Josh Cake is a poet from Melbourne, Australia who now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Josh has won the Peseroff Poetry Prize from the University of Massachusetts, was named the Most Impactful Poet by the Australian Enterprise Awards in both 2024 and 2025, and has just been named Poet of the Year 2025 by the Livewire Global Awards.

With publications in Breakwater ReviewTeesta ReviewParis Lit UpThe Anti-Misogyny Club, and Cordite, Josh has performed at several major festivals, including Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Sonic Poetry Festival, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as well as poetry features in Morocco, France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, England, Scotland, Australia, and the US. Josh teaches poetry and performance around the world, from universities and literary organisations to festival workshops.

With distinct rhythms and hilarious observations, Josh presents a captivating and unique performance style. His writing covers a broad emotional spectrum, often evoking laughter and tears within the same piece. Josh explores topics such as:

  • climate change and greed-driven capitalism

  • war and the relation of everyday people to the military–industrial complex

  • emotions in the digital world

  • food as a meeting place, a cultural sharing point, and a metaphor for resistance

  • mourning, witness, and remembrance: keeping records of people and their stories

  • masculinity in both the grotesque and tender

  • the joys and pitfalls of navigating the world as a person of colour

Josh is currently touring a new album:

my poems pay taxes; my taxes buy weapons; my weapons kill poets

Edinburgh Poetry Calendar