Jessie’s poetry is enthusiastic, thoughtful, and uses humour to explore difficult subject matter.

She is a Poetry Idol winner, a national slam finalist, and a recipient of the Bernard Brown Literary Award. In 2018 she competed across North America, winning the famous Nuyorican Poetry Slam and the Vancouver Poetry Slam before becoming the University of British Columbia slam champion and competing in the Canadian National Poetry Competition.

Here in New Zealand, Jessie has performed as part of the Best of the Best showcase at the Auckland Writers Festival, at the Canterbury Folk Festival, and as part of Auckland-based poetry squad the First Knives Club. Jessie is also a mentor for high school poets competing in the Word: the Front Line competition, and a co-host for the JAFA slam, Auckland’s regional slam competition.

Jessie Fenton’s work can be found in collections such as Starling and Manifesto: An Anthology of Political Poetry.

https://www.instagram.com/jessicagracepoetry

National slam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUZ2Wqxfj6o

University slam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJOrjvnK-S8

The Waxed sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AbWTg-54vA

Waxed poetic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMO8sHkyxPU !

Jessie will present a workshop on writing poetry, have her own feature concert, MC the Saturday afternoon showcase concert and host a poetry slam in The Balladeer.