Our panel of poets
Elizabeth Cook
Elizabeth Cook is a poet, fiction writer, and librettist, interested in the ways in which the past is continually being re-fashioned and re-known. She lives in East London, and practises as a Christian, drawn to Franciscanism. Achilles (Methuen 2001) moves from the Homeric Bronze Age to Keats in the nineteenth century while Lux (Scribe, 2019) takes a story from the Hebrew Scriptures through to the English Tudors. She has collaborated with composers and was librettist for Francis Grier’s oratorio, The Passion of Jesus of Nazareth (Radio 3, 2006).
Aminah Rahman
Aminah is an award-winning poet and spoken word artist, born and raised in Cambridge. She has loved writing and performing on stage from a young age. Aminah has performed at many events.
Aminah performed at the BBC Make a Difference awards ceremony in 2023. She also performed at the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) first-ever Iftar at Lord's Cricket Ground in 2022. Aminah was commissioned by BBC Asian Network to write and perform a poem celebrating 50 years of Bangladesh independence. She has also worked with the official International Women's Day team. Aminah represented Cambridgeshire at the BBC Upload Festival 2020, a festival showcasing talent from across England and the Channel Islands. Aminah won the Young Muslim Writers Awards Key Stage 2 Poetry category in 2015. In 2017, Aminah was the joint-winner of the Cambridge News and Media Education Awards: Pupil of the Year.
Shasta Hanif Ali
Shasta is a poet navigating race and heritage; where meditations of memory and language interlace and disrupt. Shasta’s writing is widely published including in Mslexia, Silver Press and Renard Press. She is a winner of the 2024 Candlestick Press Light Poems Competition and the Edinburgh 900 Poetry Competition 2025. Shasta was nominated as one of Edinburgh’s 100 trail blazing women.
Arthur Smith
Arthur Smith, the ultimate compère beyond compare, has had a colorful journey—from road sweeper and market researcher to playwright, performer, and Edinburgh Festival stalwart. A fixture of the ’80s alternative comedy scene, he remains true to his roots decades later.
To BBC audiences, he's known for quiz shows, Loose Ends, Grumpy Old Men, and Countdown, as well as hosting Excess Baggage and The Smith Lectures. Calling himself Radio 4’s “bit of rough,” Arthur is also a champion for social justice, advocating for ‘non-posh Londoners’ through his work with the Modern Cockney Festival.