In January 2026, Liverpool Noise will begin something that looks modest on paper and feels anything but once you scratch the surface. The 52 for 26 Poetry Project will publish one poet a week, every week, for the whole of the year. No grand launch. No competitive framework. Just poems arriving steadily across twelve months — accumulating, conversing, disagreeing, and gradually forming a picture of where Merseyside poetry is as of 2026…
From the outset, this project was intentionally first come, first served. No judging panel. No scoring. No shortlists, longlists, or off-line conversations. When the call-out went live, it stayed live until the spaces were filled. That wasn’t an administrative decision — it was the point. The 52 for 26 Poetry Project wasn’t about elevating a select few; it’s about stepping back and letting a wider range of work speak for itself.
The resulting line-up reflects the messy, brilliant, even contradictory ecosystem that keeps poetry alive across Merseyside. The age range alone tells its own story: poets aged from 15 to 82, from people sending work into the world for the very first time to writers with decades of practice behind them. This isn’t a canon. It’s a cross-section — a moment captured without editorial smoothing. It was a question of “give us what you have got”. And the 52 did.
Openness matters. Too often, opportunities arrive with invisible prerequisites attached: confidence, connections, previous validation. Removing the judging panel was a deliberate act of trust. If you were there, if you responded in time, you were included. If you didn’t, you weren’t. It was that simple. The only thing everyone shares is a willingness to put their words into the public domain, and for that, Liverpool Noise are grateful.
Poet Andrew Price was one who responded quickly to the call. He is an example of how quickly a voice can take root when space exists. A qualified lawyer by day, Andrew writes observational, conversational poems shaped by characters encountered and situations endured. Since stepping into spoken word spaces in 2022, he has won Manchester’s One Mic Stand, headlined Shakespeare North’s Scratch event, and appeared in Liverpool’s Give Poetry A Chance anthology — a reminder that scenes flourish when entry points are open rather than guarded. Andrew has the honour of kick-starting the 52 for 26 with his poem Those With The Least Give The Most.
And Anthony Johnson brings a different kind of urgency. His poem for 52 for 26 Fears For A Homeless Teen draws directly from lived experience, reflecting on homelessness as a young person with an honesty that pushes back against sentimentality. While much of his work carries humour, this piece deliberately opens up a more vulnerable, raw part of his life. It speaks to how a lack of direction — and the failure to recognise potential early on — can shape lives in ways that echo for decades.
Ali Harwood’s contribution reminds us that poetry doesn’t only live on pages or stages. An artist, poet and educator, Ali is a familiar presence through Liver Bards, Itch at Shakespeare North Playhouse, and part of the Wirral Poetry Festival organising team. Alongside his own writing and exhibitions, he has consistently worked to widen access: from residencies in children’s bookshops to literacy projects in Bootle; from national charities to one-to-one tutoring with care-experienced young people. His presence here reflects a practice rooted in participation as much as production.
Dan Cullinan — Cullo to most — embodies the DIY energy that has long powered Liverpool’s poetry scene. Writing since 2017, author of two collections, and founder of Give Poetry A Chance, Dan’s contribution extends well beyond his own work. By curating free, grassroots poetry events and reading across the city, he has helped sustain a culture where poetry is something you turn up for, not something you apply to. His place in 52 for 26 Poetry Project is about continuity, not profile.
At 82, Colin Watts brings a different sense of time to the project. Liverpool-based for fifty years and now, in his words, a man of ‘theoretical leisure’, Colin has published poetry collections, written plays, and remains actively embedded in the city’s poetry life. As a long-standing member of the Liverpool Dead Good Poets Society and host of their monthly open mic sessions, his involvement quietly underlines a simple truth: poetry doesn’t have an expiry date.
And Melissa Grindon’s work My Mother’s Rage confronts rather than reassures. Writing from lived experience, her poetry reflects on gendered vigilance, early harassment, and the ongoing reality of violence against women. The fact that she has had to update the death figures in one of her poems multiple times since debuting it in 2024 is devastating in itself. 52 for 26 makes space for this work because poetry that matters often refuses comfort.
These are just some of the voices involved, and many more will appear across the year, each bringing their own concerns, textures and ways of seeing. What connects them isn’t a shared aesthetic or a unified agenda, but proximity: they write here, perform here, organise here, or are shaped by this place – Merseyside.
52 for 26 doesn’t pretend to be definitive – I am unashamedly unapologetic about that. It’s time-bound, imperfect, and intentionally open. But across 52 weeks, it offers a sustained encounter with the breadth of poetry being written right now, in Merseyside, without filters or fanfare to a wider demographic – the Liverpool Noise audience and beyond.
Sometimes, the most radical thing you can do is open the door and get out of the way. In 2026, that’s exactly what Liverpool Noise intends to do. Our thanks to the 52 who barged through…
Andrew Price’s poem Those With The Least Give The Most will be published Friday 2nd January 2026. Thereafter a poem will be published weekly – every Friday – throughout the year.
