Tokyo Poetry Week 2025 Gallery

Zoria Petkoska
2 hours ago
2 min read

Tokyo Poetry Week was a decade in the making; every other Tokyo poetry event organized by its founder and organizers was to be a brick in the foundation.

When Tokyo Poetry Journal turned 10 years old and its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Johnson announced Zoria Petkoska K as his successor, Zoria decided to make Tokyo Poetry Week a reality.

The first ever edition of Tokyo Poetry Week took place between Nov 12 and Nov 20, with an array of readings, book launches and talks. Here is some of the electric atmosphere in photos.

EVENT 1: Visual/Concrete Poetry Party: Kanto x Kansai

Co-organized with our friends Concrete Poetry Party Osaka and The Odds art collective, this event was all about experimental and playful poetry. It featured a visual poetry karuta game and a display of handmade clothes with visual poems on them — both by Yuji Ishihara, projected poetry on the walls, a digital program that changed based on what poems were read on the microphone created by Hiwatashi, artworks with visual poems on the walls by Simon Kalajdjiev, Ana Jovanovska and Jes Kaled, a pop-up library of rare books and records by Zoria and Junya, live drawing by Simon and Ross Verik from The Odds, a poetry reading by Frank Spignese, Silje Ree, Zoria, Jeffrey Johnson, Herman Bartelen, and more activities.

Photos by Roy Berman

EVENT 2: ToPoJo Vol.18: Portrait of Tokyo launch

ToPoJo's love letter to Tokyo was launched on Nov. 15, 2025, at Art Atelier in Oshiage, in collaboration with More Than Music as hosts of the venue and as part of the first edition of Tokyo Poetry Week.

Photos and portraits were a thread throughout the night — editors were taking instant photos of the visitors and printing them a copy and artist Simon Kalajdjiev drew portraits of visitors in the audience. Music was also a big part of this night including tunes and squealing rubber pigs by Samm Bennett, and Herman Bartelen's reverbed poems together with Steve's electric guitar.

In addition to ToPoJo editors reading — Zoria, Jeffrey, Barbara — new voices took the stage too: Aleksandra Priimak, Damiana De Gennaro, Jeffrey Eli Holt... Longtime ToPoJo contributor and collaborator Michiyama Rain recited bilingually his poem in Japanese and Aleksandra read the English translation ( by Jordan A.Y. Smith). We also welcomed special guests: slam poet Miki Yuuri, who had just returned to Japan after touring internationally, and Paolo Guerrero, a guest from Mexico who performed his poem in Spanish and in English translation.