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

New Podcasts on The Poetry Channel

If we were to have a prize for podcast poet of the month on The Poetry Channel (we don’t by the way), March’s would have to go to Imtiaz Dharker. This month you’ll be able to catch her in conversation with Robert Seatter, recorded at Aldeburgh last November, and also listen to her irresistible ‘Over the Moon’ poem in the next installment of our Poem Show series.

Aldeburgh Conversation 2010: Imtiaz Dharker
available now
Imtiaz Dharker in conversation with Robert Seatter, discussing her wide range of influences - everything from the lullabies sung by her grandmother, Glaswegian swear words and the importance of the image to her writing.

Aldeburgh’s Open Workshop
available from Friday 11 March
Originally scheduled to be uploaded last month (but we were unable to do so due to good old-fashioned ‘technical difficulties’), here’s the podcast/documentary - podcastumentary? - about Aldeburgh’s unique and ever-popular mass writing workshop, annually inspired and led by Michael Laskey and Jeni Smith. Nick Patrick investigates its collective writing energy and appeal…

Poem Show: Other Ways of Using the Universe
available from Friday 25 March
Another Aldeburgh Poetry Festival archive raid, to bring you a new Poem Show, playfully titled ‘Other Ways of Using the Universe’. First up, Imtiaz Dharker reading ‘Over the Moon’ - her riotous and poignant ode breathing life into that much over-used phrase; then an extract from Alice Oswald’s searchingly beautiful ballad-like ‘Autobiography of The Moon’; and closing with Paul Durcan’s tour de force ‘Centre of the Universe’ (you’ll want to give him a call in the middle of the night once you’ve heard this poem).

 

Countdown to the Advanced Poetry Seminar

Just a few days to go before eight lucky poets converge on Suffolk and fine surroundings of Bruisyard Hall for this year’s Advanced Poetry Seminar.

It’s the youngest line-up we’ve ever had (young in poetry terms anyhow!) - Liz Berry (30, London), Jamie Coward (38, Sheffield), Ramona Herdman (32, Norwich), Hannah Lowe (34, London), Alex McCrae (31, Washington DC), Fiona Moore (51, London), Jocelyn Page (44, London) and Luke Yates (27, Manchester). We’re greatly looking forward to meeting and working together next month and in the meantime, congratulations to them all for winning their places amidst stiff competition. More information about the eight poets here.

The Poetry Trust has been running this Suffolk ‘retreat/hot-house’ for poets either near, at or just beyond first collection stage at Bruisyard Hall in Suffolk (see picture below) for four years. And selecting this year’s eight has never been so difficult. Firstly we received 68 applications (previously it’s been around 45). Almost all met the demanding criteria for consideration and many offered impressive credentials. Co-tutors Michael Laskey and Peter Sansom read them all first and long-listed down to 30. Then Naomi Jaffa (Poetry Trust Director) joined the process and a not very short short-list of 16 was agreed. Getting down to the final eight poets took nearly three hours of energised and energising debate, the happy result being a group of poets whose existing and potential poems excite us all.

 

Andrew Motion’s First Stage Play

The Poetry Trust is delighted to announce an exciting new partnership with the HighTide Festival Theatre this year. We’re proud to be co-producing Andrew Motion’s first stage play - Incoming - which will be previewed at the 5th HighTide Festival in Halesworth (7/8 May) and then performed in the Theatre Tent at Latitude Festival in Suffolk (15-17 July) and at the 23rd Aldeburgh Poetry Festival (4-6 November).

Andrew Motion has chosen to make his debut as a playwright with a controversial work about the war in Afghanistan. Incoming tells the story of Danny, a soldier killed in Afghanistan, his grieving widow Steph and their young son Jack. The play examines Britain’s place in the world, the sacrifices made for that place and the repercussions, both private and public, of those sacrifices. It promises to be a first play of true wisdom and sensitivity.

HighTide Festival specialises in the discovery, development and performances of new plays by highly talented new dramatists. The range of plays is always stimulating, with individual productions often outstanding and clearly destined for great things. HighTide Festival happens at The Cut Arts Centre (home of The Poetry Trust) and makes imaginative and brilliant use of the building’s atmosphere and different performance spaces. If you like quality contemporary theatre and would like to experience another of Suffolk’s world-class cultural treasures, book now for this year’s programme. It’ll be brilliant!

And here’s a late reminder that Andrew Motion will be in Suffolk at the New Wolsey Theatre on Friday 4 March reading from Laurels and Donkeys, his stunning new collection of war poems from various conflicts of the 20th & 21st centuries (and containing the source material for his new play).
’Motion is a beautiful lyricist unpretentiously and precisely describing those things worth having even as he casts unsettling shadows across them’
Robert Potts in The Guardian

 

Alice Oswald at UEA Spring Literary Festival 2010

If you’ve bought your Poetry Passport for the UEA Spring Literary Festival, you’ll already have Tuesday 8 March in your diary - for the mesmerising Alice Oswald who’ll be reading - and discussing her work with George Szirtes - in Lecture Theatre 1 at UEA.

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.”

And as we already said (see story at the top!), you can savour Alice’s arresting oral brilliance in the next episode of The Poem Show on The Poetry Channel later this month.

 

Arvon’s First Poetry Course of 2011

The 2011 Arvon Creative Writing course programme kicks off on the April 11, with Poetry as the first course of the year - Making Words Work co-tutored by Michael Laskey & Patience Agbabi. Michael, as friends of The Poetry Trust will know, is one of the very finest poetry tutors on the planet (yes, we’re biased but no, this isn’t exaggerating - we’ve worked with a lot of a poet-tutors!). He was co-founder of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, he’s editor of Smiths Knoll and has published five collections, most recently The Man Alone: New & Selected Poems. Michael will be teaming up again with Patience Agbabi (following the success of their Arvon partnership last year), author of Bloodshot Monochrome and fellow in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University and they’ll be aiming to help poets broaden their range and enrich their voice by focusing on the texture, vitality and precision of language.

With just 16 places available on the course, and one-to-one sessions with the tutors, this intensive week is guaranteed to help participants make huge developments in their poetry writing.

For further information visit: www.arvonfoundation.org or call 020 7324 2554.

 

 

Other STUFF you might enjoy

David Morley: A Reading with Birdsong
Part of the Conference of Birds programme - at 4.30pm on Saturday 12 March 2011.

Dean’s Dad’s Ducks
The Poetry Trust’s very own Dean Parkin will be reprising his successful Edinburgh Fringe one man show at Lound Village Hall in Suffolk on Saturday 12 March as part of the Home Grown LIVE! Festival. Tickets adult £4, children £2, booking: 01502 731605.
www.deanparkin.co.uk

Tidelines - Creative Walk & Workshop
A day of walking, poetry and creativity inspired by the plastics that wash up on the tide. Led by visual artist Fran Crowe and poet Dean Parkin, who will take a small group by boat (The Regardless) to walk towards the southern end of Orford Ness, collecting plastic debris to inspire poetry and art with a message, followed by an afternoon of creating at Fran’s studio. This workshop will be run twice: on Sunday 6 March and on Sunday 3 April, leaving Orford Quay at 10.30am each day and finishing around 3.30pm. Open to all over 18s, £10 per person. For more information and to book, click here

The 58^th Crabbe Poetry Competition 2011
Open to anyone either born, resident at any time or educated in Suffolk.
Judge: Elaine Feinstein, closing date: 31 May 2011
www.suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk/crabbecompetition

Lorca Translation Competition
To mark the 75th anniversary of Lorca’s death, ‘Lorca in England’ are running a competition, inviting writers to submit an original translation of a Lorca poem of their own choice.The winner will receive £500 and the runner-up £200; a pamphlet will be published of short-listed entries. Based in Stroud, they are also organising a series of four poetry workshops focusing on translating Lorca and on the use of transliterations as part of the translation process. For more details, email or visit their website.