Dear Poetry Lover...
Another packed month full or all things poetic and literary - literally!
Please note, this month DGPS has not booked a guest poet, but we are
encouraging you to support the book launches of two local poets: Mandy
Coe and Eleanor Rees, both of whom are launching new books on Wednesday
18th November. See the 'Diary' for further details.
Also, a writer for The Guardian newspaper has contacted me with the
following; "I'm writing a piece about the film Dead Poets Society...
looking for people whose lives were in some way affected and changed by
the film.. I was wondering if you know anyone whose passion for poetry
was ignited by the film, perhaps someone who wouldnt otherwise have been
turned onto poetry..?" So if anyone can help with this, please email me
and I'll put you in touch with the journalist.
Best wishes
Sarah Maclennan
P.S. Click here to become a Facebook friend of Dead Good Poets Society!
November’s Diary
Monday 2nd November @ 8pm – Come Strut Your Stuff! Poetry and Music
Open Mic at The Egg Café, Newington, Liverpool (opposite New Quiggins).
http://www.comestrutyourstuff.co.uk/
Wednesday 4th @ 8pm – DEAD GOOD POETS SOCIETY OPEN FLOOR. 24 slots of
5 minutes over three sets for you to perform your own poetry. New poets
always welcome – come early to book a reading slot. The 3rd Room, The
Everyman Bistro, Hope Street, Liverpool. £2 / £1 pay on the door.
Thursday 5th @ 7.30 pm FIRST THURSDAY POETRY EVENING at Linghams
Bookshop, 248 Telegraph Road, Heswall, Wirral. The programme will
include: Stephen Spender’s centenary - celebrated by Gill Curry and
Guest Poet: Kit Jackson. 1poem open mic £4.
Friday 6th @ 7.30pm - Sarah Waters in conversation. Sarah Waters is
one of the UK’s most popular authors and appears at a special event in
conversation with publisher and author Helen Sandler. Sarah talks
frankly about her career, the importance of lesbian writing and her
latest novel ‘The Little Stranger’ which has been shortlisted for the
Man Booker Prize 2009. Her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, won a 1999
Betty Trask Award and was dramatised for BBC Television. In January
2003, Sarah Waters was named as one of Granta’s twenty Best of Young
British Writers. .
FACT, Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ £10/£8
Box
office 0871 704 2063
Saturday 7th @ 4.30pm: Joanna Briscoe and Charlotte Mendleson.
Charlotte Mendelson, prize-winning author of the Orange
Prize-shortlisted When We Were Bad, will be reading from her novels and
answering questions about her writing. Her first novel, Love in Idleness
[2001], was largely written in her lunch breaks at work. For Daughters
of Jerusalem [2003], her second novel, she was awarded the John
Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted
for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. For her third
novel, When We Were Bad, she was chosen as one of Waterstone's 25
Authors of the Future.Joanna Briscoe is the author of three novels:
Mothers and Other Lovers, which won a Betty Trask Award in 1994, Skins
and Sleep with Me. Sleep with Me was published in ten countries and has
been adapted by Andrew Davies as a two hour drama for ITV. Whilst
writing for many magazines and newspapers and being a literary critic
for The Guardian, Joanna has just finished her fourth novel and will
read from this and her other work.
FACT, Wood St, Liverpool, L1 4DQ
£5/£3
Box office 0871 704 2063
Monday 9th: 4pm - 5pm: Children's Poetry Workshop Family groups will be
invited to meet renowned author and performance poet Jan Dean. Jan is a
frequent visitor to Sefton; she has performed at the annual Summer
Reading Challenge awards ceremony for the past three years. The group
will listen to Jan reciting some of her poems; Jan will then help the
group compose a poem of their own! Formby Library All Library Workshops
are FREE!
To book please call the Box Office on 01704 540011 or 0151 928
1919.
Tickets will be left at the library to be picked up on the day of
the event.
Monday 9th@ 8pm The Bards of New Brighton popular open mic in the
Magazines Pub, New Brighton, Wirral. Free.
Tuesday 10th: 1pm-2.30pm – The Poetry of Philosophy. Debate organised
by Philosophy in Pubs. The Hub, The Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool. Free.
Tuesday 10th: 2pm - 4pm: Introduction to Writing Poetry. Join Sarah
Maclennan for an informal workshop which will introduce the world of
poetry, get you thinking about rhythm and verse and encourage you to
have a go at writing your own poetry. No experience necessary. College
Road Library
Tuesday 10th : 2pm - 4pm Some Girl's Mothers - Writing Workshop with
Anne Caldwell @ Churchtown Library. Anne Caldwell is a poet, prose
writer and highly experienced workshop leader. The workshop will explore
the theme of mothers and daughters and how to use other biological
material as inspiration for creative writing. It is open to beginners
and experienced writers.
All Library Workshops are FREE! To book please call the Box Office on 01704 540011 or 0151 928 1919.
Tickets will be left at the library to be picked up on the day of the event.
For more writing workshops and other poetry events in the Southport
Festival of Writing go to http://www.seftonarts.co.uk/whatson.php
Tuesday 10th @ 8pm: A Poet In New York - with Keith James & Rick Foot
The evening opens with a rare opportunity to see a 50 minute 2006 film
documentary of the life and work of Leonard Cohen featuring archive
concert and interview footage.
Singer and skilled guitarist Keith James presents an evening of lyrical
songs with the accompaniment of the virtuosic and characterful double
bass playing of Rick Foot. Songs by other New York voices, including Bob
Dylan and Suzanne Vega, provide a counterpoint to the song settings of
Lorca's poems and Cohen classics.
Tickets: £10 (£8 concessions)
Booking Fees: Internet Booking Fee: £1.50
per ticket / Telephone
Booking Fee: £2 per transaction.
Tel: 01704
540011
Crosby Civic Hall, Main Hall Clubstyle
Wednesday 11th @ 7.30pm - Roger McGough - That Awkward Age. Miracle
birth of a new collection and an evening of poems to amaze & delight!
McGough wrestles with mortality, seeks love in the launderette,
perspires in the Foreign Legion, snaps Henri Cartier Bresson in
Liverpool and jives in Macca’s trousers. He shares the pain of Lord
Godiva and Mr Nightingale, considers his Final Poem and shakes a fist at
Alzheimer’s. Addresses, elegies, prayers & ever perceptive playfulness
in the face of awfulness make this a must-go. The event will be followed
by a Q & A session and a book signing.
Crosby Civic Hall, Main Hall
Tickets: £15 (£13 concessions)
Booking Fees: Internet Booking Fee: £1.50 per ticket /
Telephone Booking
Fee: £2 per transaction.
Tel: 01704 540011
Sunday 15th @ 7.30pm – Four Poets! Join us for an evening with four of
Liverpool's leading female poets, each of whom will be reading from
their publications and talking about their work.
Gladys Mary Coles is one of the country's most prolific, admired and
award winning poets. She runs the hugely popular Headland Press,
publishing new works by contemporary poets.
Mandy Coe is a nationally acclaimed ward-winning poet writing for adults
and children. Her poetry has appeared in The Guardian, Radio Times and
on BBC television and radio.
Pauline Rowe's first full collection "Waiting for the Brown Trout God"
(Headland 2009) is a book of elegies - for childhood, for the experience
of motherhood, for lost love. Pauline has been widely published in
magazines and has 2 previous pamphlets, the most recent being "Playing
Out Time" (Driftwood, 2005).
Rebecca Goss has been widely published in anthologies and magazines,
including Ambit, Stand, The Reader and Mslexia. Her work has also been
broadcast on BBC Radio 4. A collection of her poems, Keeping Houston
Time, was published by Slow Dancer Press.
Venue: Crosby Civic Hall, Main Hall (unreserved).
Tickets: £7 (£5
concessions)
Booking Fees: Internet Booking Fee: £1.50 per ticket /
Telephone Booking
Fee: £2 per transaction
Tel: 01704 540011
DEAD GOOD POETS ON TOUR! Tonight, instead of presenting a DGPS Guest Poet, we would like to
encourage DGPS members to support two local poets who are both launching
their new books.
Wednesday 18th: 7.30pm - Mandy Coe launches her latest poetry
collection, Clay (Shoestring Press). Mandy Coe is an award-winning poet
whose work has been broadcast on BBC TV and radio. She was joint winner
of the 2008 Manchester Poetry Prize and is a Hawthornden Fellow. Clay is
her third collection. "Mandy Coe's poems make us see things: they
transfigure that world-around-us we think we know but really only
half-see."
Venue: Parr Street Studios, Parr Street, Liverpool. Free entry
Wednesday 18th: 7pm-9pm. Eleanor Rees launches her second book Eliza &
the Bear. Eleanor Rees’s second collection from Salt Publishing explores
the tensions between wildness and cultivation in poems of lyrical energy
and vivid imagination. The launch features a reading by Rees and a
performance of the title poem by Cathy Butterworth with Rebecca Joy
Sharp on harp. Performance Space, Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool. Free
event, but a ticket is required.
Thursday 19th @8.30pm - The Wirral Ode Show - Poetry Open Mic held at
The Stork Hotel, Price Street (a hop, skip and a jump away from Hamilton
Square), Birkenhead. Friendly atmosphere, new readers always welcome!
Tuesday 24th: 6.30pm-8pm – Da’Verse. Poetry workshop with an eclectic
mix of poets and poetry, comprising new material and an open mic slot.
The Sandon Room, Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool. Free but ticket required.
Thursday 26th November: 7pm-9pm. Liverpool Poetry Café presents ‘From
the Northwest’. A night of northwest poets, and a chance to talk to
local poetry press editors. The Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool. Free
but ticket required.
Friday 27th @7.30pm - North End Writers presents The Ian McMillan
Orchestra at the Cornerstone Festival at the Great Hall, Cornerstone
Buildings, Liverpool Hope at Everton (off Shaw Street – entrance on
Haigh Street)
Tickets £8 / £5 concessions
Box office: 0151 291 3578
North End Writers is delighted to bring the Ian McMillan Orchestra to
Liverpool as part of Liverpool Hope University’s Cornerstone Festival.
The Ian McMillan Orchestra is a meeting of words and music; a place
where poems become songs and songs become stories and stories work their
way into your imagination so that you think you knew them all along.
Words and Music have always complemented each other; in The Ian McMillan
Orchestra they share the same space, drive the same train, inhabit the
same tent. And it's a big tent.
Saturday 28th November: 10.30am-4.30pm – Poetry & Home: Inspiration
for your Writing. Poetry Workshop with Neil Rollinson. What is home? Is
it where the heart is? What do the different spaces mean to us? The home
is symbolic and full of narrative. Explore its resonances in your
poetry. Suitable for general level, from beginners on.
To book please contact the Poetry School on 0207 582 1679 or online at
www.poetryschool.com
Saturday, Nov 28, 2.30pm, Admission Free POETS and PLAYERS present MICHAEL LASKEY at Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6ER (opposite the Royal
Infirmary). Michael Laskey is a full time freelance poet, editor, and tutor with
many years experience of promoting contemporary poetry. He founded the
international Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in 1989 and directed it through
its first decade. He also founded the poetry magazine Smiths Knoll with
Roy Blackman in 1991 and since Roy's death in 2002 has been editing it
with Joanna Cutts.
As a poet he has published four collections and three pamphlets – Cloves
of Garlic (1988), which won the Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition, In
the Fruit Cage (1997) and Living by the Sea (2007).
Saturday 5th December: 12:00pm - 8:30pm From Laptop to Bookshop Ticket Prices: £20 / 15 Day ticket including readings
£10 / 7.50 single workshop, £5 / 3 readings An exciting day of
workshops, readings and meet the author events, suitable for emerging
and more experienced prose fiction writers.
12.00 - 2.00pm Workshop (women only): Writing a Synopsis, with Debbie
Taylor - helping writers identify what their book is about and
communicate it to an agent or editor.
3.00 - 5.00pm Workshop (women only): First Paragraph, with Lesley
Glaister - helping novelists and short story writers create an arresting
opening.
7.00 - 8.30pm Reading/interview (open to all): Hilary Mantel & Debbie
Taylor. Hilary Mantel reads from her most recent work and talks about
her personal ‘road to publication’: how she became a writer, her
mistakes, regrets, false starts. Followed by an interview and questions
from the audience.
For other Wirral-based poetry events, please see http://www.clarekirwan.co.uk/Scene.htm
News/Opportunities
www.blankmediacollective.org/blankpages - blankpages is a monthly
digital magazine for emerging artists. ISSUE 16 out is now! Available
for FREE download! This month is a POETRY SPECIAL! DOMINIC BERRY, JUSTIN
WALSH, an excellent interview with GERRY POTTER and LOADS MORE!
Kudos Magazine lists a gazillion writing competitions. For details check
their website: http://www.kudoswritingcompetitions.com/
For this month's poetry competitions, please click on this link: http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/