Ash Manganaro

Manganaro is a poet, performer, and event organiser. They’ve headlined events across the UK and their writing explores themes of identity, bilingual experience, everyday nuances, drawing on the personal side of political. Manganaro was a 2025 Queer Bath award recipient, the 2024 DIVA Magazine Lesbian Visibility Week poetry competition winner, and have supported artists such as Alice Oswald and Max Porter. Their work has been featured on BBC upload, longlisted for the "Interwoven: Poetry Celebrating Connectedness" competition by Renard Press, and in exhibitions as part of Fringe Arts Bath and have performed in venues from Tobacco Factory Bristol to No. 1 Royal Creascent. Within their residency at Emerge (where they were the first placement student to hold a residency), Manganaro has explored the radical history uniting zines and writing, producing a collection of poetry postcards. Manganaro studied Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, achieving a First Class Bachelor of Arts with Honours, and spent their placement year travelling around the UK engaging with various arts projects and festivals. They were the winner of two VC Award (2025 Writing, Publishing, Humanities Student of the Year, 2023 Student Impact) Additionally, they have been regularly commissioned to write and perform poems for the chancellor and vice chancellor. In 2025 they became the first undergraduate to facilitate a session as part of the Doing Together Symposium. Manganaro is passionate about uplifting the local grassroots creative community. They have been at the core of running networking events designed to be accessible and an entry way into the creative industries for emerging creatives. Manganaro co-founded Bath’s leading open mic poetry night Chimes, where they co-edited and self-published an anthology of attendees’ work. They have worked with Bristol poetry events Satellite of Love and Lyra fest, programmed the poetry strand for Bath Arts Collective’s Curious Minds Festival 2026, are a current team member of the Queer Bath organising team, and are currently curating an exhibition for Fringe Arts Bath exploring the history in pride’s origins. Manganaro’s debut poetry pamphlet “This is where I’m from” launched in February 2026, which embarked on an England & Wales tour; it can be found in many wonderful independent bookshops such as Mr B’s and Gays The Word.