Old Hollywood films. She can be found on instagram as @lawdymsclawdy.
SpokenWord Paris 