What We Do
Membership
A Capital of Culture...
A Brief History of DGPS

WHAT WE DO
The Dead Good Poets Society exists to promote poetry through performance and to encourage the development of new poets and audiences in Merseyside.
We hope to increase the skills of local poets both in their writing, their performance and in their reading and appreciation of other poets. We do this through regular Open Floor nights, Guest nights, and through a programme of workshops and projects. These are described in more detail under Events.,

We also have an anthology of members poetry over the last five years, available for £7.00 inc postage from the office, 96 Bold Street, Liverpool L1 4HY (cheques payable to DGPS). Poets include Jean Sprackland, Levi Tafari, Roger McGough and regular readers who are establishing themselves in the 21st century. Also available from bookshops for £7.95. The Dead Good Poets Society: the Book (Headland Press, 2005)

MEMBERSHIP
Those who perform their work at DGPS Open Floor nights are automatically members, as are other individuals who attend these events regularly. Anyone with an interest in poetry may receive the monthly newsletter – even those who live out of our area and can only rarely attend events.



A CAPITAL OF CULTURE... POETRY'S MISSING LINKS

Everyone's heard of the Liverpool Poets - and the Beatles - but that was the sixties. Who has been carrying the poetry torch since then?
Well, for starters: Dinesh Allirajah, Mandy Coe, Gladys Mary Coles, Deryn Rees-Jones, Jean Sprackland, Levi Tafari and Glyn Wright. All have produced significant work over the last 20 years in Liverpool. For example, Sprackland's recent book Hard Water (Cape, 2004) was short-listed for the 2004 Poetry Whitbread. She and Rees-Jones were lauded as Next Generation poets in 2004 too.
Also, deserving mention are some of our own stalwarts: David Bateman, Shehnaz Somjee, Colin Watts, and new voices Clare Kirwan and Cath Nichols.
Other nights have their own stars: at the youthful end of the spectrum Nathan Jones (from Wales) and Ross Sutherland (from down south) promote the innovative night Fiction, Tom George and Nick Payne host at The Egg Open Floor.

We like to think that Liverpool poets and poetry audiences embrace those from further afield. Our regular gigs draw people from Wirral, St Helen's, Wigan, Bolton, Preston and so on. The city has always been a port and people arriving and leaving is a given. Maybe the scene is so vibrant because everybody gets a chance?
So, are there a new breed of 'Liverpool Poets' out there?

Who can tell? Maybe it's no longer about the Next Big Thing. What has improved since the sixties is that there are now more women poets, more confident queers, more people from diverse backgrounds and different levels of education who are taking part and giving their voices to the ever-changing cultures that make up Liverpool.

A BRIEF HISTORY
DGPS was started around 1989 in the upstairs bar of the Pilgrim pub in Liverpool. Initially called the Pilgrim Poets they started to run events under the name the Evil Dead Poets in 1991. The current name was adopted as a funding-friendly brand when regional arts board money became available to run monthly guest nights. The Dead Good Poets Society has moved through several venues in its lifetime, and currently resides at the Everyman Bistro Third Room.

Amongst the guest poets that we have hosted have been:
Simon Armitage
Paul Farley
Peter Finch
Rosie Lugosi
Les Murray
Chloe Poems
Myra Schneider
Jean Sprackland
The Rommi Smith band
Levi Tafari

We try to balance the range of poets invited to read at Guest Nights by gender, but also by style and content. We appreciate and promote poetry written for the page and for performance. Our supporting poets and comperes at these Guest Nights are usually up-and-coming local poets. Some of our guest poets stay the night in Liverpool and present a ‘master class’ poetry workshop the following day. Look out for these on the diary page.