Writing the Quays with Sammy Weaver

Join award-winning poet and narrowboat dweller, Sammy Weaver, for this 2-hour poetry and walking workshop exploring the Salford Quays.

From the soot-blackened faces that inspired Engels to become a socialist to the current-day urban nature reserve, we will delve into this post-Industrial waterway, listening for new poems between the cracks. We will slow down to discover the more-than-human lives around us, allowing our human language to be corrupted by them. Through guided exercises and inspiring discussion, we will learn an ecopoetics that dwells in the toxic ruination of our times to not only survive but blossom. We will become part water, part buddleja, to reflect upon our own wild and wayside selves. You will leave swilling with new poems and ideas about our deep connection with post-Industrial environments.

Please note that this workshop includes walking outdoors, weather permitting. We recommend dressing for the weather and wearing comfortable, suitable footwear.

1 x session, running 11am–1pm (BST), on 26 Sept 2026. This workshop will take place at University of Salford, Media City Campus, Manchester M50 2HE.

For more information on this year’s ceremony please visit The Laurel Prize 2026.

Image Credit: @jeandron

Questions & Accessibility

If you have any questions, wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, or require any form of adjustment to access our courses and workshops, please email [email protected].

About Sammy Weaver View Profile

Sammy Weaver is an award-winning poet and educator living on a narrowboat on the canals of the North. Her debut pamphlet Angola, America (Seren, 2022) won Mslexia’s Poetry Pamphlet Prize 2021 and was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Award 2023. Her poems have appeared in The Moth, The Irish Times, Colorado Review, Mslexia, and Anthropocene. In 2025, she was made a Yaddo Fellow and won a Northern Writers’ Debut Award for Poetry. Sammy has ten years of experience leading workshops in community, education, and criminal justice settings. In 2025-26, she was the first Poet Laureate of Rochdale.

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