meet bethany callaway
Bethany is a poet, curator and avid seeker of the strange and beautiful. Her debut poetry collection, which sparked the beginning of Tiny Fruit Press, explores theme of love, loss, grief, self-acceptance and growth, capturing the messy, tender and transformative moments of life.
She runs Vino and Verses, an open mic poetry night at Chater’s in Saffron Walden, which has become a nurturing home for spoken word, connection, and fearless first readings. Her work, both on page and in the room, is rooted in curiosity, play, and creating spaces where people can explore poetry without rules, only encouragement.
Influenced by writers and musicians such as Patti Smith, Hollie McNish, Sylvia Plath, Dry Cleaning, and English Teacher, Bethany’s poetry is drawn to the weird and beautiful, often blurring the lines between the personal and the surreal. She is fascinated by how words, music, and community collide to create something that feels alive, urgent, and nurturing all at once.
a debut poetry collection written and illustrated by bethany callaway
a long want follows a journey through a house where each room tells a different story.
structured as a series of chapters named after domestic spaces, this poetry collection explores personal growth, love, loss, and becoming: how we carry longing through the places we inhabit. moving from room to room, the poems reflect moments of vulnerability and warmth, tracing the quiet evolution of a self learning how to live, feel, and want with openness.
Alongside a degree in the Arts and Humanities with a specialism in Philosophy, she collects vinyls, hunts for the weirdest books she can find, and works as a barista, fuelled by a deep love of really good coffee and food. Her practice is a testament to small joys and big obsessions, a belief that art is best when shared, experienced and lived.
Recently Read: Cursed Bunny by Bora Chun; Almond by Won Pyung Sohn; The Wax Child by Olga Ravn; Virgin by Hollie McNish.
Currently Reading: The Secret History by Donna Tartt; Artists Way by Julia Cameron
Meet charlotte leatherland
Charlotte juggles a disparate range of obsessions in both life and art: some visit like breaching whales, and some feature more centre frame for a while. The line between the visual and the written has always been blurred for her.
The nature of light and objects and their place in time, the world as she experienced it as a child, and the hooks and elisions of perception all have their significance in Charlotte’s life/art life.
Currently uppermost in her mind are the dens that appear and disappear, made from fallen branches in the woodlands around where she lives—how these relate to vernacular architecture, how their forms repeat and differ, and how they sit in their location—and how these compare to the many brick and concrete pillboxes that are scattered across the same landscape. Constantly with her is her preoccupation, intentional and involuntary, with play in language, her weakness for puns and spoonerisms, double meanings, and how far they and grammar can be pushed and to what end.
She looks to T.S. Eliot, Shakespearian blank verse, Tom Stoppard, the lyrics of Bob Dylan, R.E.M., Joni Mitchel; the art of Joseph Cornell, Joseph Beuys, Kenneth Armitage, Tacita Dean; in film, to Blade Runner, The Duelists, Le Weekend, Wes Anderson, Peter Greenaway, animation by the Quay Brothers, Stalker, and 1970s cinematography in general; to hedge alchemy as a metaphor; and to train spotting as a methodology.
After completing a fine art degree, Charlotte found herself working in the film industry as a draughtsman and continuing a largely virtual art career in her head. More recently, that art career has found a tangible outlet in writing poetry and reading some of it out in public at the poetry open-mic night Vino and Verses, set up, run, and compèred by the incomparable Bethany Callaway.
Recently Read: The Employees by Olga Ravn; The Wax Child by Olga Ravn; Friends of Friends by Geoff Sawers; Glyph by Ali Smith; Vermeer A Life of Lost and Found by Andrew Graham-Dixon; The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin.
Currently Reading: The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov; The Guermante’s Way by Marcel Proust (This is more of a life task, I’ve been slowly working my way through Rememberance of Things Past for fifteen years).
Meet Tom Rigby
Tom is an eighteen-year-old student and poet from Saffron Walden, whose love for poetry was sparked by his Year 9 English teacher. He has since found his voice through monthly attendings of Bethany Callaway’s Vino and Verses events, surrounded by a beautiful community in which he has found the true meaning of poetry without rules.
Tom’s thoughtful poetry grounds itself in everyday life, engaging in an array of topics, ranging from themes of love, growth and acceptance, often hidden in the disguises of nature, to the simple joy of banana bread. His poetry is often written from a very human perspective as he believes all forms of creativity reflect the human condition, exploring the question: what does it mean to be alive? For this reason, his work consists of multiple voices and narratives, causing a distinct conversational style.
He is influenced by both phenomenal poets, think Mary Oliver, Caleb Femi, and musicians alike – Loyle Carner, Raye and The Grogans, to name a few, leading his work to cover snapshots of wide bases in short spaces of time.
Outside of the poetry sphere, Tom spends his time studying English, Biology and Psychology, drinking coffee, attending many concerts with his friends and working as a waiter. His continuously developing work is a result of his dedication to noticing the little things in life, just as much as the big stuff.
Recently Read: Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien; Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf; Julia by Sandra Newman.
Currently Reading:Dubliners by James Joyce; Flesh by David Szalay; Sucker Punch by Jade King.
TikTok: @tomrigbywrites