ALDEBURGH: Poetry Prom

Thursday, August 23rd, 2012, 7.30pm, £6.50 to £14

Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Suffolk

Tickets are available online at www.aldeburgh.co.uk or via the box office on 01728 687110. The performance is suitable for adults and teenagers.

A trio of world-class poets will take the stage at the 10th annual Poetry Prom. Organised by the The Poetry Trust in partnership with Aldeburgh Music, this year's Prom will feature Imtiaz Dharker, Paul Durcan and Marie Howe – three immediately accessible and unforgettable performers from Asia, Ireland and America.

Imtiaz Dharker describes herself as a ‘Scottish Pakistani Muslim Calvinist’ and with a lifelong experience of cultural displacement, she investigates with warmth and candour what it means to belong. One of Ireland's most distinctive voices and a riveting live performer, Paul Durcan's heartbreaking and hilarious narratives include elegies for friends, political protests, and praise poems for everyday heroes. America’s Marie Howe writes beautifully truthful poems – about childhood abuse, her brother’s death from AIDS, 21st century materialism, friendship and late motherhood – to make the best sense of her life.

The Poetry Trust's Director, Naomi Jaffa said: “These are three of our favourite poets from recent Aldeburgh Poetry Festivals and we’re thrilled to have brought together such a unique ‘dream team’ for this year’s Poetry Prom. They write poems that make instant yet memorable contact – the kind that stop us in our tracks, make us laugh, illuminate our shared experience – and I know they’ll connect wonderfully with the big audience at Snape.”

Part of the popular Aldeburgh Music Snape Proms series which features a different kind of performance every night – classical, jazz, folk and world music, plus comedy and dance – the Poetry Prom is almost certainly the UK’s largest single poetry reading outside London, attracting between 600 and 800 people each year to listen to today’s outstanding poets.