ABOUT US | Ver Poets

Who are we?

Ver Poets is a group of poets who meet regularly in St Albans, United Kingdom, to discuss poetry and to share their poems. There is also a large postal membership and a regular newsletter. Regular poetry workshops enable members to share their poems and hone their craft.

Some members at a poetry workshop

Our Founder

Ver Poets was founded in 1966 by May Ivimy Badman. ‘Ver’ refers to the river flowing through St Albans, where the group meets. The group has a local, national and international membership.

May Badman organised the meetings, competitions and published many anthologies until 2004. During that time, membership grew steadily to include poets from over the whole country and abroad. May maintained her links with the society as Patron, and continued to publish anthologies of her poetry until her death in 2011. A tribute to her life can be found here.

May Ivimy Badman, Ver Poets founder

More about what we do:

Ver Poets activities and events include:

Themed poetry readings
Discussions
Visits by guest poets
Exclusive poetry competitions for members, in addition to the open competitions
An opportunity to read your poems to others at evening events
Postal critique for members

Meetings

We have poetry readings at various venues in St Albans from time to time.

Click here to see our current programme of events.

Our AGM is held in September. To view the minutes of the last meeting, click here.

Workshops

Members have the additional benefit of poetry-writing workshops, which are held regularly. This is a fantastic opportunity for those that join us to improve their poetry writing, whether as a complete beginner or an experienced poet looking to refine their existing skills.

Members’ workshops are held in the homes of other members on Mondays and Saturdays between 10.00 am – 1.30pm. Attendees bring copies of work in progress to be read out and discussed. These occur within a 30 mile radius of St Albans. We also run regular poetry workshops via Zoom, and also workshops where we discuss the work of a particular published poet.

Publications

As a society, we also have our own publications. These are: Ver Poets Voices; Unguarded Gold; Wheel of the Stars; The Ver Prize; and Anthologies (titled individually).