Friday, March 30, 2012

BATH: Neil Astley and Sara-Jane Arbury


Saturday, 14th April, 2012, 7.30pm, £8/£6
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
16-18 Queen’s Square
Bath
BA1 2HN


Staying Alive, Being Alive and Being Human
Poetry Reading by Neil Astley of Bloodaxe Books, with Sara-Jane Arbury

Poet and editor, Neil Astley and poet, Sara-Jane Arbury, present poems from Bloodaxe Books’ recent best-selling anthology Being Human. They will talk about the anthology and read a personal selection of thoughtful and passionate poems about living in the modern world; poems that touch the heart, stir the mind and fire the spirit; poems about being human, about love and loss, fear and longing, hurt and wonder.

Topping & Co will be selling copies of the anthologies at the event.

Tel: 01225 463362
www.bathboxoffice.org.uk  

BATH: Getting Your Poetry Published: A Seminar Session with Neil Astley of Bloodaxe Books

Saturday, 14th April, 2012, 10.30am–12.30pm, £10/£8
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
16-18 Queen’s Square
Bath
BA1 2HN
 
Getting Your Poetry Published: A Seminar Session with Neil Astley of Bloodaxe Books

Neil Astley, Editor and Managing Director of Bloodaxe Books offers a nuts-and-bolts examination of the whys and wherefores of getting poetry published in books and magazines. Neil has published hundreds of poets but has also had to reject many more. He offers an informed, insider’s view of poetry publishing and bookselling. This session will offer a general reality check as well as giving attention to particular concerns and questions.

Tickets: £10 full price, £8 concessions from Bath Box Office. Tel: 01225 463362
www.bathboxoffice.org.uk  

SOUTHAMPTON: 451

Monday, 16th April, 2012, 7pm, £5/£3 open mic
Nuffield Studio,
University Road,
Southampton
SO17 1TR
www.applesandsnakes.org / www.nuffieldtheatre.co.uk




Apples and Snakes presents 451
A bi-monthly showcase of local, national and international spoken word. Expect articulate artistry, expressive eloquence and verbal thrills’n’spills. Also open mic slots are available on the door.

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE: Scratch Tyne

Sunday, 15th April, 2012, 6.30pm, FREEFloor 2,
Commercial Union House,
29-47 Pilgrim Street,
Newcastle
NE1 6QE
www.applesandsnakes.org



Apples and Snakes presents SCRATCH TYNE
A monthly night where you can be the first to hear new poems from spoken word artists both established and unfamiliar.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

LONDON: Camden Poetry Series

Friday, March 30th, 2012, 7pm (doors open 6.30pm), £5/£4, FREE
Trinity United Reform Church,
1 Buck Street,
Camden Town
1-2 mins, Camden Town tube


Ruth O'Callaghan presents Judi Benson, John Godfrey and Danielle Hope.

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

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

GALWAY: March Over The Edge Open Reading

Thursday, March 29th, 2012, 6.30pm-8pm, FREE
Galway City Library

Featured readers are Stephanie Klapp, Rejini Samuel and Paul Maddern.

Paul Maddern was born in Bermuda and lives in Co. Down. A winner in the 2009 Templar Poetry Pamphlet Competition, with Kelpdings, his ensuing collection, The Beachcomber’s Report (Templar, 2010) was shortlisted for the 2011 Eithne Strong Award. For his PhD at Queen’s University Belfast, he created the Seamus Heaney Centre Digital Archive, an online resource housing recordings of writers reading their work in public. Paul is currently Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Leeds.

Rejini Samuel was born and brought up in Nigeria where her Indian parents were secondary school teachers. She came to study in Galway in 1984. She is an Irish citizen and now considers herself almost Irish as well as almost Indian. Rejini was short-listed for the 2011 Over the Edge ‘New Writer of the Year Competition’ and she was the only entrant to have both her fiction and her poetry long-listed for the Doire Press ‘1st Annual International Fiction and Poetry Chapbook Competition’ in January 2012;‘Vision Painter’ went on to be short-listed in the fiction category. Under her pen name R J Samuel, she has published her first novel Heart Stopper in digital format and in hard copy on CreateSpace. She is currently working on her second novel Falling Colours. Her story 'Flowers in the Fountain' has been long listed for the Multi Story (UK) Flash Fiction competition and another, 'The Meal', got an Honourable Mention. Her poem 'Robes' was recently long listed for the Fish Poetry Prize.

Stephanie Klapp was born and reared in Kassel, Germany. She studied German and English at Kassel and Heidelberg Universities 1997-1998 and moved to Galway in summer of 1998. In 2009, she completed an MA in Culture and Colonialism at NUIG, with a thesis on colonial representations and gender roles in the Victorian adventure novel. She is currently working as a German and History teacher in a girls’ secondary school in Killiney, Dublin. Stephanie has been writing since childhood, and in 1995 she sold her first short-story to German teenage magazine BRAVO. She started workshops with Susan Millar DuMars in February 2010 at Galway Arts Centre, where she has also participated in poetry workshops facilitated by Kevin Higgins. Stephanie was long-listed for the Over the Edge New Writer of The Year award in both 2010 and 2011.

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

Monday, March 26, 2012

LONDON: Hammer and Tongue Camden

Monday, 9th April 2012, 7.30pm-11pm, £5
Green Note Cafe
106 Parkway
Camden Town

We've got a cracking line-up for H&T Camden in April, alongside the unique, ineffable and jolly MARVELLOUS open poetry slam.

First 8 to sign up on the door get to slam, winner goes on to take a place in the London 2012 final! Usual slam rules apply – original material no props and judges chosen at random from audience members... but remember, the point is not the points, the point is the POETRY!

FEATURE POETS:

We're absolutely delighted to be welcoming back to the Green Note Chris Redmond, Tongue Fu founder and a brilliant lyrical story-teller: "A wordsmith wizard, whose sublime art of storytelling in verse is impossible to ignore." - The Poetry Book Society.

We're also VERY excited to be welcoming the brilliant Dean Atta to the Green Note stage for the first time. Sex, race, strange happenings in London – Dean's poetry encompasses all this and more. The Guardian dubbed him the 'i-phone' poet after his rapidly penned verse about Stephen Laurence went viral.
"Dean Atta is one of the leading lights in London's poetry scene. His powerful reflections on race, identity and sexuality have won him recognition from BBC Radio, Channel 4 and the Tate Britain - not to mention a formidable reputation on the spoken word circuit." - Huffington Post"

EDINBURGH: Inky Fingers Open Mic

March 27th, 2012, 8-11pm, FREE
The Third Door,
Lothian Street

Featuring Raymond Antrobus

This month, we’re once more bringing you one of the top spoken word performers around. Raymond Antrobus is a powerhouse of poetry in London, where he co-organises one of the capital's top nights, Chill Pill, at the Albany and Soho Theatres. He has performed alongside authors and poets such as Margret Atwood, Lemm Sissay, Polarbear and Inua Ellams, is the International Farrago Slam Champion 2008, and won Best Performance by a London Poet at the Farrago Zoo Awards 2010. He's toured Germany, America, South Africa and further afield, and we're proud to be hosting his first feature in Scotland.
http://raymondantrobus.bandcamp.com/

The Inky Fingers Open Mic takes place on the fourth Tuesday of the month, from 8-11pm. It’s free to come and free for anyone to perform, regardless of style, experience, or identity. We want to hear from everybody, and we want to support everybody in performing for a friendly audience. We want your poems, your rants, your ballads, your short stories, your diaries, your experimental texts, your heart, your mind, your body. We want the essay on your summer holidays you wrote when you were four, your adolescent haiku, and extracts from your eventually-to-be-completed epic fantasy quadrilogy. We want to hear your best new work as well. And we want people to care about the way words are performed.
As well as the open mic, each night features top performers from the UK and further afield: we bring you the best in poetry, storytelling, fiction, and everything else that involves putting beautiful words in a beautiful order!
Spaces to perform are limited, so please email inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com to reserve a space.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

LONDON: Jazz Verse Jukebox

Sunday, 8th April, 2012, doors open 6.30pm, show 7.30pm, £8 (tickets on the door only)
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club (Upstairs),
47 Frith Street,
London
W1D 4HT
Tube: Tottenham Court Road or Leicester Square
Web:www.jumokefashola.com
Email: JazzVerseJukebox@me.com


The JAZZ VERSE JUKEBOX is THREE!!

Special Guests
AF Harrold / Floetic Lara/ Anthony Anaxagorou / Raymond Antrobus
with music from Emma Divine

Compered by & with music from Jumoké Fashola
(www.jumokefashola.com)

Since its inception in 2009, the Jazz Verse Jukebox, (the brainchild of broadcaster & vocalist Jumoké Fashola), has welcomed established poets & musicians such as Lemn Sissay, Soweto Kinch, Michael Horovitz, Carrie Grant, Anthony Joseph & Katrina Naomi & upcoming poets such as Dean Atta, Keith Jarrett and Indigo Williams.
The Jazz Verse Jukebox celebrates it’s third anniversary with a bumper line-up of spoken word artists & vocalists. Join us for what promises to be a thrilling night of diverse spoken word & jazz from some of the freshest exponents on the scene. With cushions to lunge on, cocktails to imbibe & surprises, this 3rd Birthday is one night not to miss!

PLUS Jukebox Open Mic:
Come & sing with our amazing house band or perform some poetry.

A.F. Harrold is an English poet who straddles various arenas, writing for both children and adults both silly and sensible things. He was Glastonbury Festival Poet-in-Residence in 2008, Cheltenham Literature Festival Poet-in-Residence 2010 and has had his work featured on BBC Radios 3, 4 and 7 and in various books, magazines and anthologies. He has a beard.
www.afharrold.com

Raymond Antrobus is a spoken word artist, photographer and writer, born and bred in Hackney. Described by Michael Horovitz as a "unique and talented young poet" Raymond has been performing spoken word poetry since 2007 and is the International Farrago slam champion 2008. His writing is often perceived to be provocative, delicate and thoughtful. He has performed at London's South Bank Centre as part of the Literacy Festival, at universities across London, Birmingham, Manchester and Coventry, as well as in venues overseas - Berlin, Venice and the NYrican Poets Cafe in New York. He has performed at festivals such as Latitude, Vibe Festival and Secret Garden Party. He is one half of 'Speed Camera Shy', a music project that combines Spoken Word/Rap with Dub Step echoes. Raymond Antrobus is also a member of one of the world’s leading collectives of spoken-word artists known as, ‘A Poem in-between People’, (or PiP) who have been described as “London’s hottest spoken word talent” by The Times and are comprised of ten members. www.raymondantrobus.blogspot.com

Singer, Songwriter, Spoken Word Artist, Floetic Lara blends onomatopoeic phasing, musical accents and lyrics steeped in honesty, passion and experience, to replicate the beats of historical storytellers. Having worked alongside UK and US greats such as Omar, Don-E, Dwele and Erykah Badu and performed in London, Europe, Asia and the USA she in constant demand with a number of international performances, with some of the world's most respected artists under her belt, FLO is a unique, creative dynamo, with undeniable soul. www.floeticlara.com/


Anthony Anaxagorou is a poet and writer who since 2009 has self-published 7 collections of poetry, short stories and essays. The poem Himself which features in his first book entitled Card Not Accepted won the attention of the BBC when they chose to have actor Damian Lewis read it on Newsnight as part of Britain's Arts & Culture week. Since then he has gone on to write and perform a handful of poems that revolve around some of life's more intimate matters, as well as tackling those broader and more philosophical themes such as ethnocentricity, racism, war and socioeconomic privilege. He has toured the UK with MOBO award winning hip hop artist Akala as well as running his own poetry workshops with refugee children in both Burma and Thailand. When he's not writing or performing poetry Anthony can be found mentoring some of London's most disenfranchised young people. www.anthonyanaxagorou.com/

Emma Divine is a respected up-coming jazz, blues & soul singer-songwriter with 'a voice big enough to eclipse the sun' (Bete Noire). Influenced by early 1900s roots blues to the Northern Soul scene of the 1960-70s Emma's voice has been described as similar to the highly regarded solo grammy award winning singer Cissy Houston. After recording with Ian Shaw's vocal workshop at The Premises, Emma has had a whirlwind couple of years. Performances include Greenwich Comedy Festival, Secret Garden Party, Vintage Festival at the Royal Festival Hall & Manchester United Premier League Football Trophy. Emma is an experienced studio session & backing vocalist and appeared on BBC Children In Need's album in 2009. Since adopting her Grandmother's surname, Emma Divine is paving the way to her own debut album which will be available late 2012. www.emmadivine.com

Friday, March 23, 2012

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE: Valley Press Fest

Tuesday, 27th March, 2012, 6pm-8pm, £2
Lit & Phil,
Westgate Road,
Newcastle

Tickets can be bought on the door or online, and include a free drink. For full details, visit: http://www.valleypressuk.com/vpfest

The event will feature readings from six remarkable writers. 'VP Fest' veterans Jo Brandon, Steve Rudd and Norah Hanson, fresh from appearances at the two preceding events, will read a variety of work from their recent books – Jo's pamphlet-length debut Phobia, Norah's poetry masterpiece Love Letters & Children's Drawings, and Steve's epic travelogue Pulse. They will be joined by Jo Reed and Helen Burke, both former Newcastle students, whose poetry collections Stone Venus and The Ruby Slippers were published by Valley Press in June 2011.

Plus, we're delighted to introduce a special guest; Newcastle poet (and Lit & Phil employee) Cara Brennan, whose as-yet-unnamed debut pamphlet is set to be published by Valley Press in September 2012. Cara will be trying out some material from this highly-antipated publication, which will be available for pre-order on the night at a discount.

The event will be hosted by VP's Editor-in-Chief (and dynamic frontman) Jamie McGarry, and should be a night to remember. We hope to see you there!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

LONDON: CANAL - Poetry for Two Voices

Thursday March 22nd, 8pm sharp, £7 / £5 concessions
Poetry Cafe,
22 Betterton Street,
London
WC2H 9BX
£7 / £5 concs.

CANAL - Poetry for Two Voices
Graham Buchan and Amy Neilson Smith, with music from Oliver Janes (clarinet).

A performance of poetry especially written, or adapted, for two voices. Poems by Graham Buchan, Amy Neilson Smith, Robert Browning, Hilaire Belloc and Anna Akhmatova.
Music by Penderecki, Sutermeister, Carter and Kovacs.

Monday, March 19, 2012

LONDON: Lumen Reading Series

Tuesday, 20th March, 2012, doors open 6.30pm for 7pm, £5/£4, Wine
Lumen
88 Tavistock Place
London
WC1
Tubes: Russell Square , Kings Cross, St Pancras.

 
Ruth O'Callaghan presents Alan Brownjohn, Jane Duran and Mimi Khalvati. Poets from the floor very welcome.

Friday, March 16, 2012

LEICESTER: Shindig!

Monday, March 19th, 2012, 7.30pm, FREE
The Western,
70 Western Road,
Leicester
LE3 0GA

Nine Arches Press and Crystal Clear Creators present Leicester Shindig!

Guest Poets: Aly Stoneman, Jonathan Davidson, Michael W Thomas and MulletProofPoet

Aly Stoneman is an arts project coordinator and poetry editor at LeftLion Magazine. Her writing explores relationships between human beings and landscape through myths and journeys. A commissioned poet for Lyric Lounge and winner of the Nottingham Poetry Society Slam 2011, her pamphlet Lost Lands was published by Crystal Clear Creators in March 2012.

Jonathan Davidson publishes a book of poetry every seventeen years, and his second, Early Train, is just out. He has also written extensively for BBC Radios 3 & 4, including seven original plays and radio adaptations of poems by Geoffrey Hill and W S Graham.

Michael W. Thomas’s work has appeared in The Antioch Review, Under the Radar, The National Gazette (Tirana), The Boston Globe, Stand Magazine and Poetry Salzburg Review, among others. His latest novel, Pilgrims at the White Horizon, is forthcoming in 2012, as are a new poetry collection and pamphlet.  www.michaelwthomas.co.uk

MulletProofPoet, aka Andrew Graves is a winner of The Alan Sillitoe short fiction competition and On the Write Track 2010, views the world through very cool wraparound shades, offering his comic poetic commentary on modern life. Truly a troubled poet for troubled times.


LONDON: Camden Poetry Series


Friday, March 30th, 2012, 7pm (doors open 6.30pm), £5/£4, FREE
Trinity United Reform Church,
1 Buck Street,
Camden Town
1-2 mins, Camden Town tube


Ruth O'Callaghan presents Judi Benson, John Godfrey and Danielle Hope.

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


WARWICK: Out Loud At The Museum

Saturday, 17th March, 2012, 7pm doors open for 7.30pm start, FREE

Market Hall Museum
Market Place,
Warwick
CV34 4SA
 
Come to Market Hall Museum in Warwick for a poetry reading evening hosted by our poet in residence Jacqui Rowe. Jacqui will read extracts from her work, inspired by the museum collections and will open up the floor to all poets, new and experienced, to perform their own work.

If you wish to book a floor spot in advance please call 01926 412069. Some floor spots will be available on the night. Bar available.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

GALWAY: March Over The Edge Open Reading


Thursday, March 29th, 2012, 6.30pm-8pm, FREE
Galway City Library

Featured readers are Stephanie Klapp, Rejini Samuel and Paul Maddern.

Paul Maddern was born in Bermuda and lives in Co. Down. A winner in the 2009 Templar Poetry Pamphlet Competition, with Kelpdings, his ensuing collection, The Beachcomber’s Report (Templar, 2010) was shortlisted for the 2011 Eithne Strong Award. For his PhD at Queen’s University Belfast, he created the Seamus Heaney Centre Digital Archive, an online resource housing recordings of writers reading their work in public. Paul is currently Teaching Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Leeds.

Rejini Samuel was born and brought up in Nigeria where her Indian parents were secondary school teachers. She came to study in Galway in 1984. She is an Irish citizen and now considers herself almost Irish as well as almost Indian. Rejini was short-listed for the 2011 Over the Edge ‘New Writer of the Year Competition’ and she was the only entrant to have both her fiction and her poetry long-listed for the Doire Press ‘1st Annual International Fiction and Poetry Chapbook Competition’ in January 2012;‘Vision Painter’ went on to be short-listed in the fiction category. Under her pen name R J Samuel, she has published her first novel Heart Stopper in digital format and in hard copy on CreateSpace. She is currently working on her second novel Falling Colours. Her story 'Flowers in the Fountain' has been long listed for the Multi Story (UK) Flash Fiction competition and another, 'The Meal', got an Honourable Mention. Her poem 'Robes' was recently long listed for the Fish Poetry Prize.

Stephanie Klapp was born and reared in Kassel, Germany. She studied German and English at Kassel and Heidelberg Universities 1997-1998 and moved to Galway in summer of 1998. In 2009, she completed an MA in Culture and Colonialism at NUIG, with a thesis on colonial representations and gender roles in the Victorian adventure novel. She is currently working as a German and History teacher in a girls’ secondary school in Killiney, Dublin. Stephanie has been writing since childhood, and in 1995 she sold her first short-story to German teenage magazine BRAVO. She started workshops with Susan Millar DuMars in February 2010 at Galway Arts Centre, where she has also participated in poetry workshops facilitated by Kevin Higgins. Stephanie was long-listed for the Over the Edge New Writer of The Year award in both 2010 and 2011.

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 

EDINBURGH: Inky Fingers Open Mic


March 27th, 2012, 8-11pm, FREE
The Third Door,
Lothian Street

Featuring Raymond Antrobus

This month, we’re once more bringing you one of the top spoken word performers around. Raymond Antrobus is a powerhouse of poetry in London, where he co-organises one of the capital's top nights, Chill Pill, at the Albany and Soho Theatres. He has performed alongside authors and poets such as Margret Atwood, Lemm Sissay, Polarbear and Inua Ellams, is the International Farrago Slam Champion 2008, and won Best Performance by a London Poet at the Farrago Zoo Awards 2010. He's toured Germany, America, South Africa and further afield, and we're proud to be hosting his first feature in Scotland.
http://raymondantrobus.bandcamp.com/

The Inky Fingers Open Mic takes place on the fourth Tuesday of the month, from 8-11pm. It’s free to come and free for anyone to perform, regardless of style, experience, or identity. We want to hear from everybody, and we want to support everybody in performing for a friendly audience. We want your poems, your rants, your ballads, your short stories, your diaries, your experimental texts, your heart, your mind, your body. We want the essay on your summer holidays you wrote when you were four, your adolescent haiku, and extracts from your eventually-to-be-completed epic fantasy quadrilogy. We want to hear your best new work as well. And we want people to care about the way words are performed.
As well as the open mic, each night features top performers from the UK and further afield: we bring you the best in poetry, storytelling, fiction, and everything else that involves putting beautiful words in a beautiful order!
Spaces to perform are limited, so please email inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com to reserve a space.

Monday, March 12, 2012

LEWES: Lewes Poetry


Thursday, March 15th, 2012, 8.15pm
The Lewes Arms,
Mount Place,
Lewes,
Sussex

Lewes Poetry is on this Thursday upstairs at the Lewes Arms with the usual great selection of poets, and the legendary prize limerick contest.

Friday, March 09, 2012

LONDON: Lumen Reading Series


Tuesday, 20th March, 2012, doors open 6.30pm for 7pm, £5/£4, Wine
Lumen
88 Tavistock Place
London
WC1
Tubes: Russell Square , Kings Cross, St Pancras.

 
Ruth O'Callaghan presents Alan Brownjohn, Jane Duran and Mimi Khalvati. Poets from the floor very welcome.
       

LEAMINGTON SPA: PUREandGOODandRIGHT

Monday, March 12th, 2012, 7.30pm, £3 (£2 student/OAP)

The Sozzled Sausage,
Leamington Spa
CV32 4N

This month’s guest poet is the amazing Mstr Morrison, an up-and-coming poet/spoken word artist from Birmingham, who captivates audiences with his compelling rhythmic storytelling.
Last year, he won three poetry slams including the PGR Summer Slam and performed at a major festival. In December, he teamed up with three other poets for a performance at Apple and Snakes which was a great success. This year Mstr Morrison has continued his success in the poetry world with his winning of the Hammer and Tongue Slam, Cambridge.

With open mic support from…….yes……YOU!

If you would like to know more about the night, please email pgrpoetry@gmail.com

LONDON: Jazz Verse Jukebox

Sunday, March 11th, 2012, doors 6.30pm, show from 7.30pm, £8 (tickets can only be purchased on the door)

Upstairs @ Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club (AKA Ronnie’s Bar)
47 Frith Street,
London
W1D 4HT 
Tube: Tottenham Court Road

JAZZ VERSE JUKEBOX
Join us to celebrate the beginning of spring, with spoken word from Musa Okwonga, Mark Gwynne Jones, Agnes Meadows and Anna Le, music from Sarah Moule, plus an open mic for poets and singers.

Compered by & with music from Jumoké Fashola.

Musa Okwonga is an acclaimed football writer, poet and musician of Ugandan descent. In 2008 his first football book, A Cultured Left Foot, was nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. His poetry and football writing have been featured by Channel4.com’s 4Talent, Attitude magazine, Prospect, The Times, and The Sunday Times, and he has twice been a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme; he has also performed his poetry at the 2008 EU Energy Summit in front of an audience of EU environment and energy ministers. He is one half of The King's Will, an electronica outfit that blends poetry, music, and animated videos.

Four times fringe-award winner, Mark Gwynne Jones is well known for mind altering poetry with an almost music-hall edge. He mixes humour and poignancy with great skill and through collaborations with film-makers and musicians he is pushing poetry in new and exciting directions. Mark’s work is contagious, gritty and sometimes startlingly sensitive. Appearing solo and with The Psychicbread, a show combining poetry and music Mark has toured with Kate Rusby and performed alongside The Levellers, Alan Bates, Mark Radcliffe and John Peel favourites Half Man Half Biscuit. He has sold poetry to the CIA; written poetry with disenfranchised kids in some of the most deprived areas of Britain and held various writing residencies in galleries, prisons and cinema. Mark regularly performs at music and literature festivals throughout the UK and abroad. In 2008 Loughborough University commissioned Mark to write a series of poems for a performance walk and following the event’s success, Gunpowder Parks commissioned him to write in and around four of London’s central parks exploring what is meant by ‘common ground’ in 21st century Britain. Mark has won The National Trust Poetry Competition and the Buxton Festival Fringe. With filmmaker Andy Lawrence, Mark produced a unique series of 6 film-poems. It’s Only Water was broadcast by ITV and The Message, a screenplay mixing poetry and drama, ran for seven nights on SKY television.

Agnes Meadows has been a Featured Poet with the Austin International Poetry Festival ten times, and has twice won the Christina Sergeyevna Award for Outstanding Writing. She has also read and given workshops at festivals and events all over the world, most recently in Singapore and Zurich. .  Agnes also runs successful poetry events in London, including ‘Loose Muse’, the capital’s only regular event for women writers at the Poetry Society’s Poetry Cafe.  She has been an adviser on Poetry for Channel 4 TV. She has written five books of poetry, entitled “You and Me”,  “Quantum Love”, “Woman”, “At Damascus Gate on Good Friday”, and ‘This One Is For You’,  the latter three published by Flipped Eye.  Agnes has also produced a CD of her poetry with music, called “Blues Shakin’ My Heels’. She is currently, and incredibly slowly, writing a novel set in 12th Century Constantinople, with a woman soldier as the central character.

Anna Le is an undercover word lover, applying her craft by stealth. Increasingly, Anna is now performing at some of the most prestigious poetry events including, Farrago, The Poetry Café, and the Hay Festival.

Recently named by Jazz UK Magazine's Brian Blain as the Best Live Vocal Jazz Gig in the last 15 years, singer Sarah Moule has established a rapidly growing reputation as one of Britain's most exciting jazz vocal talents. Her new one-woman show 'FEMMES FATALES - Songs for the Fallen, Wild & Wicked' has received standing ovations and been described as 'compelling', 'empowering' and 'highly original' and when performing her PORTRAIT OF PEGGY LEE, Bob Sinfield of Jazzfm Radio says that ‘something of the spirit of Peggy Lee seems to come over her.  It’s slightly spooky...but in a very good way’. Sarah’s latest CD, 'A Lazy Kind Of Love' (Red Ram Records RAM001), marks a new direction in her choice of material, including songs from unusual sources such as Julie Burchill, Clive James/Pete Atkin and Madonna's brother-in-law, composer and producer, Joe Henry, as well as continuing her ongoing musical relationship with legendary American Beat lyricist Fran Landesman and British composer and pianist Simon Wallace. http://www.sarahmoule.net

Thursday, March 08, 2012

LONDON: CANAL - Poetry for Two Voices


Thursday March 22nd, 8pm sharp, £7 / £5 concessions
Poetry Cafe,
22 Betterton Street,
London
WC2H 9BX
£7 / £5 concs.


CANAL - Poetry for Two Voices
Graham Buchan and Amy Neilson Smith, with music from Oliver Janes (clarinet).

A performance of poetry especially written, or adapted, for two voices. Poems by Graham Buchan, Amy Neilson Smith, Robert Browning, Hilaire Belloc and Anna Akhmatova.
Music by Penderecki, Sutermeister, Carter and Kovacs.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

WARWICK: Out Loud At The Museum

Saturday, 17th March, 2012, 7pm doors open for 7.30pm start, FREE
Market Hall Museum
Market Place,
Warwick
CV34 4SA
 
Come to Market Hall Museum in Warwick for a poetry reading evening hosted by our poet in residence Jacqui Rowe. Jacqui will read extracts from her work, inspired by the museum collections and will open up the floor to all poets, new and experienced, to perform their own work.

If you wish to book a floor spot in advance please call 01926 412069. Some floor spots will be available on the night. Bar available.

LONDON: Grey Hen Press reading

Thursday, March 8th, 2012, 7pm-8.30pm, wine and nibbles

Queens Park Books,
87 Salisbury Road
NW6

A reading from the Grey Hen Press anthology Get Me Out of Here!

With: Joy Howard, Angela Kirby, Gerda Mayer, Rosemary McLeish and Ruth Smith.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

LEAMINGTON SPA: PUREandGOODandRIGHT

Monday, March 12th, 2012, 7.30pm, £3 (£2 student/OAP)
The Sozzled Sausage,
Leamington Spa
CV32 4N

This month’s guest poet is the amazing Mstr Morrison, an up-and-coming poet/spoken word artist from Birmingham, who captivates audiences with his compelling rhythmic storytelling.
Last year, he won three poetry slams including the PGR Summer Slam and performed at a major festival. In December, he teamed up with three other poets for a performance at Apple and Snakes which was a great success. This year Mstr Morrison has continued his success in the poetry world with his winning of the Hammer and Tongue Slam, Cambridge.

With open mic support from…….yes……YOU!

If you would like to know more about the night, please email pgrpoetry@gmail.com

GALWAY: March Over The Edge Writers' Gathering

Friday, March 9th, 2012, 8pm, FREE
The Kitchen @ The Museum
Spanish Arch
Galway 

Over The Edge in association with Poetry Ireland presents the March Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering with readings by poets and fiction writers Kerrie O’Brien, Maureen Boyle, Bernie McGill and Deirdre Cartmill. The centre piece of the evening will be the launch of Galway-based writer Eamonn Harrigan’s debut novel, Where The Dead Go.

Eamonn Harrigan was shortlisted for new writer of the year in the Over the Edge competition. His first novel Where the Dead Go has just been published by Solstice Publishing. He did a Masters in Screenwriting in the Huston Film School NUIG and the Professional Programme in Screenwriting in UCLA. He has written two feature length screenplays and several short scripts. 

Kerrie O' Brien has been published in various Irish and UK literary journals including Southword, Orbis and Crannóg. Her poem Blossoms was chosen as the winning entry in the Emerging Talent category of the 2011 iYeats Poetry Competition. She was also highly commended for the Over the Edge New Writer of The Year Competition 2011. Her new chapbook Out of the Blueness is now available on her website www.kerrieobrien.com

Bernie McGill's debut novel, The Butterfly Cabinet was published last year in the UK and Ireland by Headline Review and is published in the US by Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. She was the winner in 2008 of the prestigious Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Award in the US. Her short stories have been shortlisted for numerous awards including the International Bridport Prize, the Sean O'Faolain Short Story Award, the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award and the Brian Friel Short Story Award. She also writes for theatre. She blogs at www.berniemcgill.com.

Maureen Boyle grew up in Sion Mills in County Tyrone, now lives in Belfast, and studied at Trinity College Dublin and the universities of East Anglia, London, University of Ulster and Queens.  In 2004 she was runner-up in the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Prize for an unpublished collection.  She was awarded Arts Council bursaries in 2006, 2007 and 2009; and in 2007 she was awarded the Ireland Chair of Poetry Prize and the Strokestown International Poetry Prize. In 2011 she was awarded an ACES – Artist’s Career Enhancement Award - from the Arts Council Northern Ireland. She is completing her first collection of poems.

Deirdre Cartmill’s debut poetry collection Midnight Solo was published in 2004 and her second collection The Return of the Buffalo is forthcoming from Lagan Press. She received an ACES Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2011 and spent a year affiliated with the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen’s. She’s previously received three Literature Awards from the Arts Council. Her work has been widely anthologised. She holds an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Queen’s University. She also writes in other mediums and tutors in creative writing as Deirdre Alexander. She is originally from Tyrone and currently lives in Belfast. You can find out more and read her blog at http://www.deirdrecartmill.com

There is no entrance fee. The Kitchen @ The Museum has a wine licence.
For further information contact 087-6431748.
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

LONDON: Wise Words Women's Open Mic

Wednesday, 7th March, 2012, 7.30pm, £3/£2 concessions & open mic
Vibe Bar,
91-95 Brick Lane,
London
 
Alternative Arts, with support from Apples and Snakes, presents
WISE WORDS WOMEN’S OPEN MIC

An open-mic poetry night with special guest slot from Hollie McNish, who’s been UK Poetry Slam Champion on at least one occasion. Also featuring the nicely feisty Vanessa Kisuule (no mean collector of slam trophies herself) and guitar-twanging funnywoman Cecilia Delatori.
The atmosphere will be electric, the air thick with poems, and if you’d like to throw a few of your own into the ether, arrive early and sign up. Part of the Wise Words Festival. Tickets on the door.

LONDON: Grey Hen Press reading

Thursday, March 8th, 2012, 7pm-8.30pm, wine and nibbles

Queens Park Books,
87 Salisbury Road
NW6

A reading from the Grey Hen Press anthology Get Me Out of Here!

With: Joy Howard, Angela Kirby, Gerda Mayer, Rosemary McLeish and Ruth Smith.

Monday, March 05, 2012

LONDON: Hammer and Tongue Hackney

Tuesday, 6th March, 2012, 8pm-11pm (doors and DJ from 7pm), £5/£4

The Victoria,
451 Queensbridge Road,
London
E8 3AS
samberkson@gmail.com
07853 0817676

Live poetry from Latitude Festival Slam Champion, Anna Freeman and ex Katch-22 MC turned 'riot for the willing', HKB Finn. Plus open mic slam competition, arrive early for slam sign-up.

Sunday, March 04, 2012

LOUGHBOROUGH: Speech Bubble, with Psychicbread

Monday, March 5th, 2012, doors 7pm

Students Union,
Loughborough University,
Epinal Way
Tel: 01509 222 881

Open mic night, with special guest reader Psychicbread.

Friday, March 02, 2012

LONDON: Ruth O'Callaghan

Tuesday, 6th March, 2012, doors 7pm for a 7.30pm start, £4 (£3 concessions)
The Gipsy Hill Tavern,
79 Gipsy Hill,
SE19 1Q

Beyond Words presents Ruth O’Callaghan, author of several poetry collections, translated into
six languages, winner of international competitions.

PLUS

Open Mic - poets and writers from the floor welcom.

Two mins walk from Gipsy Hill Mainline Railway Station which serves Victoria, London Bridge, Clapham Junction, Norwood Junction. 10 mins walk from Crystal Palace and Sydenham Hill Mainline Stations. The 322 bus stops within yards and the 3, 450, 931 and 471 only five mins away Crystal Palace Bus Terminus is 10 mins away.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

LONDON: Jazz Verse Jukebox

Sunday, March 11th, 2012, doors 6.30pm, show from 7.30pm, £8 (tickets can only be purchased on the door)
Upstairs @ Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club (AKA Ronnie’s Bar)
47 Frith Street,
London
W1D 4HT 
Tube: Tottenham Court Road

JAZZ VERSE JUKEBOX
Join us to celebrate the beginning of spring, with spoken word from Musa Okwonga, Mark Gwynne Jones, Agnes Meadows and Anna Le, music from Sarah Moule, plus an open mic for poets and singers.

Compered by & with music from Jumoké Fashola.

Musa Okwonga is an acclaimed football writer, poet and musician of Ugandan descent. In 2008 his first football book, A Cultured Left Foot, was nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. His poetry and football writing have been featured by Channel4.com’s 4Talent, Attitude magazine, Prospect, The Times, and The Sunday Times, and he has twice been a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme; he has also performed his poetry at the 2008 EU Energy Summit in front of an audience of EU environment and energy ministers. He is one half of The King's Will, an electronica outfit that blends poetry, music, and animated videos.

Four times fringe-award winner, Mark Gwynne Jones is well known for mind altering poetry with an almost music-hall edge. He mixes humour and poignancy with great skill and through collaborations with film-makers and musicians he is pushing poetry in new and exciting directions. Mark’s work is contagious, gritty and sometimes startlingly sensitive. Appearing solo and with The Psychicbread, a show combining poetry and music Mark has toured with Kate Rusby and performed alongside The Levellers, Alan Bates, Mark Radcliffe and John Peel favourites Half Man Half Biscuit. He has sold poetry to the CIA; written poetry with disenfranchised kids in some of the most deprived areas of Britain and held various writing residencies in galleries, prisons and cinema. Mark regularly performs at music and literature festivals throughout the UK and abroad. In 2008 Loughborough University commissioned Mark to write a series of poems for a performance walk and following the event’s success, Gunpowder Parks commissioned him to write in and around four of London’s central parks exploring what is meant by ‘common ground’ in 21st century Britain. Mark has won The National Trust Poetry Competition and the Buxton Festival Fringe. With filmmaker Andy Lawrence, Mark produced a unique series of 6 film-poems. It’s Only Water was broadcast by ITV and The Message, a screenplay mixing poetry and drama, ran for seven nights on SKY television.

Agnes Meadows has been a Featured Poet with the Austin International Poetry Festival ten times, and has twice won the Christina Sergeyevna Award for Outstanding Writing. She has also read and given workshops at festivals and events all over the world, most recently in Singapore and Zurich. .  Agnes also runs successful poetry events in London, including ‘Loose Muse’, the capital’s only regular event for women writers at the Poetry Society’s Poetry Cafe.  She has been an adviser on Poetry for Channel 4 TV. She has written five books of poetry, entitled “You and Me”,  “Quantum Love”, “Woman”, “At Damascus Gate on Good Friday”, and ‘This One Is For You’,  the latter three published by Flipped Eye.  Agnes has also produced a CD of her poetry with music, called “Blues Shakin’ My Heels’. She is currently, and incredibly slowly, writing a novel set in 12th Century Constantinople, with a woman soldier as the central character.

Anna Le is an undercover word lover, applying her craft by stealth. Increasingly, Anna is now performing at some of the most prestigious poetry events including, Farrago, The Poetry Café, and the Hay Festival.

Recently named by Jazz UK Magazine's Brian Blain as the Best Live Vocal Jazz Gig in the last 15 years, singer Sarah Moule has established a rapidly growing reputation as one of Britain's most exciting jazz vocal talents. Her new one-woman show 'FEMMES FATALES - Songs for the Fallen, Wild & Wicked' has received standing ovations and been described as 'compelling', 'empowering' and 'highly original' and when performing her PORTRAIT OF PEGGY LEE, Bob Sinfield of Jazzfm Radio says that ‘something of the spirit of Peggy Lee seems to come over her.  It’s slightly spooky...but in a very good way’. Sarah’s latest CD, 'A Lazy Kind Of Love' (Red Ram Records RAM001), marks a new direction in her choice of material, including songs from unusual sources such as Julie Burchill, Clive James/Pete Atkin and Madonna's brother-in-law, composer and producer, Joe Henry, as well as continuing her ongoing musical relationship with legendary American Beat lyricist Fran Landesman and British composer and pianist Simon Wallace. http://www.sarahmoule.net

LONDON: Camden Poetry Series

Friday, 2nd March 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 The Poets of Malika's Kitchen.  
            
Poets from the floor very welcome

Please bring a copy of the poem if you wish to be considered for the new anthology.

BARNSTAPLE: Hip Hopping Speaks


Friday, 2nd March, 2012, 7pm, £12.50 / £8 (young person)
Studio@QT,
Queens Theatre,
Boutport Street,
Barnstaple

Apples and Snakes presents
HIP HOPPING SPEAKS
Start your evening with the superb sounds of 7-piece band The Breaks Collective followed by the intense and powerful spoken words of Toby Thompson. Topping things off is the infamous Dizraeli and the Small Gods, bringing their fresh new take on hip hop to North Devon. Stay after the show for a post show discussion with the artists and find out what gets these poets and musicians out of bed in the morning!