‘Poise, lyricism, passion and humour – delivered with a balance and grace that we see in modern giants like Shane Koyczan, current darling of the TED talks phenomenon. Carly and her megawatt-smile-burning-gaze-and-blazing-verse combo will go far.’ – The StAnza Blog

Carly is an award-winning spoken word poet and enjoys writing poetry for the stage. After winning Scotland’s National Poetry Slam in 2013, she has performed feature sets regularly at dozens of locations in the UK and internationally. Carly’s poems blend comedy with emotional candor, tackling a diverse range of topics with lyrical agility, intelligence and wit. Common topics explored in her poems include relationships and sexuality, literature, art and history.

‘In Scotland she is regarded as a leading poet of her generation.’ – Eleanor Livingstone, former Director of StAnza (Scotland’s International Poetry Festival)

‘Carly is hands-down one of the best spoken word artists in Scotland. We invited her to perform at our launch in 2014 and have booked her consistently since. Our audiences love her highly entertaining, relatable, and often humorous performances. Carly is particularly talented at adopting various personas in her work, often to hilarious effect, and at tackling challenging issues in an engaging, accessible manner.’ – Katie Ailes, Producer at Loud Poets

Performing at UK New Artists’ Leicester City Takeover Festival 2022 / Photo credit: Matt Cawrey

Poetry Features (partial list):

• The God Damn Debut Slam, Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh, January 2018
• Loud Poets’ Edinburgh Fringe Show, The Scottish Storytelling Centre, August 2014, 2015, 2017
• Transatlantic Literary Women Symposium, Glasgow Women’s Library, June 2017
• Byres Road Book Festival, Oxfam Books, Glasgow, September 2016
• The Enemies Project: The University Camarade, Rich Mix Arts Centre, London, April 2016
• The Edinburgh Book Fringe, Word Power Books, Edinburgh, August 2015
• Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury, England, June 2015
• Find the Right Words, Upstairs at the Western, Leicester, England, April 2015
• International Women’s Day celebrations at University of St Andrews, Barron Theatre, March 2015
• StAnza, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, St Andrews, March 2015
• Rally and Broad, performing alongside Scotland’s Makar Liz Lochhead, February 2015
• National Library of Scotland’s Poetry Night: Tricolour, Edinburgh, July 2014
• 600^th Anniversary Graduation Dinner, University of St Andrews, poem commissioned by Principal Louise Richardson, November 2013
• Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, August 2013
• TedX Conference, St Andrews, April 2013, 2014

You can keep up to date with her upcoming events by following her on Twitter or by joining her newsletter.  If you’re interested in booking her for your event or organization, see the Contact page for how to get in touch.

Videos of Spoken Word Poems:

Straight – by Carly Brown

Carly Brown performing in the final of the Scottish National Slam Championships 28/03/2013.

Carly won the championship with this final poem, which earned her a place in the world finals in Paris.

50 Shades – by Carly Brown

This poem emerged from Carly’s attempt to read EL James’ 50 Shades of Grey. This poem was nominated for Best Poem at the Edinburgh Festivals in 2015.