Friday, February 27, 2009

HALESWORTH: Poetry at The Cut

Friday, March 13, 2009, 7.30pm, £7 (£3.50 under 18s)
The Cut,
Halesworth,
Suffolk

Poetry reading and writing workshop with Ann Sansom and Peter Sansom, the legendary team from Sheffield’s The Poetry Business.

Join Ann and Peter for a reading guaranteed to improve anyone’s mood! Both are utterly genuine and engaging writers and performers, and their marvellously human poems work beautifully both on the page and stage.

Ann Sansom has published six collections, has written and directed plays for stage and radio, and is currently working on a series of film-related poems with the British Film Institute. Her poems celebrate the lives of ordinary people – stoics with the courage to laugh in the face of adversity.

Peter Sansom was previously poet-in-residence at Marks and Spencer and The Prudential, and has had poems commissioned by The Guardian, BBC Radio 3 and The Big Breakfast. He relishes colloquial language and everyday experiences, making art out of darts and banquets out of butties!

The following day (Saturday March 14th, 10.30am – 4pm), at the Hopper Room, The Cut, Halesworth, there's a Poetry Business Writing Day. It's a unique chance to experience Ann and Peter’s skills as inspirational and highly experienced tutors – “the best poetry teachers in the world”, according to The Guardian. Come and benefit from their brilliant repertoire of exercises and write your most surprising, truthful and rewarding poems. Tickets are £45, including lunch. Maximum 16 places available.

Box Office (both events) 0845 673 2123, e-mail: boxoffice@newcut.org

Supported by The Limbourne Trust

Thursday, February 26, 2009

LONDON: Philip Kuhn and Robert Sheppard

Tuesday, 3rd March, 2009, 7:30pm, FREE
Swedenborg Hall
Swedenborg House
20/21 Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2TH

The second in Shearsman's 2009 Reading Series features Philip Kuhn and Robert Sheppard, both of whom have new collections from Shearsman Books. More details are at:
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2009/kuhn.html
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2009/sheppardWE.html

Biographical details may be found at:
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/authors/kuhnA.html
http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/authors/sheppardA.html

Subsequent readings - all at the same venue - will take place on Tuesday 31st March, with Erin Moure (reading her translations of Chus Pato) and Lisa Samuels, 16th April with Martin Anderson and Claire Crowther, 5th May with Anne Blonstein and others tbc, 2nd June with Kenny Knight and others tbc.

LEAMINGTON SPA: Geometry Of Fear

Thursday, February 26, 2009, 6pm-7pm, £3
Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum
Royal Pump Rooms,
The Parade,
Leamington Spa
CV32 4AA

British poet Kelvin Corcoran will recite poems inspired by the spiky, twisted forms of the sculptures on display in the Geometry of Fear exhibition. The exhibition, which brings together sculptures and works on paper from the Arts Council Collection, explores the generation of sculptors that emerged in the post-war years and created work in direct response to the horrors of the Holocaust, World War II and the climate of fear generated by the Cold War. Corcoran’s poems, taken from his recently published book, What Hit Them (Oystercatcher Press, 2008), focus on the post-war achievement of key figures in the group and put the sculptures into a contemporary and personal context.

Places are limited for this event which takes place within the exhibition space. Please call 01926 742700 to reserve your place.

LONDON: Rhythm & Muse

Thursday, 26th February, 2009, 8.30pm-10.30pm, £5/£4
The Lion,
27 Wick Road,
Teddington,
TW11

Guest poets Myra Schneider and Andre Mangeot, music from singer-songwriter Janis Haves, plus an open mic (book in advance)

Email Alison Hill for more details: alison-hill@blueyonder.co.uk or see
new website at: www.rhythmandmuse.org

Tom Chivers book launch in London: diary date

Launch of The Terrors by Tom Chivers

Sunday 29th March
The Market Trader
50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX
Nearest Tubes: Aldgate, Aldgate East, Liverpool Street
Free entry

Drinking games & petty chit-chat from 7pm
Readings by Tom Chivers, Tim Wells, Jane Holland, Jane Commane & James Wilkes from 8pm

The Terrors is the first in a series of special mini-pamphlets from Nine Arches Press; darkly-humoured e-dispatches of crime and punishment from over the walls and across centuries....

The Terrors is a sequence of imagined emails; poetic missives from the start of the 21st century to inmates at London's notorious Newgate Prison. The emails introduce a cast of 18th century villains and their gruesome crimes: 'Half-hanged Smith'; executioner-turned-murderer Jack Ketch; the notorious Waltham Blacks.

Mimicking the tone of its primary source, The Newgate Calendar, The Terrors tacks from horror to humour, from moral disgust to the casual chit-chat of the digital generation, all the time delineating London's violent urban undercurrent in bold, energetic and sometimes shocking language.

£5 from Nine Arches (from launch date)

Salmon Launches in Galway, March 13th

Two Salmon Books To Be Launched at Sheridan’s Gala Literary Evening

Over The Edge and Salmon Poetry present the launch of Seaway: New and Selected Poems by Todd Swift & Poetry: Reading It, Writing It, Publishing It (Edited by Jessie Lendennie) plus readings by Patrick Chapman, Edward Boyne & Megan Buckley at Sheridan’s Wine Bar, 14-16 Church Yard Street, Galway on Friday, March 13th, 8pm.

There is no entrance fee. All are welcome. For further information contact 087-6431748.

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

http://www.overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com/

Poet-Performers Wanted Urgently!

Heritage: 7 poets wanted to perform new work inspired by museums objects.

As part of The Lyric Lounge, WORD! and 2Funky Arts are seeking seven emerging talents to write and perform new work, inspired by museum objects.

Commissioned poets will be paid £200 each and attend six closely mentored workshops, between April and July 09, with renowned poet and director, Kevin Fegan. Their finished work will be professionally set to music and visuals and performed as part of ‘Heritage’ one of 7 high profile ‘Lyric Lounge’ nights. ‘Heritage’ will explore Special Olympics values and be a chance to develop your talent and profile whilst learning more about accessing museum resources.

WORD! and 2Funky Arts will be holding an audition to select participants for ‘Heritage’. The audition will be held as part of WORD! on Tuesday March 3rd 2009, 8pm, at The Y (East St) Leicester. We'd really like you to perform as you would at an open mic (3-5 mins), but feel free to incorporate the theme(s) of heritage into your piece if you'd like. To register and for more information please contact Pam Thompson, via: violetstar22@hotmail.com. You can also register on the night.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

LONDON: Lumen Poetry Series

Tuesday, 10th March, 2009, doors open 6.30pm for 7pm, £4/£3, wine
88 Tavistock Place,
London
WC1
Tubes: Russell Square , Kings Cross, St Pancras.

Ruth O'Callaghan presents Katabasis with Maria Eugenia Bravo Calderara, Adele David, Cicely Herbert, Dinah Livingstone and Dilys Wood.

Poets from the floor very welcome. Please bring a copy of your poem if you wish to be considered for the anthology sponsored by the thought-provoking Cinnamon Press. Proceeds to the Cold Weather Shelter.

ST ALBANS: Chris Hicks on Poetry Link tour

Wednesday, 25th February, 2009, 8pm
Oral Cabaret @ The Maltings Arts Theatre

February’s Poetry Link tour is headlined by Chris Hicks – the sharpest legal mind in poetry. Chris is a quarter of Aisle16 and his work has featured on McSweeneys, Radio 1 and Resonance FM. He has performed at Reading, Glastonbury, Leeds, Latitude and Port Elliot Literature Festival.

With Mat Lloyd.

Monday, February 23, 2009

LEWES: Lewes Poetry

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009, 8pm, £5
Lewes Arms,
Lewes,
1 Mount Place,
Lewes,
East Sussex

Lewes Poetry celebrates its first birthday with an extended set by Elvis McGonagall. Elvis won the World Slam Poetry Championships and is a regular performer on Radio 4’s Saturday Live. It’s just a fiver for that, an open mic, and the famous prize limerick competition.

CHELTENHAM: Buzzwords Poetry Night

Sunday, 1st March, 2009, 8pm, minimum £3, £5 if you are able
upstairs at The Exmouth Arms,
Bath Road,
Cheltenham

TALES FROM THE WOMAN IN BLACK
Chloe the Midnight Storyteller unearths some of her strangest stories, from spinetingling adventure to bloodfreezing fear, from Venice to East Africa via wild magic, living nightmares and squelching horror… not for the fainthearted. Tonight, love and laughter will be severely tested by the voices of darkness. This show is intended for adults and is not suitable for under 12s.

7pm YarnSpinning workshop, led by Chloe [designed to encourage poets and other writers to try verbal improvisation]

LINGFIELD: Writing poetry the Haiku way

Monday, March 9th - Friday, March 13th, 2009
Claridge House
Dormans Road, Lingfield, Surrey, RH7 6QH
Website: http://www.claridgehousequaker.org.uk
online enquiry: http://www.claridgehousequaker.org.uk/mailform.php
Phone: +44 (0)845 3457281
Phone: +44 (0)1342 832150

This haiku poetry course also includes an insight into other 'forms' associated with haiku:
  • The Haiku Game: great entertainment & ice-breaker and a relaxed way to start to understand all about haiku
  • Haiku: history & techniques; how to keep a haiku journal (complimentary Haiku Journal); how to read or perform haiku (and haibun); and how to get published.
  • Tanka: the short love poem
  • Haibun (prose with haiku): great for journal/diary entries; and travel writing
  • Ginko: (writing walk) with complimentary Haiku Journal
  • Renga Party: the last full day with a 12 verse renga, just for fun!
There will be plenty of opportunity to read and perform, and to have one-one and/or group feedback on haiku and other forms that you wish to either get to publishable quality, or wish to develop further in your writing as a poet; novelist; travel writer (and other non-fiction); or journal/diarist.

Alan Summers is a Japan Times award-winning poet for haiku and renga with 15 years' experience; former General Secretary of the British Haiku Society: and founder of With Words. The Haiku Journal notebook was launched last year at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the Thames Festival. He is currently a Japan-UK 150 renga & haiku poet-in-residence.

Residential Course "Writing Poetry: the haiku way" is £290, including accomodation and food. Bursary help available - enquire online or phone for details. Claridge House have a policy of not asking people to share.

PETERBOROUGH: Chris Hicks on Poetry Link tour

Tuesday, 24th February, 2009, 8pm
Speakeasy @ The Glass Onion

February’s Poetry Link tour is headlined by Chris Hicks – the sharpest legal mind in poetry. Chris is a quarter of Aisle16 and his work has featured on McSweeneys, Radio 1 and Resonance FM. He has performed at Reading, Glastonbury, Leeds, Latitude and Port Elliot Literature Festival.

With Jenny Orr and Cardinal Cox.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

NORWICH: Chris Hicks on Poetry Link tour

Monday, 23rd February 2009, 8pm, £5
The Monday Night Alternative @ Norwich Arts Centre

February’s Poetry Link tour is headlined by Chris Hicks – the sharpest legal mind in poetry. Chris is a quarter of Aisle16 and his work has featured on McSweeneys, Radio 1 and Resonance FM. He has performed at Reading, Glastonbury, Leeds, Latitude and Port Elliot Literature Festival.
With Molly Naylor, Patrick Lappin and Susie Showers.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

SOUTHEND: Chris Hicks on Poetry Link tour

Sunday, 22nd February, 2009, 7pm
Sundown @ Tiffins Restaurant
11-12 The Esplanade,
Southend

February’s Poetry Link tour is headlined by Chris Hicks – the sharpest legal mind in poetry. Chris is a quarter of Aisle16 and his work has featured on McSweeneys, Radio 1 and Resonance FM. He has performed at Reading, Glastonbury, Leeds, Latitude and Port Elliot Literature Festival.

With Project Adorno and Johnny Fluffypunk.

LEAMINGTON SPA: PureandGoodandRight

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009, 7pm to book a slot, 7.30pm prompt start, £3/£2
The Fox,
32 Clarendon Avenue,
Leamington Spa
CV32 4RZ

PUREandGOODandRIGHT is an open mic poetry event - we also have great guest performance poets! Every event is an opportunity for YOU to come along and perform your poetry!!

Our VERY special guest this month is our very own and truly amazing Dick Leith. He has been a regular performer at PureandGoodandRight for the last two years. He specialises in daft verse, silly voices and likes nothing more than a good laugh. He is also a singer songwriter, actor, storyteller, lecturer and academic writer...an all-round show-off!

Frequent visitors to PGR will know that even a victim of Medusa's worst stare would find it impossible not to crack a smile at much of Dick's verse. By turns laugh-out-loud funny, bitingly satirical, and often deeply thought provoking - this is a chance to see a true master of his craft being given the chance to do what he does best.

With open mic support from…….YOU! Come and share your poems - seasoned poets and first time performers most welcome!

If you're planning to come along, or would like to know more about the night, please email pgrpoetryandpints@talktalk.net

Friday, February 20, 2009

LEAMINGTON SPA: Geometry Of Fear

Thursday, February 26, 2009, 6pm-7pm, £3
Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum
Royal Pump Rooms,
The Parade,
Leamington Spa
CV32 4AA

British poet Kelvin Corcoran will recite poems inspired by the spiky, twisted forms of the sculptures on display in the Geometry of Fear exhibition. The exhibition, which brings together sculptures and works on paper from the Arts Council Collection, explores the generation of sculptors that emerged in the post-war years and created work in direct response to the horrors of the Holocaust, World War II and the climate of fear generated by the Cold War. Corcoran’s poems, taken from his recently published book, What Hit Them (Oystercatcher Press, 2008), focus on the post-war achievement of key figures in the group and put the sculptures into a contemporary and personal context.

Places are limited for this event which takes place within the exhibition space. Please call 01926 742700 to reserve your place.

KENDAL: A Twist Of Malice reading

Saturday, 21st February, 2009, 2pm-3pm, all welcome
Waterstones,
Westmorland Centre

A Twist of Malice
Meg Peacocke, Carole Bromley, Gina Shaw and Rosemary McLeish will be reading poems from this popular new anthology and more…plus wine and nibbles.

‘Nothing mimsy about these poems by older women. Fierce, funny, disturbing and fairly vicious. Lovely’.
Michele Hanson in The Guardian

Thursday, February 19, 2009

LONDON: Shoestring Take 5 '09

Friday, 20th February, 2009, 7pm (doors open 6.30), £4/£3, wine
Trinity United Reform Church
1 Buck St,
Camden Town
(2 minutes Camden Town tube.)

Ruth O'Callaghan presents Shoestring's Take 5 '09 Australian edition with Adrian Caesar, Christopher Salveson and guest poet Peter Porter. Poets from the floor very welcome. Cinnamon Press is our new sponsor - please bring a copy of the poem if you wish to be considered for the new anthology.

Proceeds to COLD WEATHER SHELTER

BRADFORD: Basir Sultan Kazmi in performance

Friday 20th February, 6.30pm, FREE
Theatre in the Mill,
University of Bradford
Reserve your place by calling 01274 233200

Born in Pakistan in 1955, Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Bradford, Basir Sultan Kazmi, is a poet who works in the ghazal tradition, following in the footsteps of his late father, Nasir Kazmi.

Basir both studied and taught English Literature at the Government College Lahore where he edited Ravi (1974) and ran the college literary and dramatic societies. He studied for his M.Ed, P.G.C.E and M.Phil at the University of Manchester between 1991 and 2000. Currently a teacher in Manchester, Basir has also worked for the BBC Asian programme (19991-92) and has conducted poetry and drama workshops all over the UK.

He has published an Urdu poetry collection Moj-e-Khayal (1997) and his translations of ghazals were published as A Little Bridge (1997) and Generations of Ghazals (2003) as well as in several magazines and anthologies.

Basir’s Urdu play Bisaat was published in 1987 and its translation The Chess Board in 1997. In 1992 he won the North West Playwrights Workshop Award.

His plays have been performed in theatres across the north of England and he has given poetry readings in Europe, Pakistan and the USA.

TLMC on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7080962005

Myspace www.myspace.com/tasminlittlemusiccentre

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

LONDON: Rhythm & Muse

Thursday, 26th February, 2009, 8.30pm-10.30pm, £5/£4
The Lion,
27 Wick Road,
Teddington,
TW11

Guest poets Myra Schneider and Andre Mangeot, music from singer-songwriter Janis Haves, plus an open mic (book in advance)

Email Alison Hill for more details: alison-hill@blueyonder.co.uk or see
new website at: www.rhythmandmuse.org

BALLINA: Kevin Higgins

Thursday, February 19th, 2009, 8pm
Ballina Arts Centre

Kevin Higgins was born in London in 1967, and grew up in Galway City, where he still lives. He is co-organiser of the highly successful Over The Edge literary events. His two poetry collections are The Boy With No Face (Salmon, 2005) and Time Gentlemen, Please (Salmon, 2008). The Boy With No Face was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award and has recently gone to its second printing. One of the poems from Time Gentlemen, Please, My Militant Tendency, features in the Forward Book of Poetry 2009. He is the poetry critic of The Galway Advertiser. His work will be featured in the forthcoming anthology Identity Parade – The New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe, 2010). His third collection of poems, Frightening New Furniture, will be published by Salmon Poetry next year.

http://www.ballinaartscentre.com/events/2009/feb/19/kevin-higgins-reading/

LONDON: Apples & Snakes Open Mic

Thursday, February 19th, 2009, 7.30pm, £3

The Albany,
Douglas Way,
London,
SE8 4AG

Newcomers meet the seasoned performers on equal terms. It's simple - a roomful of poets, performers and people who just want to hear poetry. Arrive early and claim your all important slot in the spotlight. Hosted by Inua 'Phaze' Ellams and featuring Esther Poyer.

Box Office:02086924446

Info:www.applesandsnakes.org/02084656154

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

KENDAL: A Twist Of Malice reading

Saturday, 21st February, 2009, 2pm-3pm, all welcome
Waterstones,
Westmorland Centre

A Twist of Malice
Meg Peacocke, Carole Bromley, Gina Shaw and Rosemary McLeish will be reading poems from this popular new anthology and more…plus wine and nibbles.

‘Nothing mimsy about these poems by older women. Fierce, funny, disturbing and fairly vicious. Lovely’.
Michele Hanson in The Guardian

SHEFFIELD: Cake Open Mic

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009, from 8pm
CAKE art space,
above Lounge bar,
West Street,
Sheffield

This is only our second event, but the first was awesome, so it's back by popular demand and now it's monthly! An open mic event, featuring spokenword, haiku, poetry, slam, sonnet - everyone welcome!