About

Who is this “Tom Juniper”, anyway?

I am a performance poet, writer and workshop leader based in Sheffield. I have been knocking about the UK spoken word scene for over two decades. I also do other stuff,

Poetry

I write about lots of different things. I am an autistic trans-masculine person, so those themes crop up in my work from time to time. My first collection of poems, Historical Plans Of How Romans Made Drains was about the experience of growing up as an assigned female at birthm undiagnosed autistic. In my second collection, Monstrous, I lean heavily into one of muy autistic special interests: folklore, using the voices of various eldritch creatures to give an outsider perspective on humanity.

I enjoy performing poems to live audiences most of all, and very much enjoy poetry slams. I have won a few, including WordLife, Hammer and Tongue (Edinburgh Fringe) slam, Poetry At Your Place. I’ve come second so often in other slams that it started to become a bit of a clichee, and I once made it as far as the penultimate round of the Hammer and Tongue National Final. Which means that I have, technically, performed at the Royal Albert Hall, albeit in the little room at the back!

I’ve performed around the country as well as abroad, most often in New York, Berlin and Dublin. I’ve taken two spokjenword solo shows up th the Edinburgh Fringe and hope to take a third one up this year.

If you would like to book me to perform at your event please get in touch!

Poetry Hosting

I’ve hosted many spoken word nights in Sheffield over the years including Speak Easy (Sheffield), The Sheffield Anti-Slam, Verse Matters and Nine Lives. I particularly enjoy hosting poetry slams!

Other Writing

While poetry is my Main Thing, I do write other stuff as well, from policies to polemic. I’ve written articles for Disability Arts Online and the F-word Blog. I also contributed a piece about inclusive, consent-based sex education to Kitty Stryker’s excellent essay anthology, Ask. I’ve also written policies on trans inclusion and disabled access for the NHS, and am available to advise on Equality Diversity and inclusion for your event or organisation. I occasionally dabble in short story writing, but that’s mostly just for fun.

Workshops

As an associate member of The Writer’s Workshop, I offer regular writing workshops based out of Orchard Square, Sheffield. In the near future I hope to be hosting online workshops in order to widen accessibility. You can find all the upcoming Writers Workshop events, including mine, here .

Miscellaneous

As well as poetry I enjoy yomping about in the woods looking for interesting fungi, baking, and attempting to keep cacti alive in the north of England.

A Note on Pronouns and Nomenclature

I consider myself to be a non-binary trans-masc person. Neither one thing nor the other, but more guy than gal, basically. You can use the pronouns he/him or they/them when talking about me. As a trans person I have changed my name more than once. You might well see the names Sez, Serin or, in extreme cases, S̶a̶r̶a̶h̶ Thomasin kicking about on older work. Those are all previous iterations of me, but I’d take it as a great kindness if you called me Tom.

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