Anita Govan

Anita Govan is a neurodivergent spoken word poet, producer and teaching artist based in Edinburgh. She founded the Scottish Poetry Choir and co-founded Spoken Word & Music (Lost in Leith), the Scottish Youth Poetry Slam (Confab) and Big Word (Scotland). In 2025 she received an Individual Artists Award from Creative Scotland to create a poetry ehoir and was also appointed Edinburgh Fringe Community Artist by the Edinburgh Fringe. Across her almost 30-year creative practice and career, Anita has appeared on TV and radio with her work featured by STV, BBC Radio Scotland, and BBC Radio 7. She was Stirling Makar from 2012 to 2015, Poet in Residence for UNESCO in 2023, and Poet in Residence at ITAC3 in 2016. She has built a reputation as a conference poet for the third sector and businesses, creating a unique record of the event in which she writes and shares a 'found' poem in performance. Anita has performed her poetry around the world at festivals including the Amnesty International Refugee Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Glastonbury, Wigtown Book Festival, and StAnza. She has performed at the Nuyorican in New York, London Soho Theatre in London, and Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary.