The Divided Self: Poet in the City readings

Poet in the City: The Divided Self

From 6.30 for 7pm, Monday, 16th March 2009
in Hall One at Kings place, the new home of Guardian News and Media, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG.

Booking now open online, by phone or in person from the Kings Place box office. Tickets cost £9.50 if booked online via www.kingsplace.co.uk Otherwise tickets cost £11.50. Box Office 0844 264 0321 (local rate).

"What happens when panic and desperation poison the well of life? This event, held in partnership with leading mental health organisations, features wonderful poetry which has the power to reveal to us the fragility of our own minds. Four fine contemporary poets will read and discuss their own and other poets' work around this theme."

Simon Barraclough's debut collection, Los Alamos Mon Amour, was short-listed for the Forward Prize. In his poetry and radio work he has often explored the mind's darker moments, with power and wit.

Suzanne Batty teaches Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University and leads writing workshops for people who have experienced mental distress. Her striking new collection is The Barking Thing.

David Constantine is a prolific prize-winning poet and translator, who has written movingly about the early nineteenth-century poet, John Clare. David Constantine's Collected Poems appeared in 2004. His latest volume is Nine Fathom Deep.

Sarah Wardle has been poet in residence for Tottenham Hotspur, and was short-listed for the Forward Prize. Her third book, A Knowable World, vividly charts a year spent in a psychiatric hospital.