Welcome to Stuff. The Poetry Trust's latest news, events, podcasts and publications.

2010 Aldeburgh First Collection Prize now open for submissions

The Aldeburgh First Collection Prize 2010 is now open for submissions from publishers and individual poets. As the first serious ‘First Collection’ award, Aldeburgh’s is now one of the most prestigious and highly valued poetry prizes in the UK. Previous recipients include Robin Robertson, Colette Bryce and Nick Laird. The winner receives £3,000, plus a fee-paying invitation to read at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival 2011 and a weeks ‘protected’ writing time on the East Suffolk coast. Plans are afoot to extend the scope and benefits of the prize to offer mentoring for the winner and shortlisted poets and increased opportunities at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. The poet-judges this year are Michael Laskey (Chair), Neil Rollinson and Jo Shapcott.
Closing date for entries is 31 July 2010.

More information

Listen to Ciaran Berry, the 2008 winner on The Poetry Channel (scroll to Aldeburgh Backchat 8)

 

The Female Poem – does it exist? New podcast on The Poetry Channel

To mark International Women’s Day - Monday 8 March - we’ve produced a new podcast for The Poetry Channel on the vexed question of The Female Poem. This is an edited 20 minute version of the lively and wide-ranging one hour discussion chaired by Jo Shapcott during the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival 2009. Enjoy Maureen Duffy, Pascale Petit and Annie Freud debate, amongst other things, the horror of being labelled a ‘female poet’, whether the male poem is the default position, the importance of ‘outsider art’, why ‘miserable guys stalk the poetic world’ and whether Donne, Keats and Wyatt actually wrote ‘female’ poems.

The Female Poem podcast

 

The Poetry Toolkit – foolproof recipes for teaching poetry in the classroom

For more than a decade The Poetry Trust has been running creative workshops for teachers. This new (free) toolkit draws on this unrivalled experience and provides fun, adaptable, tried-and-tested exercises to get young people - and indeed people of any age - confidently writing poetry. Primary and secondary school teachers who kept on coming to our workshops have repeatedly said what a revelation it was to try writing themselves - putting themselves in the position of their pupils. Dip into the toolkit which is based on direct contributions from leading poet-tutors - including Mandy Coe, Peter Sansom, Jackie Wills and Anthony Wilson - for warm-ups and group exercises based on poem-jigsaws, photographs, eavesdropping and telling lies! Printed copies of the toolkit will be sent to all Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk schools who participated in the workshops.
Click for your free PDF download copy

 

Advanced Poetry Seminar welcomes outstanding new talent

The Poetry Trust’s fourth annual Advanced Poetry Seminar takes place this month, bringing together eight exceptional poets early in their publishing careers. The Seminar dynamically delivers on The Poetry Trust’s mission to identify talented poets and nurture their creative and professional development. The calibre of the nominations and applications this year (43 in total) was particularly high and the eight poets selected show real talent combined with strong evidence of commitment. Tutors Michael Laskey and Peter Sansom look forward to working with: Peter Daniels, Rebecca Farmer, Holly Hopkins, Nicholas MacKinnon, Sophie Nicholls, Rebecca Perry, Angela Smith and Tom Warner at Bruisyard Hall in Suffolk.

Enjoy a fly-on-the-wall podcast documentary of last year’s seminar on The Poetry Channel (scroll down to ‘The Write Stuff’)

 

Celebrated Scottish Poet Robin Robertson at UEA Literary Festival this month

Wednesday 17 March, 7.00pm, Lecture Theatre 1, University of East Anglia

The Poetry Trust is partnering the UEA Spring Literary Festival and can whole-heartedly recommend an evening with the outstanding Robin Robertson. Robin is the only poet to have won both the Aldeburgh and Forward First Collection Prizes (in 1997) and he has since won all three categories of Forward Prize. His poems draw on myth and the natural world - stark imagery of falconry, forests, fishermen - and his poetry is exhilarating in its oral and aural relish for language. A L Kennedy describes him as “master of the dark and wounded, the torn complexities of human relations.”

Tickets £6, telephone 01603 508050
Click for full programme

 

The Poetry Trust – Staff News

The Poetry Trust bids a very fond farewell this month to Judy Braggins, our administrator extraordinaire who has been a linchpin for the organisation for over five years. Judy’s exemplary warmth and commitment have been of enormous value during the Trust’s transformation from regional poetry hub to national literature flagship. She has proved herself a great friend to poetry and to the many national and international poets we’ve worked with since 2004.

Certainly she’s a hard act to follow, but we’re delighted to welcome Katie Burroughs - Judy’s administrator job-share since August 2009 - who will take up The Poetry Trust’s new role of Operations Manager from April 2010. Katie will be in the office four days a week and her energy, clear-sighted practicality and humour (oh, and her IT skills) promise to be invaluable to our next phase of development.

All administrative and operational questions should now be directed to Katie Burroughs. Contact her at: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

 

Other Stuff you may like:

Cambridge Wordfest 2010 Spring 9 - 11 April
Look out for the fabulous Wonderful Beast Theatre Company’s production of YES - the cabaret celebrating the life and work of Adrian Mitchell which was commissioned by The Poetry Trust and premiered to a sold-out audience at the 2009 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.

Academy of American Poets - Poem on the Range

2010 Templar Poetry Pamphlet & Collection Prizes - closing date 8 May 2010

 

Friends of The Poetry Trust

If you like The Poetry Trust’s work and can offer a little extra support, then please become a Friend. In return for a £15 annual subscription, Friends enjoy Special Offers as well as an exclusive priority booking period for the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. As dedicated Festival audiences know all too well, Aldeburgh events frequently sell out: so being a Friend offers a real benefit. To join, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we’ll do the rest.