Fiona Bennett (1964-2024) was the founder, artistic director and guiding light of The Poetry Exchange. She was the most vital, extraordinary friend and we miss her deeply every day, whilst feeling her immense presence in everything we do.

It was Fiona's passion for poetry and her deep interest in people that led her to conceive of the idea of poems as friends. Fiona had long felt that poems had acted as friends in her own life, and wanted to find out if this was true for others. Fiona then put this curiosity into practice by creating The Poetry Exchange itself - an invitation for readers of poetry from all walks of life to come and talk with us about the poem that has been a friend to them.

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We are incredibly grateful to have - and to be able to share with you all - this video of Fiona telling the story of The Poetry Exchange, filmed at The Healing Word in Canterbury in 2022. It's very appropriate to have been in Canterbury that day, since The Poetry Exchange was originally created for the Wise Words Festival in Canterbury nearly 10 years earlier.

The Healing Word was a global gathering of people working with words, wellbeing and humanity. Enormous thanks to Victoria Field of The Poetry Practice, who brought together the conference, and to filmmaker Al Refell for capturing Fiona's warmth, wisdom and eloquence so beautifully.