As a final commission for her Quay Words Summer residency on the theme of ‘Vessels’, Sarah Acton developed the spoken word piece ‘Book of the Exe’. by Sarah Acton, writer-in-residence for our July 2024 ‘Vessels’ Season During my summer residency I engaged with the theme through embodied writing and research practice, walking repeated circular routes,…

Excerpts of 5 voices from a novel-in-progress titled Babilon Falling by Billy Kahora, writer-in-residence for our March 2024 ‘Heritage’ season

Taking inspiration from work by Davina Quinlivan, produced during last year’s residency on a theme of ‘Threads’, Jeremy Speck has created a set of special prints, combining letterpress and screenprinting techniques, produced on Double Elephant Print Workshop‘s Albion press. These will be on display at Exeter Custom House until the end of March 2024. The Custom…

During her Spring 2023 residency at Quay Words on the theme of ‘Threads’, Davina Quinlivan wrote this long prose piece, The Map Makers’ Daughters, and three poems which you can read here. Taking inspiration from Davina’s work, letterpress printer Jeremy Speck produced a set of special prints which are on display at Exeter Custom House…

During her Spring 2023 residency at Quay Words on the theme of ‘Threads’, Davina Quinlivan wrote the below three poems, and a long prose piece, The Map Makers’ Daughters. Taking inspiration from Davina’s work, letterpress printer Jeremy Speck produced a set of special prints which are on display at Exeter Custom House in early 2024….

As part of Kim Squirrell’s summer 2023 Maritime residency at Quay Words, she has created a poetry & paper art trail around the Quayside and Canal Basin. This trail celebrates the ships and boats that have sailed into and out of Exeter, and the people of the quay and canal who work to support and…

We were thrilled to host Sophie as our summer 2022 writer-in-residence exploring the Maritime theme. Here she shares her commissioned poem with us. Index of Exeter Quay/ From the blue door, I beckon 1. It’s here that I first read: Exeter is considered to have lost its route to the sea. 2. A woman is…

Buy now, £9.65 including postage We’re excited to launch our second anthology of excellent prose and poetry from the Quay Words live literature programme, showcasing creative output from Exeter Custom House as a hub for literature on Exeter’s quayside.   Contributions from established writers include Tom Cox, Nikesh Shukla, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett and Pascale Petit.  They…

e presenting a new site-specific live-literature commission for Exeter’s Quayside, In Transit by Belinda Zhawi, produced by Penned in Margins.  

Discover the highlights of our Summer Maritime season.