ABSTRACT
When poetry slams arrived on our shores in the early 1990s alarmist commentators predicted that their arrival would lead to a homogenisation of style in live poetry. Steve Larkin, who is a poet and promoter of Hammer and Tongue and has overseen the growth of the largest network of poetry slams in the UK since 2003, reflects on whether this is the case. He observes that poetry slams in the UK were and still are houses to a great diversity of styles. He has also witnessed many poetry slams in North America over a similar time period and found that the diversity in styles there has been lacking. Through an examination of published articles and interviews he tests his claims, and attempts to explain the reasons for such differences.
