ABOUT

Toby Campion is an award-winning poet, playwright, presenter and poetry educator, born and raised in Leicester.

 

A former UK Poetry Slam Champion and World Poetry Slam finalist, his poetry won the Aurora Prize for Poetry 2019 and the Poetry on the Lake Prize 2017, awarded by former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. 

His debut short poetry collection, Through your blood (Burning Eye 2017), was nominated for the Polari First Book Prize and Highly Commended in the Forward Poetry Prizes 2018.

 

His poetry has been published widely, most recently in The Rialto, bath magg & The London Magazine. His work is featured in anthologies including 100 Queer Poems (Vintage 2022), The Book of Hope (Bluebird 2021), Everything Is Going To Be Alright (Trapeze 2021) and The Forward Book of Poetry (Forward 2019).

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Toby’s debut play WRECK won the Fifth Word Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright 2015 and went on to complete a sell out run at the Nottingham Playhouse Studio in 2017. Toby is a former Roundhouse Resident Artist and a TOAST Poetry Fellow.

 

A keen advocate for poetry and its ability to empower young people, Toby is the Director of UniSlam, the UK National Inter-University Poetry Slam & Summit and founder of the National Youth Poetry Showcase. His chapter on the history of UK poetry slam is published in Spoken Word in the UK (Routledge 2021) and he regularly facilitates poetry workshops and courses.

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Toby has performed his poetry on stages across the UK from Glastonbury to London’s Royal Albert Hall and internationally in America, France, Spain, Italy, South Korea and Albania, where he was the UK Literature representative for the 18th Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean. His work has been featured on BBC Sunday Politics, The Arts Show with Jonathan Ross, Channel 4 and BBC Radio 4.

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Current host of Roundhouse’s annual Poetry Slam Final, Toby presents live shows regularly, including The Guardian Literary Institute, the Penguin Random House Pride tours and Boat Poets live.