Four female poets who between them have been largely responsible for any increase there has been in poetry sales over the last few years – but who have nevertheless faced criticism from poetry critics - are teaming up together later this year for two events in London and Edinburgh. The instigator of the events, Hollie McNish, came up with the idea of confronting the criticism head-on, by calling the gigs the Worst Poets Club. She said on Instagram: “I have dreamt of organising this gig for years now and finally, it is done! Inspired by years of newspaper articles and reviews crafting a new story each year about how rubbish modern poetry is, about who is the most rubbish and why we are ruining poetry for everyone, I decided to bring together four of the most common culprits.”

The other three poets in the Worst Poets line-up are Len Pennie, Nikita Gill, and Donna Ashworth. Hollie added: “Thank you to @nikita_gill, @misspunnypennie and @donnaashworthwords for joining the club!”

Hollie McNish has won the Ted Hughes award for innovation in poetry, and is probably regarded by many as a part of the poetry establishment these days. But it was not always thus. She once told an Aldeburgh poetry festival audience: “I feel the idea of editing and polishing and thinking about form is difficult … I like poetry that I can understand quite simply.” She was also attacked in an article in the poetry magazine PN Review by fellow poet Rebecca Watts, who said: “The ability to draw a crowd, attract an audience or assemble a mob does not itself render a thing intrinsically good: witness Donald Trump.”

Len Pennie is a Scots language performer and writer, and mental health advocate who became known on social media in 2020 during the Covid pandemic for her "Scots word of the day" and poem (poyum) videos. She has spoken of the attacks that she has suffered on social media - “I don’t have a thick skin, that’s why I’m a poet”  - and many of her poems are about domestic abuse. Her first collection, poyums, was published at just around the same time as a four-year case against her former partner came to court. 

However, writing in the Sunday Times, critic Graeme Richardson called her poems "execrable" and described Pennie "the worst poet to have emerged from Scotland since William McGonagall". By contrast, in a review in The Scotsman, Joyce McMillan said that "Pennie’s poems are undoubtedly designed more for performance than to languish prettily on the page, and that may limit their appeal for some. To those who are happy to enter Pennie’s world of rhythm and rhyme, though, they offer a hugely entertaining and intelligent young woman’s perspective on the world we currently inhabit." 

Irish-Indian Nikita Gill is one of the most followed poets on Instagram. She is an ambassador for National Poetry Day, and has appeared on the BBC, contributing to Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, Free Thinking on Radio 3, and BBC Asian Network.

Donna Ashworth is a best-selling Scottish poet who came to prominence in 2020 when her poetry about the Covid lockdown was read in a viral video to raise money for the NHS. She has subsequently been credited with helping poetry sales reach record levels in the UK. Ashworth has been described as an Instagram poet, with The Observer calling her "a cheerleader of Instapoetry”. The Telegraph said the uplifting themes of her poetry "work like motivational Post-It notes". Ashworth herself has described her work as "self-help in poetry" and agrees that "a lot of what I say is cheesy", while fans have said her writing is "like a warm hug". In an article headlined ‘Britain has seen an alarming rise in poetry sales’, The Economist described Ashworth’s work as feeling "like ChatGPT has been asked to produce inspirational fridge magnets".

Let the last word come from Hollie McNish: “For two nights only, in London and Edinburgh, please come and join four of the UK's bestselling but worst poets together on stage to read from their latest and most-cherished  collections, to chat and to celebrate being rubbish at what they love. Fifty per cent of the artist fees will be donated to the National Literacy Trust, in the hope that the future generations of young, budding writers will not be as bad as them.” 

Links to the Worst Poets gigs – at London’s Hackney Empire on Sunday 11 October, and Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall on Sunday 18 October - can be found on Hollie McNish’s 2026/27 tour dates page. Many of her gigs listed there are already sold out.