Celebrating & Sharing Poems as Friends
Celebrating & Sharing
POEMS AS FRIENDS
Remembering Fiona
Fiona Bennett was the founder and director of The Poetry Exchange. She was our guiding light and our most extraordinary friend.
We were devastated to lose Fiona in August 2024, after a short and unexpected illness.
It is hard to begin to express Fiona's immeasurable gifts to the world and to us all. She brought so much love, light and poetry to everyone she met, and touched so many people's lives in such a profound way.
We miss her deeply, whilst feeling all her passion, wisdom and love with us always.
We are taking our time to reflect on Fiona’s extraordinary life and legacy, and how we might continue to keep all her great passion for poetry and people alive.
It has meant so much to hear from so many of you with all your treasured memories of and feelings about Fiona, whether you knew her in person or simply through listening to The Poetry Exchange over the last 10 years. You can read some of these beautiful messages here.
Fiona completed her collection of poetry, On the Brink of Touch, earlier this year, which is now available from Live Canon. It is a work of great beauty, celebrating so many forms of human connection - the great theme of Fiona's life.
Thank you all so much for your love, support and friendship at this time. If you would like to be in touch at any point, please don’t hesitate to write to us at hello@thepoetryexchange.co.uk.
With sorrow, gratitude and love,
John, Michael and all at The Poetry Exchange x
Fiona introduces The Poetry Exchange
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.
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.
Welcome to The Poetry Exchange
We explore the idea of poems as friends.
We talk to people from all walks of life about the poem that has been a friend to them, celebrating the ways the poem speaks to them personally and the part it has played in their life.
We share these extraordinary stories of connection with listeners around the world through The Poetry Exchange podcast, as well as through live events and activities - opening a new door into poetry for the widest possible audience.
Our first anthology was published by Quercus Editions in May 2024. Poems As Friends: The Poetry Exchange 10th Anniversary Anthology brings together a selection of poems chosen by readers that know them as friends, presented alongside their personal stories of connection.
We invite you to join our community of poetry lovers, listeners, readers and writers...and enjoy a life filled with poems as friends.
Poems as Friends - The Poetry Exchange
10th Anniversary Anthology
Released on 9th May 2024
In this celebratory book, Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer draw on ten years of archival material to bring together a collection of poems chosen by readers that know them as friends, presented alongside their personal stories of connection.
You can now find or order your copy of Poems as Friends at bookshops around the UK and online.
"Compiling this anthology has been the most enriching, heart-warming creative project. We are thrilled to be bringing this book into the world with Quercus Editions and to be sharing poems as friends with readers far and wide."
Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer