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

New Podcasts on The Poetry Channel

Happy 2011 to all STUFF readers and here’s some real Poetry Channel treats to start the New Year. Three podcasts from three contrasting poets at the 22nd Aldeburgh Poetry Festival - great conversations with Elaine Feinstein, JO Morgan and John Glenday.

If you’ve not yet got around to downloading Poetry Channel podcasts, maybe you’ll be keener if you think of them as short radio programmes (very BBC Radio 4 in flavour) available whenever you fancy a quality poetry listen. They are not live performances simply thrown up online; we work with Nick Patrick, a top-class independent producer, to make interesting programmes with unique ‘Aldeburgh’ content. We’d love to know what you think.

Aldeburgh Conversation 2010: Elaine Feinstein
available Friday 14 January
Elaine Feinstein in conversation with Robert Seatter, discussing poetry and memoir and the transitions of her enduring and wide-ranging writing life.

Aldeburgh Backchat: JO Morgan
available Friday 14 January
JO Morgan talks about the strangeness of winning the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, the ‘deep mulling’ involved in writing his prize-winning collection, Natural Mechnical and his subsequent protected writing time on the Suffolk coast.

Aldeburgh Conversation 2010: John Glenday
available Friday 28 January
John Glenday in conversation with Robert Seatter about the fourteen year incubation period for his acclaimed collection, Grain, the influence of his parents on his poetry, and the urgent necessity of writing a poem.

 

Advanced Poetry Seminar, 14–18 March 2011

Last chance to apply!

Deadline: 17 January 2011

Wanted! We’re still looking for poets - either nearing first collection publication or between first and second collections - to take part in an intensive, five-day seminar led by excellent poet-tutors Michael Laskey and Peter Sansom.
The course will include new writing exercises, workshopping poems, one-to-one surgeries, close readings and a session in a theatre to offer practical help on how to deliver good live readings.

I feel privileged to have taken part in this seminar and consider it to have been one of the best poetry experiences of my life. The tuition was excellent, the atmosphere supportive and I leave with a greater understanding of my work. Rebecca Farmer, participant 2010

Tuition, accommodation and all meals are included in the highly subsidised fee of £295 per participant. Full application details at:
http://www.thepoetrytrust.org/events/the-advanced-poetry-seminar/

 

The T S Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings

On Sunday 23 January 2011 at 7.00pm the T S Eliot Prize Readings will be staged at the Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall (after last year’s complete sell-out in the Queen Elizabeth Hall). This bigger, grander venue will make for an even better atmosphere as all ten shortlisted poets are invited to read from their collections on the eve of the judges’ decision. The judging panel this year, chaired by Anne Stevenson with Michael Symmons Roberts and Bernardine Evaristo, have an outstanding field to choose from - Simon Armitage, Annie Freud, John Haynes, Seamus Heaney, Pascale Petit, Robin Robertson, Fiona Sampson, Brian Turner, Derek Walcott and Sam Willetts.

Tickets are on sale now from the Southbank Centre box office on 0844 875 0073 or go to http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk.

(The Poetry Trust team will certainly be there and if you haven’t got the latest edition of The Poetry Paper, free copies will be available on the night).

 

Michael Laskey at The Poetry Archive

Michael Laskey - co-founder and director of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival for its first ten years - has now been added to The Poetry Archive. You’re just one click away from four of his terrific poems - Rain, Nobody, Home Movies and The Page-turner - but we’d recommend you buy the full CD which features him reading 34 of his finest. As American poet Mark Halliday commented: “The Laskey effect is of suddenly sensing that more meaning is inherent in ‘ordinary’ moments that we were expecting.”
http://bit.ly/poetryarchivelaskey

 

Brilliant poetry at UEA Spring Literary Festival 2010

Poetry is a highlight of the UEA Spring Literary Festival, with three outstanding internationally acclaimed poets coming to the University of East Anglia. The Poetry Trust is partnering the festival and would like to draw your attention to the amazingly good value Poetry Passport - a ticket that enables you to attend all three poetry evenings for just £12. Each poet will read and discuss their work and there is dedicated time for questions from the audience. This is a fantastic opportunity to hear world-class poetry in the East of England.

David Harsent
Tuesday 8 February 2011 7.00pm, Lecture Theatre 1, UEA
Forward Prize winning poet David Harsent creates a novel’s worth of drama in just a few lines and the range, ambition and achievement of his work continues to advance. “Poems that move you and make you think”, according to William Boyd (Guardian ‘Books of the Year’).

Alice Oswald
Tuesday 8 March 2011 7.00pm, Lecture Theatre 1, UEA
TS Eliot Prize winner Alice Oswald is one of the most assured and original writers of our time and an utterly compelling live reader of her own work. “The real thing”, as Jeanette Winterson says, “a true poet of great power and capacity.”

Jo Shapcott
Tuesday 24 May 2011 7.00pm, Lecture Theatre 1, UEA
Twice winner of the National Poetry Competition - and now the recent Costa - Jo Shapcott takes intellectual and sensuous risks in her memorable engaging poems. Fiona Sampson accurately describes her “a pioneer among contemporary British writers.”

To buy a ‘Poetry Passport’ or tickets for individual readings (£6), telephone 01603 508050. For full programme information visit:
http://www.uea.ac.uk/litfest

 

Short Cuts Cabaret and Open Mic Night

The Cut, Halesworth, Friday 28 January

Dean Parkin hosts another of Suffolk’s cult-status cabaret nights. With this winter’s ‘Slightly Strange’ theme, he’ll welcome special guest Rachel Pantechnicon, one of the UK’s most charmingly peculiar poets. It’s always a heady mix of comedy, music, spoken word, live poetry and audience participation. Plus, of course, plenty of weird and wonderful Open Mic talent.
To apply for a performance slot (3 minutes), contact Dean on 01986 835950 or at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Tickets cost £6, Call The Cut Box office on 0845 6732123

 

Poetry School

Why not brighten up this gloomy winter with one of The Poetry School online courses? Online poetry classes are brilliant for those who don’t live close to an urban centre, or find it more convenient to learn from home. You get the same exercises, discussion and feedback as in a face-to-face course, but you don’t need to leave the house. All you need is a broadband connection and you can (and students do) enroll from anywhere in the world.

The Poetry School’s online classes take place in a virtual classroom. The tutor posts a writing task, students post up their poetic responses then discuss their work in a forum and in live-typed chat session. There have been courses with Polly Clark, Julia Copus, Helen Mort, Andrew Philip and many others. The Spring term sees new courses from Paul Batchelor and Dorothea Smartt, and plans are being finalised for the Summer term with Tamar Yoseloff who will run a poetry & art course.

Visit http://www.poetryschool.com to browse for online courses.

 

Other STUFF you might enjoy

Other STUFF you might enjoy:

The 11th Christopher Tower Poetry Competition
http://www.towerpoetry.org.uk/prize

The 58th Crabbe Poetry Competition 2011
Open to anyone either born, resident at any time or educated in Suffolk. Judge: Elaine Feinstein.
http://www.suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk/crabbecompetition/index.php

Mendham Writers - ‘The Poet in the Landscape’ residential weekend in Suffolk with Tamar Yoseloff.
To book and for more information contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit http://mendham-writers.com/

Ware Poets Open Poetry Competition 2011
Judge: Carole Satyamurti, closing date: 30 April 2011
http://bit.ly/warepoetrycomp2011