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

Wimbledon & The Poetry Trust announce first Championships Poet

The Poetry Trust has teamed up with Wimbledon this summer to appoint the first Championships Poet 2010. Throughout Wimbledon fortnight (21 June - 4 July) Matt Harvey will create a poem-a-day on all things Wimbledon, tour the airwaves and deliver impromptu live-performances to the famous Wimbledon queue.

The announcement was made on a sunny Centre Court and generated enormous interest with media coverage as far and as wide as Berlin, Delhi and Los Angeles. For some coverage closer to home enjoy:

The Guardian
BBC News
The Telegraph
The Times

We’re sure Matt’s whimsical, perceptive, funny behind-the-scenes poems will delight tennis & poetry fans alike and introduce thousands more to the joys of volleying with words… (sorry, tennis puns inevitable!)

Follow Matt at Wimbledon:

A poem-a-day: Check out The Poetry Trust & Wimbledon websites for text and audio poems every day of the tournament.

The Poetry Channel: Enjoy our first podcast now as Matt explores Wimbledon, and reads his ‘Grandest of Slams’ poem. More podcasts will follow from Wimbledon - find out how Matt gets on with the crowds and whether he makes it on to Sue Barker’s sofa.

Twitter: Follow Matt’s ‘Wimblewords’ (and send your own suggestions) at Twitter, the official Wimbledon blog will have the link for the start of the championships.

Facebook: We’ll post all of Matt’s new poems and invite you to share yours.

Lastly, if you enjoy Matt’s poems, then you shouldn’t be without your very own copy of his first (and only) collection The Hole in the Sum of My Parts, published by and available from The Poetry Trust - and soon to be a collector’s item!

 

Aldeburgh First Collection Prize 2010 – open for entries

The prestigious Aldeburgh First Collection Prize is now open for entries. Established in 1989, this is one of the most important and long-established poetry prizes in the UK, and the only one to offer a cash prize as well as significant professional development. The winner receives £3,000, plus a week’s ‘protected’ writing time and a fee-paying invitation to read at the 2011 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival - a unique opportunity to reach Britain’s largest and most appreciative poetry audience. Over the years the prize has helped launch the careers of poets such as Robin Robertson, Nick Laird and Colette Bryce. The closing date for entries is 31 July 2010. Full competition details.

 

New on The Poetry Channel – the inside story of Afrikaans with pioneering poet Antjie Krog

In a deeply rewarding and informative new podcast, prominent South African poet Antjie Krog condenses 100 years of South African history and the poetic tradition of Afrikaans into an extraordinary 15-minute snapshot. Using illustrative poems (her own and others) she explores the origins of Afrikaans, from its adoption as the language of slaves through to its use as the ‘language of violence and separation’ under apartheid, to its reclamation by those who were oppressed. She ends with a powerful reading of the poem read by Nelson Mandela at his inauguration, ‘The Child Who Was Shot Dead By Soldiers At Nyangal’.

The podcast is an edited version of a talk given by Antjie Krog at the 2008 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. For non-football fans it will offer 15 minutes (we’re sorry it’s not 90!) of welcome relief over the next month. And for those already happily focused on South Africa, it provides the perfect historical and linguistic context and illustrates just why this World Cup is so special.

Click to listen

 

Poetry @ The Pumphouse, Aldeburgh

Join us at the atmospheric Pumphouse this June, where the ale flows freely and we’ll be presenting some exceptional young ‘page’ and ‘stage’ poetic talents during the Aldeburgh (music) Festival.

Faber New Poets Friday 18 June at 6pm, £5
Joe Dunthorne, Annie Katchinska, Sam Riviere, Tom Warner

A showcase reading by the four young writers selected, following a nationwide search, for this year’s prestigious and highly competitive Faber New Poets Programme. A quartet of unmissable and distinctive new voices. Supported by Faber

Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think of You
Friday 25 June at 6.30pm, £5
Written and performed by Molly Naylor

An Edinburgh preview of Molly Naylor’s new one-woman show mixing poetry, comedy and storytelling. Molly moves to London, falls in love, her pockets are empty but her heart is full. Then she finds herself on one of the trains blown up on 7/7. In seconds, her life and London are thrown into the chaos of fallibility…
Supported by Escalator East to Edinburgh

Booking (for both events)
Tel: 01728 687110
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
www.aldeburgh.co.uk

Annie Katchinska - credit Oleg Katchinska

 

Jackie Kay at the Ip-art Festival July 2010

Naomi Jaffa, director of The Poetry Trust, will chair an evening with the ever-wonderful Jackie Kay on Saturday 10 July during the Ipswich Arts Festival. Born to a Scottish mother and Nigerian father, Jackie Kay grew up in Glasgow, having been adopted by a white couple, inspiring her outstanding first collection The Adoption Papers (1991).

She excels at any literary genre she turns her hand to - poetry, fiction, drama and now memoir - and she’ll be reading from her new Red Dust Road which explores the quest for her birth parents and is “a fantastic, probing and heart-warming read” (Bernadine Evaristo in The Independent). Jackie will talk about her life in writing with Naomi and take questions from the audience.

Click for more information and tickets (£7/£5 concessions)

 

Suffolk Young Poets Competition – call for entries

Together with media sponsor the East Anglian Daily Times, The Poetry Trust has launched its 22nd Suffolk Young Poets Competition. This is one of the largest regional competitions championing young writing talent: over 20,000 four to eighteen years olds have taken part since it began in 1989. The Poetry Trust invites young people (living or at school in Suffolk) to send us their best poems by 31 July 2010. Poems can be on any theme and the judges will be looking for poems with individuality and linguistic fizz on topics that really matter to the young writers. Winning poets will be invited to read their poems alongside the wonderful Mandy Coe at the Family Reading at the 22nd Aldeburgh Poetry Festival 2010. The deadline for entries is 31 July 2010.

Special note to teachers: remember we have recently published The Poetry Toolkit full of activities for teaching poetry in the classroom. Download a pdf or order your free printed copy by contacting The Poetry Trust and send us your class’s best poems.

 

DEAN’S DAD’S DUCKS

The Cut Arts Centre, Halesworth, Thursday 1 July at 8pm (free)

The Poetry Trust’s very own Dean Parkin takes to the stage in July for a free Edinburgh-preview of his new one-man, one hour show supported by Escalator East to Edinburgh.

30,000 plastic ducks sank in the North Pacific in 1992 after their cargo ship was bombed by a US fighter jet. This is the tale of their voyage, the double life of the man who made them and thirty years of secrets and lies.

Stories, poems and songs about bubblewrap, swan machines and lemon trees on trains. Funny, bittersweet journeys with a dodgy Dad and his flotilla of plucky ducks.

Delightful, funny and poignant - just round the corner from left-field
Matt Harvey, Radio 4, Saturday Live

An exuberantly eccentric imagination
Christopher Reid, Costa Book Award Winner

www.deanparkin.co.uk

 

‘An Evening with Seamus Heaney’ – tickets selling fast

The Poetry Prom, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Thursday 26 August, 7.30pm

As expected there has been a phenomenal response to the chance to spend an evening in the extraordinarily good company of Seamus Heaney - described by The Guardian as ‘the greatest poet of our age’. Over 500 tickets for The Poetry Trust’s annual Poetry Prom sold within the first week of the box office opening and there are now fewer than 200 tickets available. So don’t delay if you want to secure a seat.

Our annual Poetry Prom, presented in partnership with Aldeburgh Music, is one of the UK’s largest celebrations of live poetry. The first half will feature Heaney ‘in conversation’ with Michael Laskey, founder of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and fellow poet. The Nobel Laureate will be invited to reflect on a writing career of global significance spanning over forty years. And after the interval, Heaney will introduce and read a wide selection of his work including poems from his new Faber collection Human Chain (published early September but advance copies to be available on the night).

This event will be a complete sell-out so do book your tickets today if you want to be sure to enjoy one of those genuinely rare and memorable ‘I was there’ occasions.
Sponsored by Fairweather Stephenson & Co

Booking
Tickets £16, £13, £10, Prom £6
Tel: 01728 687110
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
www.aldeburgh.co.uk

 

And finally….

Many congratulations to poet Peter Daniels, a participant on our 2010 Advanced Seminar back in March, who has won first prize in the Times Literary Supplement annual poetry competition. Read the winning poem and enjoy more of Peter’s poetry at: www.peterdaniels.org.uk 

 

Other STUFF you might like:

Ruth O’Callaghan presents - Three major women poets - Elaine Feinstein, Mimi Khalvati and Fiona Sampson Tuesday 13 July 2010, 6.30pm, 88 Tavistock Place, WCI, London, £5/4 Tickets on the door - all the proceeds go the Cold Weather Shelter for the Homeless

The John Betjeman Young People’s Poetry Competition Open to 11 - 14 years olds living in the British Isles. Deadline 31 July 2010

The 2010 Arvon International Poetry Competition Enter your poems by 16 August for a chance to win the first prize of £7,500

Readings and Awards Ceremony for the Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets British Library, Wednesday 16th June, 6.30pm, £6/4