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

Aldeburgh welcomes Philip Levine – one of the most significant US poets of the last 50 years

Appearing in the UK for the first time in 30 years, The Poetry Trust is delighted to announce that Philip Levine will be reading at the 21st Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, 6 - 8 November 2009.

Born in 1928 in industrial Detroit, Levine’s familial, social and economic portrait of working class America has left a monumental testimony of mid-20th century American life. His poetry of the assembly line finds a ‘voice for the voiceless’.

Philip Levine will be in conversation with Naomi Jaffa, The Poetry Trust director, on Saturday 7 November, reflecting on, amongst other things, ‘poetry, work, jazz, fountain pens, horse racing, Spanish Anarchists, birth and transfiguration…’ He will also be reading on Sunday 9 November in the Jubilee Hall.

Click for the full Festival programme and booking information

Listen to Levine discuss his life and works and read several of his poems

 

Festival poet Albert Goldbarth on the ‘pizzazz of innocence’

An extraordinary voyage of discovery is promised as Albert Goldbarth, perhaps one of the best kept secrets of American poetry, joins the stunning 21st Aldeburgh Poetry Festival line-up.
Goldbarth’s poetry celebrates the ‘lingual gush of invention’ as he combines pop-culture fanaticism with erudite research into the far corners of modern culture.
A self-confessed sci-fi fanatic, Goldbarth has an awesome collection of toy spaceships and robots. “I love the 1950s outer space look - Cadillac-finned rocket ships, bubble-helmeted space guys and gals, fantastical guns that go zap.” Goldbarth will be appearing at three Festival events, including his Sunday 9 November talk ‘The Outer Space Collector’ in which he will share poems, observations and photographic proof of the “pizzazz of innocence”.

Click for the full Festival programme and booking information

Click for a tour of Goldbarth’s toy collection and to listen to him reading his poems

 

Limited edition Alan Brownjohn pamphlet available to order

In Ludbrooke: An Introduction - a stylish new pamphlet from The Poetry Trust - Alan Brownjohn introduces Ludbrooke, his eponymous anti-hero. “I’ve found somebody fictitious to represent the disagreeable elements in my own character”, Alan explains. “He’s devious and up to all sorts of furtive ruses. In fact Ludbrooke has more than a little seedy panache!”

This is the first time Alan’s ‘Ludbrooke’ poems have been brought together in one volume and according to Alan Jenkins, Literary Editor of the TLS, “Alan’s late flowering with Ludbrooke is one of the best things going on in poetry at the moment.”

Another fan is Dennis O’Driscoll: “Alan is astonishing: the Ludbrooke poems are among his very best - a brilliantly wry creation, lovably roguish, yet deeply vulnerable too…”

There are just 300 limited edition copies of Ludbrooke: An Introduction. They cost £5 (+ £1 P&P) and can only be purchased direct from The Poetry Trust. To place an order, call 01986 835950 or fill in the order form

We are able to accept payment by cheque or by card. To pay by debit or credit card, please call the office with your order and card details.

Enjoy Alan reading a ‘Ludbrooke‘ poem on The Poetry Channel (on ‘The Poetry Prom Poets’)

 

Over 600 enjoy poetry of the highest calibre at the 2009 Poetry Prom

At what has to be the largest audience for contemporary poetry in the UK, over 600 people enjoyed world-class writers at the 7th Poetry Prom. In an energetic, warm and bold performance Finuala Dowling demonstrated why she’s is one of the most engaging writers in South Africa today. Alan Brownjohn, billed as a ‘national treasure’, told the audience he preferred ‘national liability’ as he read from his new pamphlet of ‘Ludbrooke’ poems. And Sharon Olds more than lived up to her reputation as ‘one of America’s greatest living poets’. Her captivating reading epitomised the unique value of the Poetry Prom experience as hundreds of people hung on every word of her deeply personal and affecting poetry.

If you attended The Poetry Prom and would like to tell us what you thought please complete the online survey and help us plan next year’s Poetry Prom.

 

Join The Poetry Trust Facebook group

The Poetry Trust Facebook group is now up and running - it’s never cool to arrive at a party early! We want to provide a very open and international forum for poets and poetry lovers everywhere. Please join the group and get talking.

Just click here

 

One million people receive ‘The Poetry Treatment’

This month sees the culmination of the first year of ‘The Poetry Treatment’ - a hugely popular partnership project between the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) and The Poetry Trust. The project gained a captive audience for poetry by placing poems on the backs of hospital loo doors. Highly sophisticated loo-visiting arithmetic suggests that nearly one million people will have enjoyed/endured the poetry over the last year! Sixty-eight poets were invited to contribute poems, including 24 international poets, all had strong links with The Poetry Trust, having read at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. Feedback has been really positive and there’s every intention for the project to continue next year.

As part of The Poetry Treatment, Michael Laskey, Aldeburgh Poetry Festival founder, went to the hospital one day a week to read and discuss poems with patients. Michael has been commissioned to write a commemorative poem as a lasting legacy of the project, ‘Treatment’ - which celebrates the staff and patients of NNHU and their ‘sensitivity to others’ ordinary needs’ - will be unveiled in the hospital later this month and will feature in October’s edition of Stuff. The typography is by leading arts book designer and publisher Colin Sackett. http://www.colinsackett.co.uk/

Click for more information about The Poetry Treatment
Click to order free PDFs of The Poetry Treatment poems

 

Strut your stuff – Short Cuts Cabaret & Open Mic Night 25 September, 7.30 pm

Short Cuts Cabaret is gathering cult status as Suffolk’s first real variety show. Hosted by our very own Dean Parkin (think Eric Morecambe meets Philip Larkin), a bumper night out of comedy, music, spoken word and live poetry is guaranteed.

With a theme of ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ you won’t know who or what is coming next, only the entertainment is guaranteed. Join Dean and boogie-woogie maestro Maurice Horhut on piano for an evening of unruly fun and perhaps the odd moment of sheer bewilderment.
Short Cuts, The Cut, Halesworth, Friday 25 September, 7.30 pm
To apply for a slot, contact Dean on 01986 835950 or email

Tickets cost £5, Call The Cut Box office on 0845 6732123

This series of Short Cuts is funded with help from the Co-operative Group’s Community Fund

 

The Poetry Business, Writing School 2009 - 2011

The Poetry Business is offering an intensive course of study, workshops and peer-led discussion, over 18 months for up to 12 selected poets. Peter Sansom is director of The Poetry Business and also co-tutor of The Poetry Trust’s Jerwood Aldeburgh Seminars. His thoroughly successful courses are a great way to learn about writing authentically. The closing date for applications is 25 September. For details see: Poetry Business website

 

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 (see Poetry at The Cut above) 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. If you join now you will receive exclusive priority booking (from 18 - 26 August) to the celebratory 21st Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in November. To join, email and we’ll do the rest.