THREE-TIME world poetry slam champion Buddy Wakefield is on his way to York next month at the invitation of performance poet Henry Raby.

"This performance will be part of his UK tour, and we’re very excited to have Buddy here in York for this special gig," says Henry. "It will take place at the beautiful All Saints Church on North Street. on December 13, and while most of Buddy’s other gigs are in normal performance venues, this York date will prove to be a very special show not to be missed."

Support will come from assorted York poets, including Henry, who co-ordinated the spoken word and poetry line-up at this summer's Galtres Parklands Festival and co-runs York’s only regular poetry competition, Say Owt Slam.

Next month's gig is a collaboration between Raby and York Literature Festival, whose director, the York writer and musician Miles Cain, also will be on the 8pm bill. So too will Rose Drew, co-founder of the longest-running poetry open-mic night in York, The Spoken Word, and York playwright Sarah Goddard, who will give a rare performance of her poetry.

American headliner Buddy Wakefield has featured on the BBC, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and ABC Radio National and is signed to American feminist singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records. In 2004, he won the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals, then successfully defended the title at the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam against the national champions of seven European countries with works translated into Dutch.

He went on to win it again and has now shared the stage with nearly every notable performance poet in the world in 2,000 venues internationally, ranging from The Great Lawn of Central Park to Zimbabwe’s Shoko Festival; Scotland’s Oran Mor to San Quentin State Penitentiary; the House of Blues in New Orleans to The Basement in Sydney, Australia.

Born in Shreveport, Los Angeles, this son of a guitar repair woman was raised mainly in Baytown, Texas, and now claims Seattle, Washington, as his home. Buddy has been a busker in Amsterdam; a lumberjack in Norway; a street vendor in Spain; a team leader in Singapore; a re-delivery boy; a candy maker; a street sweeper; a bartender; a maid; a construction worker; a bull rider; a triathlete and a facilitator at Quantum Learning Networks.

"He loves peanut butter, chopping wood, Vipassana [an Indian form of meditation] and two specific geese, The Colonel and Mrs Marple," reveals Henry. Should that whet your poetic appetite even more, tickets are available through eventbrite.co.uk at £6.50 or at £7.50 on the door from 7.30pm.