An appeal

Does anyone want a well-followed poetry blog? Poets On Fire is going free, to a good home.

Over the last year or so, demands on my time at work have made it harder and harder for me to update Poets On Fire on a daily basis, as previously, or to try to develop it into a more general live poetry blog, with reviews, interviews, etc.

So, if anyone would like to take it on, I'm more than happy to pass it over. It currently has 230 or so followers, and gets a steady number of daily hits.

If you're interested, email me at poetsonfire@hotmail.co.uk

Matt

CAMBRIDGE: Allographic - open mic featuring Tim Wells and Kaddy Benyon

Sunday, November 24th, 2013, 7.30pm for 8pm start, FREE (donations sought)

The Fountain,

12 Regent Street,

Cambridge

CB2 1DB

Open mic poetry and storytelling with snacks. Tim Wells – ‘a burly, tattooed ex-skinhead’, founder of persistent underground ’zine Rising – draws you in with a wry warmth. Award-winning Cantabridgian script-writer Kaddy Benyon’s haunting-yet-earthy poems have appeared everywhere, and she is Invited Poet at the Scott Polar Research Institute. http://kaddybenyon.com

Contact details: events@allographic.co.uk; 07904 488009 

EDINBURGH: Rally & Broad present Heroes and Anti-Heroes

Friday, 22nd November, 2013, doors 7.30pm, cabaret 8-11pm, £5

The Counting House,

West Nicholson Street,

Edinburgh

With Ross Sutherland, Jonnie Common, Theresa Munoz, Jenna Watt, and introducing Rachel Amey

Hosted by Jenny Lindsay & Rachel McCrum.

Contact: rallyandbroad@gmail.com/07989 508 436

We need a hero. Do we need a hero? Are we in fact heroes? Are you? Bet you are…who knows? What’s in a hero anyway? But, it’s cold, we have a fancy dress box full of masks and spandex and we read a lot of books. So, this month, Rally & Broad bring you a literary treat on the theme of Heroes and Anti-Heroes. Bring your allies and enemies (and possibly a cape!).

Featuring…

Ross Sutherland: Ross Sutherland was born in Edinburgh in 1979. He was included in The Times’s list of Top Ten Literary Stars of 2008. He has three collections of poetry: Things To Do Before You Leave Town (2009), Twelve Nudes (2010), and Hyakuretsu Kyaku (2011), all published by Penned In The Margins. Ross is also a member of the poetry collective Aisle16 with whom he runs Homework, an evening of literary miscellany in East London.

Jonnie Common: After winning everyone over at our End of Term Party in June, we simply had to have the man back to do it again. He’s bloody marvellous.

Theresa Munoz: Poet and critic. Munoz’s first publication, “Close” (Happenstance Press) contains poems about Canada and Scotland, streets and snow, lakes and trains. She discusses relationships, travelling and multi-culturalism. Her poetic forms range from fragmented vignettes to longer narrative works. And she’s darn guid, likes.

Jenna Watt: Award winning Live Artist / Theatre Maker/ Director originally from Inverness and currently living and working in Edinburgh. Her work Flâneurs was awarded a Scotsman Fringe First in 2012 during the Edinburgh Fringe. Her live art happening “It’s Ok, It’s Only Temporary” (the apple smashing piece) gained her notoriety after she was temporarily banned from a Scottish venue. This piece went on to tour the UK to venues including the Forest Fringe, The Basement, Brighton, and Out of the Blue, Edinburgh.

and introducing

Rachel Amey: Edinburgh favourite for her polemical poetry and slick performances, Rachel Amey is the Bongo Club Slam champion 2013 and was also a finalist in this year’s BBC Festival Slam.

Hosted by award winning poet and promoter Jenny Lindsay (The Big Word/ Is This Poetry?/BBC Slam Winner 2012) & Rachel McCrum (Callum Macdonald Award winner 2013/ BBC Slam Finalist 2012/ 2013).

GALWAY: November Over The Edge: Open Reading

Thursday, November 21st, 2013, 6.30pm-8pm, FREE

Galway City Library

The Featured Readers are Niamh Boyce, Audrey Dinneen and Padraic McCormack. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished.

Audrey Dinneen’s initial foray into the world of creative writing was through a Diploma in Childrens’ Literature while resident in the USA. She continued to attend creative writing classes in England and does so now in Galway. She is an avid reader and a member of two book clubs. She was thrilled to be invited by Susan Millar DuMars to participate in her first public reading at Over the Edge.

Padraic McCormack is a retired politician having represented Galway West from 1989 - 2011. He was twice chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party and a former Mayor of Galway City. He has recently published his memoir The Rocky Road To The Dáil - politics from the inside. Since he retired from the Dáil, Padraic has taken part in creative writing classes at both GMIT and Galway Technical Institute. He is planning to publish a book of short stories, some of which he will read at Over The Edge.

From Athy, Co Kildare, Niamh Boyce's debut novel The Herbalist was published by Penguin in June 2013. She won the Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year in 2012 for her poem 'Kitty'. Her short fiction has been nominated for The Francis Mac Manus Competition, The Molly Keane Creative Writing Award and the 2009 New Irish Writing Award. Her work can be found in magazines such as The Moth, The Stony Thursday Book, Crannóg, Boyne Berries, The Poetry Bus, and New Irish Writing Today Magazine. She blogs at http://niamhboyce.blogspot.ie/

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: Lumen Poetry Series

Tuesday, November 19th, 2013, 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 Cinnamon poets Rebecca Gethin and Omar Sabbagh.

Poets from the floor very welcome. Please leave the  poem you read to be considered for the next anthology.

GALWAY: Lux Aeterna

Sunday, November 17th, 2013, 5pm, €10

St Nicholas Collegiate Church 

LUX AETERNA

St Nicholas Singers in concert with poetry from Susan Millar DuMars and Kevin Higgins.

A Requiem for modern times

In its first outing in November 2012, St Nicholas Singers performed one of the great nineteenth century Requiem settings, that of Gabriel Faure; this year it gives Galway audiences the chance to hear a thoroughly modern take on this ancient form.

Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna was written in 1997 and is a work of 25 minutes’ duration in five movements, setting various Latin liturgical texts, some of them from the Requiem Mass and all of them suffused with the notion of light. The composer himself says “I composed Lux Aeterna in response to my Mother’s final illness and found great personal comfort and solace in setting to music these timeless and wondrous words about Light, a universal symbol of illumination at all levels—spiritual, artistic, and intellectual.”

This is a poignant, quietly serene Requiem for modern times. There is no gloom or grim foreboding, no Day of Judgement lurking, but rather a generous radiance captured in the lush harmonies and haunting melodies.  It is a work that is as uplifting for listeners as it is to sing, and in the glorious acoustic of Galway’s medieval collegiate church promises to be a very special experience.

Interspersed with the movements of the Lauridsen work will be readings from acclaimed Galway-based poets Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars. Susan will read excerpts from her recent publication The God Thing, in which she writes with compassion and clarity about the terminal illness and death of a family member and her own resulting struggle to keep faith and love alive within herself.

St Nicholas Singers is an all-comers group of 40-60 voices which prepares its performances over two weekends of intensive rehearsals. It is open to all regardless of age or experience, and new members are always welcome.

The choir is conducted by Mark Duley and accompanied by organist Ronan De Burca.

Further information available from info@scholacantorumgalway.ie