Jay Hulme


Jay Hulme is a transgender performance poet from Leicester, in the UK.
In 2015 he won SLAMbassadors UK, the UK's biggest youth poetry slam, run by Joelle Taylor on behalf of The Poetry Society. That year of the slam was judged by Anthony Anaxagorou and held in The Clore Ballroom at The Southbank Centre.
The following year, in 2016, he was a finalist in the Roundhouse poetry slam and self-published his second solo collection.
In 2017 he competed in the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam and later in the year was featured on the BBC Asian Network's Spoken Word Showcase. Also, in 2017, he performed some poems at TEDx Teen at The O2 in London, run by Nile Rodger's We Are Family Foundation and was featured in multiple adverts for Nationwide Building Society in which he performed his work. These adverts appeared across the UK on television, radio and social media, as well as in cinemas and in print.
Jay's poetry features in a number of solo poetry collections, as well as anthologies published by small presses, such as Otter-Barry Books, and larger publishers, such as Bloomsbury and Ladybird Books.
Jay is well known for his advocacy and activism work surrounding the rights of Transgender people, and his work to make books, especially children's books, more inclusive.

Personal life

Born on 28 January 1997 in Leicester, Jay Hulme was educated at Stonehill High School and Longslade Community College in Birstall, Leicestershire.
In 2018 he graduated from the University of the West of England with a BA in English and Journalism.
In January 2020 he announced that he had found God and was beginning conversion to Christianity. The essay in which he announced this was picked up by Ruth Hunt and included in a book she curated on the intersection of queer identities and faith.

Awards