LONDON: Elvis’s Big Love Night

Friday, 10th February, 2012, 7.30pm, £5 / £4 concessions

Earl Spencer,
260 - 262 Merton Road,
London
SW18 5JL

Apples and Snakes and Sherger Productions present Elvis’s Big Love Night
Something's stirring down in SW18: a  pre-Valentine treat for all you poets, lovers and, well, poetry-lovers. Elvis McGonagall will be delivering his greatest hits and ensuring poetical fair play. Joining him are the award-winning Ardella Jones and feisty newcomer Mia Jerome. And if you fancy razzle-dazzling the audience with a little romantic verse of your own, either self-penned or just your all-time favourite, then arrive early to sign up for an open-mic slot.

www.applesandsnakes.org

GALWAY: 2012 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase

Friday, February 10th, 2012, 8pm, FREE

The Kitchen @ The Museum

Galway

The 2012 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase featuring Moya Cannon, Stephen Murray, Ndrek Gjini, Lorna Shaughnessy,  Jack McCann, Mae Leonard, Sarah Griffin, Pauline Fayne, Pete Mullineaux, Susan Lindsay, Kate Dempsey and Sean Kavanagh will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, February, 10th at 8pm.

In this annual retrospective of the year just past, Galway-based poets who published a new collection of poems during 2011 are invited to read three poems from the collection in question. There will also be short readings from the anthologies Bicycles with Umbrellas (NUI Galway MA in Writing class of 2010), Monday Miscellany (Westside Writers) and Mosaic (Skylight Poets/Galway Arts Centre Advanced Poetry Workshop).

All welcome. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of The Arts Council and Galway City Council.

http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com

LONDON: Hammer & Tongue Hackney

Tuesday, 7th February, 2012, 8pm-11pm (doors and DJ 7pm)
@The Victoria,

451 Queensbridge Road,

Dalston

E8 3AS

featuring:

Dizraeli
2 x U.K Slam Champion – a multi-talented writer, conscious lyricist and captivating live performer
http://www.dizraeli.com/

Anthony Joseph
Trinidad-born master craftsman of experiemental spoken word. One of the 50 Arts Council "Black and Asian writers who have made major contributions to contemporary British literature"
http://www.anthonyjoseph.co.uk/

Plus open mic slam and live DJ. Hosted by Angry Sam. Arrive early for slam sign-up

CAMBRIDGE: Hammer & Tongue featuring Dizraeli and Inja

Wednesday, 8th February, 2012, 7.30pm for 8pm start, advance £5/£3.50, £2 for slammers; on the door, £6.50/£5, £3 for slammers

The Fountain Inn,

12 Regent Street,

Cambridge

CB2 1DB

Sign up as one of the eight to compete in the poetry slam for a place in the Regional Final, or just dive in and soak up the night’s atmosphere and talent. Dizraeli is a renowned rapper, singer, and poet. Local fella Inja does everything from dubstep to freestyle poetry.

Contact details: cambridge@hammerandtongue.com or 07904 488009

Website: http://www.hammerandtongue.co.uk

LONDON: Templar Poetry reading

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012, 7pm, FREE

The Compass,

58 Penton Street,

Islington,

London

NI 9PZ

Chris James, Matt Bryden and Jane Weir read at the inaugural Templar Poetry readings at The Compass. This is the opening event for our new monthly live poetry sessions in London with three of our published poets.

 

LONDON: Valley Press Fest!

Friday, 27th January, 2012, 7pm-9pm, £2 on the door

The Horseshoe,

24 Clerkenwell Close,

London,

EC1R 0AG

Valley Press comes to London for the southern leg of 'Valley Press Fest'; an evening celebrating the books and authors of Yorkshire's favourite independent publishing house. Held in the function room of The Horseshoe (Clerkenwell Close), the evening will feature readings from Jo Brandon, Norah Hanson, Steve Rudd and (in a first ever London appearance) VP founder Jamie McGarry. Tickets are just £2, and will be available on the door. See you there! Full details: http://www.valleypressuk.com/vpfest/

BIRMINGHAM: Hit The Ode

Thursday, 26th January, 2012, 7.30pm, £5
The Victoria,
48 John Bright St,
Birmingham
B1 1BN

Apples and Snakes presents Hit the Ode
The best poetry from the region, the country and the world at the heart of Birmingham.
An electrifying night of spoken word poetry by the best performers from around the corner - and around the world. Each Hit the Ode features one act from the Midlands, one from elsewhere in the UK, and, uniquely, one international guest.

www.thevictoriabirmingham.co.uk / www.facebook.com/hittheode / www.applesandsnakes.org

BIRMINGHAM: Poetry Bites

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012, 7.30pm, £5/£4

The Kitchen Garden Cafe
17 York Road
Kings Heath
Birmingham
B14 7SA 

Guest poet is Matt Merritt, reading from his Nine Arches Press collection hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica. 

Open mic slots also available - arrive early to book one, or call Jacqui Rowe on 07971 018 825.

SLIMBRIDGE: No Space But Their Own - new poems about birds

Sunday, 5th February, 2012, 12.30pm - 2.30pm

Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Reserve,

Gloucestershire

No Space But Their Own : New poems about birds.

A reading with Alison Brackenbury, Anne Cluysenaar, Ann Drysdale, Angela France, Alwyn Marriage, Hermione Sandall and Christine Webb.

LEICESTER: Shindig!

Monday, 23rd January, 2012, 7.30pm, FREE

The Western,
Western Road,
Leicester

Featured poets are Jessica Mayhew, John Lucas, Phil Brown and Helen Calcutt.

Jessica Mayhew is 22, and is part way through her degree at the University of Northampton, where she is studying English Literature and Creative Writing. A pamphlet, Someone Else's Photograph, will be published by Crystal Clear Creators in March 2012.

Phil Brown teaches English in Sutton and has been regularly writing poetry for about 10 years. In 2009 he was shortlisted for the Crashaw Prize and won the Eric Gregory Award in

2010. His debut collection, Il Avilit, has just been published by Nine Arches Press. He is the Poetry Editor for the online magazine and chapbook publisher, Silkworms Ink.

John Lucas’s most recent book is Next Year Will Be Better: A Memoir of England in the 1950s. He runs Shoestring Press.

Helen Calcutt was born in 1988 and grew up in the West Midlands, with familial roots in South West Wales. Her first pamphlet collection is forthcoming next year with Perdika.

She works as a visiting writer for, among others, Creative Alliance, Writing West Midlands, and The Young People’s Writing Squads. She was awarded an Arvon writing Grant in

September 2011.

Sign up for open mic slots on the door.

NEWCASTLE: Scratch Tyne

Sunday, 22nd January, 2012, 6.30pm, FREE

Floor 2,
Commercial Union House,
29-47 Pilgrim Street,
Newcastle
NE1 6QE

Apples and Snakes presents Scratch Tyne
New poems, new poets – be a critical friend and help to shape our spoken word culture. A monthly night where you can be the first to hear new poems from spoken word artists both established and unfamiliar. This is a short but intense hour of work rehearsed throughout the afternoon. We welcome anyone with skills and expertise in creative writing, drama and performance or other forms of stagecraft. The evening is free, all we ask of you is your honest feedback.

www.applesandsnakes.org

LONDON: Fawzia Kane collection launch

Tuesday, January 31^st, 2012, 6.30-8.30/9pm, FREE, light refreshments

The Trinidad and Tobago High Commission

42 Belgrave Square,
London
SW1X 8NT

Waterloo Press and the Trinidad and Tobago High Commission cordially invite you to the launch of Tantie Diablesse, by Fawzia Kane

Fawzia Kane is a spinner of tales and tall stories, sometimes in the mischievous and charming voice of Tantie Diablesse (the ageless spirit of an ex-slave who is part-healer, part-witch), on other occasions in the voices of the odd and bright characters who populate this book: Borges’s Imaginary Beings, The Mighty Sparrow (a calypso singer from the 50s), ‘La Cuentista Bonita,’ ‘The Douen’ (the lost souls of children who died before being baptized) and the poet herself, as a child growing up in Trinidad. In these rich and varied poems Kane resurrects ‘buried songs’ and their ‘dreams of disquiet’ - Dr Tamar Yoseloff

LONDON: Resolution

Thursday, January 26th, 2012, 7.30pm, FREE

Room 1.08

The Bank of Ideas

Sun Street,

Hackney

near Liverpool Street tube station and Finsbury Square.

RESOLUTION is an evening of dissent and discussion at the Bank of Ideas, featuring:

JOE DUNTHORNE // author of Submarine and recent unofficial poet-in-residence at OccupyLSX

IAN BONE // anarchist publisher of Class War and the Bristolian, famously dubbed “The Most Dangerous Man in Britain” by the Sunday People

ALAN MORRISON // editor of the Recusant and Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State

IAN PARKS // FAYE LIPSON // PETER BEARDER aka PETE THE TEMP (host) // more TBA

RESOLUTION will be held at the Bank of Ideas, a disused office block in London's financial district. Since being reclaimed by the Occupy movement it has gone on to deliver thought-provoking events and workshops, as well as provide an important example of grassroots, leaderless organisation.

Hosted by Occupy participant Peter Bearder, aka Pete the Temp, devised by Jody Porter (poetry editor of the Morning Star) and experimental poet Emma Hammond, the night aims to raise awareness of the Occupy movement and encourage involvement and support from the arts and the media.

For more information visit: http://tiny.cc/Resolution2012

LONDON: Camden Poetry Series

Friday, 3rd February, 2012, 7pm (doors open 6.30pm), £5/£4, WINE

Trinity United Reform Church,
1 Buck Street,
Camden Town

1-2 mins.
Camden Town tube

Ruth O'Callaghan presents Lorraine Mariner, Marie-Elizabeth Mali, Hannah Lowe and                 Leah Fritz.

Poets from the floor very welcome. Please bring a copy of the poem if you wish to be considered for the new anthology.

PLYMOUTH: Forked

Thursday, January 19th, 2012, 8.30pm, £7 on the door / £5 in advance / £4 NUS

The B-Bar,
Barbican Theatre,
Plymouth
PL1 2NJ

Apples and Snakes presents Forked
Poetry to inspire, delight and provoke!
 

Featuring: Ant the Rant, Isley Lynn, Last Child Dancing and your host, Mama Tokus

www.wegottickets.com / www.applesandsnakes.org

GALWAY: Over The Edge Ninth Birthday Reading

Thursday, January 19th, 2012, 6.30-8pm

Galway City Library

The Featured Readers are Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunnifee and Leanne O'Sullivan. This is a very special occasion as it is now exactly nine years since Over The Edge was born in Galway City Library in January 2003.

 

Dearbhaile Houston grew up in Co. Galway. She is in her first year of New Media and English at the University of Limerick, learning the art of procrastination and strong coffee. She began attending Creative Writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars last spring and recently won the Seán Uí Riordáin prize for poetry in the Oireachtas na Gaeilge Literary Competition 2011.

Damian Cunniffe is from Abbeyknockmoy in  North County Galway. In 2011 he was longlisted for the Fish Publishing International Short Story Prize, the Ink Tears Prize and was joint winner of the Lonely Voices Short Story Introductions competition run by the Irish Writers Centre. He was also runner-up in the fiction section of the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer Of The Year competition. His work has been published in Crannóg and the Cúirt Journal. Damien has had articles published in several newspapers, including the Galway Advertiser. He is currently working on a play and a collection of short stories.

Leanne O’Sullivan was born on the Beara Peninsula in west Cork in 1983, and now lives in Cork city. Her poetry collections are Waiting for My Clothes (2004) and Cailleach: The Hag of Beara (2009) both published by Bloodaxe Books. Her work has been included in various anthologies, including Selina Guinness’ The New Irish Poets and Billy Collins’s Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry. In 2009 Leanne was awarded the Ireland Chair of Poetry bursary; in 2010 she won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature; and in 2011 she received the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council & The Arts Council. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com

LONDON: Velvet Tongue Erotic Literary Soiree

Monday, January 30^th, 2012, 7pm-10.30pm, £3 donation, free for participants

Bar Kick,

127 Shoreditch High Street,

London

E1 6JE

(Old St/Liverpool St tubes).
Contact phone number: 07733263823 (Ernesto)

Email:ernesto@sarezale.com

Web: http://velvettongueuk.blogspot.com/

After four excellent editions in February, May, August and November 2011, Ernesto Sarezale brings Velvet Tongue back to the Bar Kick.

Featured performers are Mel Jones and Chris Dangerfield, with special appearances by Al Cowie, Michael Wynne and (via Skype) Deborah Lazaroff.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/325563797472122/

To get a flavour of what happens at Velvet Tongue, here are some previews, reviews, reports and videos:

http://velvettongueuk.blogspot.com/2011/09/reviews-previews-and-reports.html

OPEN MIC SLOTS: Bring along your sexy words and share them with us. Have you got an erotic poem, a sexy short story, a salacious monologue, a sexually explicit section of your novel, a provocative comic strip, a risqué stand-up routine? Would you like to share a piece of erotica from an author you admire? Come and read it in front of an appreciative audience. FREE entrance to open mic performers.

To sign up for the five-minute open mic slots, email Ernesto at ernesto@sarezale.com, or give your name on the night in case there are any slots left.

LONDON: Lumen Poetry Series

Tuesday, 17^th January, 2012, doors open 6.30pm for 7pm, £5/£4, WINE

Lumen
88 Tavistock Place
WC1

Tubes: Russell Square, Kings Cross, St Pancras.

Ruth O'Callaghan presents Shoestring Poets Stuart Henson, Christine McNeil and Costas Nisiotis.

Poets from the floor very welcome.

BIRMINGHAM: Poetry Bites

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012, 7.30pm, £5/£4

The Kitchen Garden Cafe
17 York Road
Kings Heath
Birmingham
B14 7SA 

Guest poet is Matt Merritt, reading from his Nine Arches Press collection hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica. 

Open mic slots also available - arrive early to book one, or call Jacqui Rowe on 07971 018 825.

BIRMINGHAM: Hit The Ode

Thursday, 26th January, 2012, 7.30pm, £5
The Victoria,
48 John Bright St,
Birmingham
B1 1BN

Apples and Snakes presents Hit the Ode
The best poetry from the region, the country and the world at the heart of Birmingham.
An electrifying night of spoken word poetry by the best performers from around the corner - and around the world. Each Hit the Ode features one act from the Midlands, one from elsewhere in the UK, and, uniquely, one international guest.

www.thevictoriabirmingham.co.uk / www.facebook.com/hittheode / www.applesandsnakes.org

LONDON: Jawdance

Wednesday, 25th January, 2012, 7.30pm, FREE

Rich Mix,
35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road,
London,
E1 6LA

Apples and Snakes presents Jawdance
Yes - poetry; a stage; a microphone; you. Put it all together and you’ve got Jawdance, the spoken-word show that’s hipper than a thousand Shoreditch hipsters wearing hipsters. And let’s not neglect to mention the special guests, the poetry films, the competitions and the genial host. Sign up for open mic:

www.richmix.org.uk/ www.applesandsnakes.org

NEWCASTLE: Scratch Tyne

Sunday, 22nd January, 2012, 6.30pm, FREE

Floor 2,
Commercial Union House,
29-47 Pilgrim Street,
Newcastle
NE1 6QE

Apples and Snakes presents Scratch Tyne
New poems, new poets – be a critical friend and help to shape our spoken word culture. A monthly night where you can be the first to hear new poems from spoken word artists both established and unfamiliar. This is a short but intense hour of work rehearsed throughout the afternoon. We welcome anyone with skills and expertise in creative writing, drama and performance or other forms of stagecraft. The evening is free, all we ask of you is your honest feedback.

www.applesandsnakes.org

PLYMOUTH: Forked

Thursday, January 19th, 2012, 8.30pm, £7 on the door / £5 in advance / £4 NUS

The B-Bar,
Barbican Theatre,
Plymouth
PL1 2NJ

Apples and Snakes presents Forked
Poetry to inspire, delight and provoke!
 

Featuring: Ant the Rant, Isley Lynn, Last Child Dancing and your host, Mama Tokus

www.wegottickets.com / www.applesandsnakes.org

LONDON: Paper Tiger Poetry

Friday, January 13^th, 2012, 7.30pm, pay what you can entry fee

Tea House Theatre
139 Vauxhall Walk
Vauxhall
London
SE11 5HL (round the corner from Vauxhall tube on Victoria line)

A new edition of Paper Tiger Poetry at the Tea House Theatre...

Hosted by Alain English with a great headline feature act: Paul Lyalls, promoting his book Catching the Cascade, currently on its second reprint – fantastic poet, inventive and ironic.

Star of BBC2’s/CBBC’s Big Slam Poetry House, Paul wrote and starred in the sell-out Edinburgh family show Are we nearly there yet? His poetry is funny and moving and his poetry workshops produce extraordinary poems from children of all ages. His new full collection 'Catching the cascade' (Flipped eye) is available from all bookshops and Amazon & has been shortlisted for the 2012 People's Book Prize. Paul has worked and performed with Michael Rosen, George Best, Jean Binta Breeze, Will Self, John Hegley, Benjamin Zepphaniah and Andrea Leavy to name but a few. Paul has also been selected as as one of the London 2012 Shake the Dust poets.

www.paul-lyalls.com

Support from Will Hames and Kevin Reinhardt plus open-mic (sign up from 7pm).

LEICESTER: Shindig!

Monday, 23rd, January, 2012, 7.30pm, FREE
The Western,
Western Road,
Leicester

Featured poets are Jessica Mayhew, John Lucas, Phil Brown and Helen Calcutt.

Jessica Mayhew is 22, and is part way through her degree at the University of Northampton, where she is studying English Literature and Creative Writing. A pamphlet, Someone Else's Photograph, will be published by Crystal Clear Creators in March 2012.

Phil Brown teaches English in Sutton and has been regularly writing poetry for about 10 years. In 2009 he was shortlisted for the Crashaw Prize and won the Eric Gregory Award in

2010. His debut collection, Il Avilit, has just been published by Nine Arches Press. He is the Poetry Editor for the online magazine and chapbook publisher, Silkworms Ink.

John Lucas’s most recent book is Next Year Will Be Better: A Memoir of England in the 1950s. He runs Shoestring Press.

Helen Calcutt was born in 1988 and grew up in the West Midlands, with familial roots in South West Wales. Her first pamphlet collection is forthcoming next year with Perdika.

She works as a visiting writer for, among others, Creative Alliance, Writing West Midlands, and The Young People’s Writing Squads. She was awarded an Arvon writing Grant in

September 2011.

Sign up for open mic slots on the door.