Aldeburgh Conversation: Jane Draycott

Jane Draycott in a packed 8-minute conversation with Robert Seatter at Aldeburgh 2011 touching on how good poetry translators have to be good poets; the lure of collaborative projects; the narrative associative power of the international phonetic alphabet; and how being a teacher means she never stops learning.

Aldeburgh Conversation: Maurice Riordan

Maurice Riordan talks with Robert Seatter about the predicament of being an Irish poet, saying the same prayers as Paul Muldoon, finding his own voice via American poetry, short stories and prose poems, and discovering ‘the music of what happens’.

Look out for more new podcasts arriving on The Poetry Channel very soon

Aldeburgh Poetry Festival headquarters (former HSBC bank!)

52 events (15 free), twenty-five poets and the best poetry audience (overall attendance a record-breaking 4,692!). Re-live November and look forward to next year’s programme…

The 2011 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Photo Gallery

In addition to the cash award (£1,000), the Aldeburgh prize carries two incalculable benefits for the winner. Nancy Gaffield will receive a paid invitation to read at next year’s 24th Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, plus a unique week’s paid protected writing time on the inspirational East Suffolk coast. No other poetry prize makes such an investment in new talent.

A year ago, Nancy was still waiting to hear if her book would be published and she was simply astonished at the news of her win:

“For me, Tokaido Road was a book that just had to be written: how it would be received was a complete unknown. I never imagined that it would achieve such recognition. Aldeburgh attracts support from so many distinguished poets and commands so much respect, that I could not have wished for a better reception for my work.”

The book (which was also shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection) was described by Robert Seatter, one of this year’s three judges, as “a remarkable piece of subtle, sustained and surprising writing. Taking as its starting point a set of period Japanese prints, Nancy reinvents these images as a revelatory journey which feels both fresh and timeless. It’s as if every word must have been written before, but comes new off the page.”

“The poems are strong in atmosphere and realisation, fluid, involving, at home with the uncertain, with human grief, memory, longing, history”, according to fellow judge Penelope Shuttle. “Here, then, is poetry as time machine, providing what Elizabeth Bishop required of poetry – ‘mystery, accuracy, and spontaneity’.”

Charles Boyle, Founding Editor of CB Editions said:
“However good, first collections from small presses are rarely noticed by more than a handful of dedicated readers. Even to be on the shortlist for the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize makes a big difference: attention is focused, and the book begins to gain the readership it deserves. The prize deserves the continuing support of everyone – the Arts Council included – interested in widening the audience for new poetry.”

The judges for the 2011 Aldeburgh First Collection Prize were Michael Laskey (Chair), Robert Seatter and Penelope Shuttle. Their 2011 Shortlist comprised:
  Rachael Boast     Sidereal (Picador)
  Tom Duddy          The Hiding Place (Arlen House)
  Nancy Gaffield     Tokaido Road (CB Editions)
  Ed Reiss              Your Sort (Smith Doorstop)
  Jacqueline Saphra The Kitchen of Lovely Contraptions
    (Flipped Eye Publishing)

The Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, established in 1989, was the first UK award designed to recognise and benefit a poet at first book stage. Supported from 2003 until 2008 by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation (as the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize), it is one of the UK’s oldest and most influential prizes for contemporary poetry. Previous winners include Tiffany Atkinson, Colette Bryce, Christian Campbell, Nick Laird, Esther Morgan, Robin Robertson, Henry Shukman and Susan Wicks.

We hoped you enjoyed the Aldeburgh Experience. Poets always say that it’s the audience that makes the Festival special – phenomenally big and extraordinarily attentive – so thank you if you were among this year’s multitudinous attenders. And if you couldn’t make it this time, the good news is that there will be another Festival next year. We’ll be announcing some exciting plans soon – and the dates for next year. So do keep clicking back to this site and definitely ‘like’ our Facebook page!

We hope we’ll see you there – but if you aren’t able to attend (or you’re reading this after the Festival), listen out for our Aldeburgh podcasts on the Poetry Channel. We’ll be posting a whole host of these in the coming days and weeks and one directly from the Festival over the weekend.

We’ll also be announcing the winner of our First Collection Prize on Friday and there’ll be news of that here too.

In the meantime, we’d like to wish everyone a very happy Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.

You won’t want to miss Roger McGough at Aldeburgh. He’ll be showing the range of his work with a Family Reading, a more adult set in his cabaret event and he’ll also be subject to a Q & A from TPT’s very own Dean Parkin. Here’s Roger delivering the very moving poem A Fine Romance. There really is only one Roger McGough!

‎Fleur Adcock is another poet we’re delighted to be welcoming back to Suffolk. As well as reading, she’ll be discussing the 21st Century Poem, reconsidering the work of George MacBeth and also giving a Close Reading. Here’s Fleur reading two wonderfully Adcock-ian poems - Weathering and Things.

Aldeburgh has a tradition of bringing the best American poets to the UK and so we’re excited to have Kay Ryan at the Festival for her first reading in this country. A fomer US Poet Laureate, she’s very much followed her own style. Here’s Kay reading a particularly delicious poem Turtle.

It’s an American Poet Laureate double-bill because we’ve also got Robert Hass winging his way from San Francisco. He’s a giant of US poetry and also an authority on Haiku and Polish grand master Milosz (he’ll be doing events on both at Aldeburgh). Here he is celebrating the Haikus of Issa at the Dodge Poetry Festival.

Just four reasons why you can’t afford to miss the UK’s best annual celebration of contemporary poetry.

You can see who they all are:
Festival Supporters
Corporate Friends

Now available is a Poem Show Special, featuring three highlights from the night, one each from Helen Dunmore, Jackie Kay and Alice Oswald. You can also hear some audience reaction to the Prom – and what makes it such an exceptional event. And later this month we’ll be posting an Alice Oswald Interview about her new book, Memorial (her ‘’version’ of Homer’s Iliad). Look out for more details in this month’s forthcoming STUFF (our e-newsletter). For the freshest Poetry Trust news delivered to your inbox, sign up for it here.

Alice wondered how on earth we get an audience of over 700 to a poetry gig in deepest Suffolk. But for the ninth year in a row that’s exactly what happened – with more than a third of the audience experiencing live poetry in the incredible setting of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall for the very first time. And if proof were needed that most poetry books sell at readings, then look no further than the Poetry Prom: it took the poets quite a while to sign some of the 250 books that were sold.

All three poets kept wonderfully to time – reading for 25 minutes each – and there’s a sample poem from each in our latest Poem Show podcast, available on The Poetry Channel. Helen opened, engaging us all from the start with her stylish confidence, warmth and wisdom. Jackie’s infectious humour and humanity bounced us between laughter and lump in the throat – and back. And for oral and aural poetry at its most potent, Alice treated us to a preview extract from Memorial – her new ‘version’ of Homer’s Iliad – which isn’t due to be published until October (but Faber got advance copies to Snape in time).

A big thank you to our three great British women poets for such a memorable poetry night.