Essex Poetry Festival 2007: coming soon!

Please click to enlarge. Also, see the Essex Poetry Festival website.

Dream Poets Tour hits Scotland: Wednesday 3rd October

Dream Poets Tour in Edinburgh

Wednesday 3 October
7.30pm
Celebrate National Poetry Day with this dream line-up of poets from four corners of the UK: Patience Agbabi (England), Robert Crawford (Scotland), Gwyneth Lewis (Wales) and Gearóid MacLochlainn (Northern Ireland). With readings in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, this is the Scottish stop on the tour.

Book at the Scottish Storytelling Centre: 0131 556 9579
£8 (£5 concessions and SPL Friends)
Edinburgh
Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street

Warwick Words Festival 2007

Warwick Words Festival 2007 is due to kick off later this week, combining poetry, spoken word and literary events in this marvellously historic English town.

First on the agenda are the Poetry Tea Rooms, a popular Festival event spanning two incredible days of almost non-stop daytime poetry, with new writers performing alongside well-known and established names from the Midlands poetry scene. The quaint Thomas Oken Tea Rooms are perfect for this intimate and friendly event. So do come along if you're in the vicinity and listen to the poets. Perhaps you could even bring your own poems and join in with the rolling poetry readings!

This is a free event but you have to buy your own tea and scones!

Thomas Oken Tea Rooms
Thursday and Friday October 4th & 5th
11am - 4pm
Free Entrance

Other poetry events worth booking for include workshops and readings with the likes of Sophie Hannah, David Morley, Zoe Brigley and local poet Dani Carbery. There's also some late night poetry action with poet & MC Sean Kelly, including a Warwick Words Slam!

For full details of these and other great 2007 Warwick Words events, visit www.warwickwords.co.uk

Cheltenham Festival All Stars Slam!

Cheltenham All Stars Festival Slam!

"Fancy a starring role in the UK's slam extravaganza? Then take a stanza on stage and see if your poetry and performance has what it takes to rival the best of the rest. Or come and join the applaudience there's all to cheer for!"

Twenty poets only, first come first served, contact Marcus Moore on 01285 640470 or email info@spiel.wanadoo.co.uk

Free event, no ticket required

Friday 5th October 2007
8.30pm
Cheltenham Town Hall

Sunday XPress in Birmingham: TOMORROW, Sunday 30th September

Sunday XPress at the Market Tavern, Digbeth

Monthly Birmingham open mic on the last Sunday of the month with free roasties! And great entertainment. All open mic for musicians, poets, writers, comedians. All welcome!

Sunday 30th September
3pm - 7pmish
Market Tavern, Digbeth, central Birmingham.

Jackie Wills launches 'Commandments'

Jackie Wills: The 'Commandments' Tour

Poet Jackie Wills launches her fourth collection of poetry, 'Commandments', from Arc (October 07). More details about this brand-new collection can be found online at Arc Publications.



LONDON: Coffee-House Poetry at the Troubadour in London, Monday October 8 with CK Williams, Janice Moore-Fuller and Roz Goddard.

LIMERICK: The 12th Cuisle, Limerick City International Poetry Festival, 19 October 2007, with Michael Longley and Theo Dorgan.

LEWES LIVE LIT FESTIVAL: The Royal Oak pub, Tuesday 23 October, with Matthew Sweeney, music Martin Harley.

FOLKESTONE: Folkestone Literary Festival, Thursday November 8. The Leas Club, Folkestone, 11 am.

BRIGHTON: Wear your party shoes. Thursday 15 November, Shakespeare's Head. 7.30 pm.

FOREST ROW: The Poetry Cafe, Friday 16 November 7.30 pm, Forest Row Community Centre.

"Commandments is Jackie Wills' fourth collection and within it she investigates religion, relationships and the mind. Her poems contain a cast as diverse as Fidel Castro, a teenage rapper, priest, adulterer, seamstress and girls in fairy wings on the Palace pier. Wills' poetry has always drawn on the surrealism of the everyday. This collection identifies crossing points where rules are broken, questioned or no longer make sense. According to Wills, these can happen at random, any time and anywhere in the world: digging the garden, watching impala on a scorched savannah or walking through the streets of Brighton. There's salsa, jazz, humour and passion in Commandments as Wills shows people at their most ludicrous and poignant."

ISBN: Paperback 978 1904614 11 1
Price: £8.99

Warwick Words Festival: Meet the Laureates on Sunday 7th October

Morning Coffee with the Warwick Laureates

Sunday 7th October
Café Chai, Swan Street, Warwick: 10.00am – 11.30am
Tickets: £6.50

Join last year’s Warwick Poet Laureate, Helen Yendall, and catch up on her time as Warwick Poet Laureate. Helen will read a selection of poems and introduce the new Poet Laureate for Warwick 2007/2008.

Includes morning coffee and pastries.

Caffe Chai logo
Festival Box Office: 01926 776 438
Book on-line: www.bridgehousetheatre.co.uk
Tickets can be purchased on the day, subject to availability.

WRITE TO IGNITE: the Hackney Festival concludes

Write to Ignite: The Grand Finale

Saturday, September 29, 2007
7:30pm - 10:30pm
Hoxton Hall, London

The Final Chapter
The Write to Ignite Festival grand finale held in Hoxton Hall – beautiful home to Hackney’s musical, theatrical and nonsensical words since 1863 – a day long celebration of words in print and performance.

http://www.writetoignite.co.uk/29sepFinalchapter.html

Tim Turnbull – engaging and entertaining winner of the Arts Foundation’s prize for performance poetry. ‘Truly cutting-edge poetic talent’ – Poetry Review.

Niall O’Sullivan - one of his generation's most original voices. ‘Funny and compassionate’ – Time Out.

Tim Wells - Stamford Hill’s born and bred poet. ‘Verse that excites, entertains, delights and jump-starts your cerebral cortex’ – Phill Jupitus.

Hosted by Nathan Penlington – the UK’s only poet magician. ‘A natural performer, witty, inventive, stylish and original’ - Robert Newman.

Admission £6/£3 concs for evening show
Time 7.30pm

Transport Tube - Liverpool Street or Old Street.
Train - Dalston Kingsland (then bus) or Liverpool Street Station (then bus).
Buses – 67, 149, 242, 243, 394
Booking Booking recommended - contact Festival Box Office. Limited tickets available on the door

New poetry & Open Mic at 'Over the Edge' in Galway: TONIGHT

The September ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 27th, 6.30-8.00pm.

The Featured Readers are Greek poet and playwright Dimitris Lyacos and Galway-based poets Rita O’Donoghue & Geraldine Keane.

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

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

Over the Edge website

John Hartley Williams launches his Ship at the Ilkley Festival: Saturday September 29th

John Hartley Williams' Launch: Ilkley Literature Festival

An evening with The Wordsworth Trust
Saturday, September 29th, 2007
8:00pm - 9:45pm
St Margaret's Church Hall, Ilkley, United Kingdom
01943816714

An evening with the Wordsworth Trust featuring Neil Rollinson and launching The Ship by John Hartley Willams.

Tobias Hill at CB1 with Open Mic: Tuesday October 9th

Cambridge CB1 Poetry at Michaelhouse

Tuesday 9th October
8pm

Well-known and popular Salt poet Tobias Hill reads at CB1 poetry event plus guest support and open floor spots. Come along to listen and bring your own poems to read.

Please note the new venue for CB1: Michaelhouse, Trinity Street, Cambridge, CB2 1SU.
Entrance ?5/?3.
Contact Ian Cartland 07985 708422

Oxfam Benefit Slam in Oxford: Tuesday October 2nd

Hammer & Tongue Oxfam Benefit Slam

The Vaults and Gardens Cafe, Radcliffe Square, Oxford
Date- Tuesday, Oct 2nd
Times: 8-11, sign-up for the Slam 7.30
Costs: £8/£5 concessions. Donations also welcome.

How long do slammers have on the mic?- Three minutes, thirty seconds grace period.
Special Guests- Steve Larkin and Sian Robins- Grace.
What else is available?- Music, beer.
Can I book a place in the slam?- Only if you're coming from outside Oxford- locals just need to be there early!

Get on the H&T mailing list at www.hammerandtongue.co.uk

OXFAM READING TONIGHT: A REMINDER

OXFAM POETRY READING IN LONDON

Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Time: 7:00pm - 10:30pm
Location: Oxfam Books and Music
Street: 91 Marylebone High Street, London

Contact Info Phone: 02074873570

Email: oxfammarylebone@hotmail.com (mailto:oxfammarylebone@hotmail.com)

Penultimate event in the popular 4-year Oxfam Poetry Series in London. This
fundraising reading features Fleur Adcock, Chris Beckett, Julia Bird, Giles
Goodland, Chris McCabe, David Morley, Mario Petrucci and Matthew Sweeney.

King's Lynn Poetry Festival 2007

King's Lynn Poetry Festival 28th - 30th September 2007

Featured poets will include John Fuller to celebrate the centenary of W.H.Auden, Anthony Thwaite to celebrate the publishing of his Collected Poems, Matthew Sweeney who has a new collection out this summer, Robert Gray from Australia, C.K. Stead and Bill Manhire - two of the most distinguished poets from New Zealand, Elaine Feinstein - a biographer and poet with an outstanding new collection out this year, the great Croatian poet Tomaz Salamun, plus Kate Bingham, Tiffany Atkinson, Tim Liardet, Jane Weir and The Joy of Six poetry troupe.

More details, incl. tickets and venues, from www.lynnlitfests.com.

"Film Poems" at the Southbank Centre: Saturday 6th October

O Dreamland: Film Poems at BFI Southbank

To coincide with National Poetry Day a group of poets will perform work written in response to films in the BFIs brand new Mediatheque. BFI Mediatheque is a unique access point for hundreds of titles from the National Film and Television Archive. Throughout August and September, 10 poets have been writing in response to titles from Essentially British, one the Mediatheque collections. Isobel Dixon's poem O Dreamland sits alongside Lyndsay Anderson's free cinema hymn to the macabre pleasures of Margate's Dreamland attraction, as well as responding to this year's National Poetry Day theme, Dreams.

Other poets taking up the challenge include Ann Sansom, Roddy Lumsden, Jane Draycott, Graham Mort, Luke Heeley and Simon Barraclough.

The event is on the 6th October at 6.30pm, BFI Southbank in London, and will combine performance with screenings. Admission is free, but tickets must be reserved through the BFI Box Office (telephone 0207 928 3232 or reserve tickets online at https://tickets.bfi.org.uk/selectshow.asp)

Tales from a Paralalia Universe: Thursday 27th September

John Kinsella reads at Foyles: Friday October 5th

A ONE-OFF POETRY READING & LIVE INTERVIEW WITH
JOHN KINSELLA

Friday October 5th 2007. Foyles Gallery FREE!
@ Foyles Bookshop 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London

This exciting event will feature a 20 minute reading followed by a live interview with leading Australian poet and environmental activist John Kinsella. The resulting interview will then be downloadable in full as a podcast and an edited version will published in The Wolf 16 in November. Questions from the audience are encouraged.

John Kinsella has published over thirty books, including Peripheral Light: New and Selected Poems, which includes an introduction by Harold Bloom. Kinsella was also the founding editor of Salt and is the international editor of Kenyon Review. This reading at Foyles is Kinsella’s only UK reading this year. NOT TO BE MISSED!

To reserve tickets email thewolfpoetry@hotmail.com

6.30 PM. Please arrive early.

Full acknowledgment of support for this event is given to Foyles

Essex Poetry Festival: October Saturday 20th

Please click to enlarge. Also, see the Essex Poetry Festival website.

Bloodaxe 'Changing Lives' Performances

As part of Bloodaxe's "broadmarket intiative" to encourage afficianados of other art forms to add poetry to their cultural portfolios, Jonathan Davidson and Midland Creative Projects Limited in association with Warwick Arts Centre and Bloodaxe Books present

CHANGING LIVES

Using some of the most powerful poetry published by Bloodaxe Books over the last thirty years, Changing Lives presents poetry as it should be experienced: full of wit, vitality and emotion. It is inspired by every aspect of our changing lives – from birth to death and all the glorious details between. And while there are moments of sadness, Changing Lives also provides comedy and thought provoking stories.

Changing Lives is performed as a theatre piece by a team of three actors and is directed by Steve Byrne, of Interplay Theatre, with Lizzie Wiggs, Associate Director. A haunting sound track, moving images and a stunning design are provided by Derek Nisbett and Janet Vaughan of Talking Birds. The poets whose work is featured include Jackie Kay, Helen Dunmore and David Constantine.

If you are new to poetry or a regular reader, Changing Lives will show why good poetry brilliantly performed is an experience like no other.

Wednesday 3rd October, 2007, 7.45pm, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, 02476 524524 http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk

Thursday 4th October, 2007, 1pm, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, 02476 524524 http:// www.warwickartscentre.co.uk

Thursday 4th October, 2007, 7.45pm, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, 02476 524524 http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk

Saturday 6th October, 2007, 3.30pm, Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton, 01902 321321, http://www.arenatheatre.info

Wednesday 10th October, 2007, 7.30pm, Swindon Arts Centre, 01793 614837, http://www.swindon.gov.uk/artscentre

Thursday 11th October, 2007, 7.45pm, Norden Farm Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead, 01628 788997, http://www.nordenfarm.org

Friday 12th October, 2007, 7.45pm, Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury, 01227 769075, http://www.kent.ac.uk/gulbenkian

Thursday 18th October, 8pm, Darlington Arts Centre, 01325 486555, http://www.darlingtonarts.co.uk

Tuesday 23rd October, 7.30pm, The Electric Cinema, Guildford Literature Festival, 01483 444789, http://www.guildfordbookfestival.co.uk

www.livepoetry.org

*********************************

Changing Lives is a Midland Creative Projects Limited production www.midlandcreative.co.uk

Geoffrey Hill TONIGHT in London

Geoffrey Hill at the LRB Bookshop

World-famous poet Geoffrey Hill will be reading from and discussing his new collection of poems, 'A Treatise of Civil Power'
September 20th, 2007
7:00 PM
The London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place, London ,WC1A2J.

Entrance £6.00.
Ring: 020 7269030 for further information and confirmation.

Slamming at the BIG WORD tonight in Edinburgh

THE BIG WORD SLAM

@ The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh

Thursday 20th September
7.30pm onwards

Come and get slammed TONIGHT in Edinburgh!

2007 Forward Prize Nominees read alongside special guests

FIRST FEET FORWARD

New Generation of Forward Prize for Poetry Nominees: Joanna Boulter, Melanie Challenger, Luke Kennard, and Eleanor Rees read with Special Guests, Jack Mapanje, David Morley, Clare Pollard, and Adam Thorpe.

Poetry Studio, Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, London
(tube Covent Garden)
22nd September
6pm-8pm

Drinks in pub afterwards!

Star-Studded Poetry Event for Oxfam: Tuesday September 25th

OXFAM POETRY READING IN LONDON

Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Time: 7:00pm - 10:30pm
Location: Oxfam Books and Music
Street: 91 Marylebone High Street, London

Contact Info Phone: 02074873570

Email: oxfammarylebone@hotmail.com (mailto:oxfammarylebone@hotmail.com)

Penultimate event in the popular 4-year Oxfam Poetry Series in London. This
fundraising reading features Fleur Adcock, Chris Beckett, Julia Bird, Giles
Goodland, Chris McCabe, David Morley, Mario Petrucci and Matthew Sweeney.

This looks like being an utterly fabulous poetry event. Look at those names! I can't go myself unfortunately but urge anyone else with the chance to do so not to miss this fund-raising evening! Ed.

Tobias Hill at CB1 this October

Cambridge CB1 Poetry at Michaelhouse

Tuesday 9th October
8pm

Well-known and popular Salt poet Tobias Hill reads at CB1 poetry event plus guest support and open floor spots. Come along to listen and bring your own poems to read.

Please note the new venue for CB1: Michaelhouse, Trinity Street, Cambridge, CB2 1SU.
Entrance ?5/?3.
Contact Ian Cartland 07985 708422

Lucy English in Galway (with Slam!)

North Beach Poetry Nights
and
The Friday Lunchtime Reading Series in Galway City Museum
present
LUCY ENGLISH

Thursday Sep. 20th in BK's Winebar, Spanish Arch at 9 pm
and Friday Sep. 21 in the Galway City Museum at 1pm.

Contribution to each event: 5 Euro

Lucy English is a novelist and performance poet.

She has three novels published by Fourth Estate. As a poet she has toured Holland, Denmark, India, Sri Lanka and the U.S . She appeared with Big Word at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 1999-2002 where she was titled, 'the hippy chick love mother sex goddess'. She was a member of the acclaimed 'Temptation' poetry tour in 2005 and artistic director for the 'Exposed' tour in 2006.She was a guest poet at the Calgary Litfest in 2006 and a finalist in the BBC radio Four poetry slam in Sept 2007. She is a senior lecturer in creative studies at Bath Spa University and runs the only UK module in performance poetry.

also

The North Beach Poetry Nights' 2 - Round Slam

Poets wishing to enter the Slam are requested to bring along 2 poems, max. 3 minutes each.

The winner of the Slam receives a bottle of red wine courtesy of BK's Winebar and automatically goes forward to the North Beach Poetry Nights' Grand Slam on December 22nd. The prize for the winner of the Grand Slam is the publication of a collection of the winner's poetry. Thursday 20 September 9 pm Friday 21 Sep. 1 pm BK's Winebar Galway City Museum Spanish Parade, Galway

Check out the NEW!!! North Beach Poetry Nights MySpace for all the news.
You might be there! www.myspace.com/northbeachpoetrynights

Info: john walsh at 091-593290
http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com