Next Buzzwords Sunday September 8th

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday September 8th

 

 Upstairs at the Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham

Workshop lead by Frank McMahon 7pm

Open mic and readings 8pm

Guest poet Frank McMahon

 pay on the door, £5 waged, £3 unwaged.

 

Frank McMahon lives in Cirencester and is a member of Somewhere Else Writers Group and Wordbrew.

His third book of poems, The Light Will Always Return, was published in April 2024.He has also been published in various journals in print and on-line. Last year he read at the Cheltenham Poetry and Literature Festivals.

He won the GWN prize in 2022 and is a runner up in this year’s competition.. In June 2023, with others he set up Writers in the Library in Cirencester and it is going strong. Later that year he worked with two Primary Schools who took part in the national Poetry Together Initiative. Both schools were shortlisted out of 400 and each won £250 for their school library.

He worked as a volunteer to support the 2024 Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday July 21st

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday July 21st

 

 Upstairs at the Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham

Workshop lead by Olga Dermott-Bond 7pm

Open mic and readings 8pm

Guest poet Olga Dermott-Bond

 pay on the door, £5 waged, £3 unwaged.

 

 

Olga Dermott-Bond is originally from Northern Ireland, and lives in Warwickshire. She has published two pamphlets: apple, fallen (Against the Grain Press, 2020) and A Sky full of strange specimens (Nine Pens Press, 2021). Her first full collection Frieze, published by Nine Arches Press, was recently featured in The Guardian. She has won competitions including the BBC Proms poetry competition, Welshpool and Poetry on Loan poetry competitions. She is currently a managing editor for Irish poetry journal Dodging the Rain. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and poet in residence for the Coffin Works Museum in Birmingham. @olgadermott

Next Buzzwords June 9th

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday June 9th

 

 Upstairs at the Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham

Workshop lead by Jean Atkin 7pm

Open mic and readings 8pm

Guest poet Jean Atkin

 pay on the door, £5 waged, £3 unwaged.

 

Jean Atkin’s third full collection ‘High Nowhere’ is newly published by IDP.  Her poetry has won competitions, been commissioned, anthologised, and featured on BBC Radio 4. She often works in collaboration with other artists, and on residencies - in October 2024 she undertakes a month’s residency in the Writers’ House in Ventspils, Latvia. Jean has also been BBC National Poetry Day Poet for Shropshire and Troubadour of the Hills for Ledbury Poetry Festival. Since 2010 she has worked as a poet in education and community. 

Matthew Stewart, reviewing 'High Nowhere' on ‘Rogue Strands‘, writes – ‘I dare you to finish reading this book and emerge indifferent to the role of humans in the plight of the Earth. That’s the mark of Atkin’s success.’

 

 

Next Buzzwords: change of guest

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday May 12th

 Our scheduled guest cannot now join us so we have Rachael Clyne instead:

 Upstairs at the Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham

Workshop lead by Rachael Clyne 7pm

Open mic and readings 8pm

Guest poet Rachael Clyne

 pay on the door, £5 waged, £3 unwaged.

 

Rachael Clyne from Glastonbury, is widely published in journals and anthologies. She has been a professional actor and a psychotherapist. Her prizewinning collection, Singing at the Bone Tree (Indigo Dreams), concerns our broken connection with nature. Her pamphlet, Girl Golem (4word.org) explores her Jewish migrant heritage. Her new collection, You’ll Never Be Anyone Else, reflects Rachael’s understanding of what it takes to reconcile otherness and expands on themes of identity to include: childhood, Jewish heritage, LGBTQ+, relationships and ageing. Rachael’s poems use a variety of forms and she treats even dark topics like domestic violence with wit and colourful imagery. A distinctive voice from someone who’s spent a life learning self-acceptance and as a psychotherapist, helping others to do similar. https://www.serenbooks.com/productdisplay/youll-never-be-anyone-else  https://rachaelclyne.blogspot.com/

 

…A potent exploration of heritage and self (and how the two are inextricably intertwined) – Julia Webb.

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday May 12th

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday May 12th

Upstairs at the Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham

Workshop lead by Rosie Jackson 7pm

Open mic and readings 8pm

Guest poet Rosie Jackson

 pay on the door, £5 waged, £3 unwaged.

 

ROSIE JACKSON lives in Teignmouth, Devon. Widely published, she has won many awards, including Commended National Poetry Competition 2022, 1^st prize Teignmouth 2021, joint 1^st prize Hedgehog Press 2020, 1^st prize Poetry Space 2019, 1^st prize Wells 2018, 1^st prize Stanley Spencer Competition 2017. A Hawthornden fellow in 2017 and nominated for the Pushcart prize 2021, her latest collection is Love Leans over the Table (Two Rivers Press, 2023).

Moniza Alvi: ‘rare, nourishing poems, open and vulnerable, spiritually aware and with an acute sense of beauty and struggle.’  

Other works include Light Makes it Easy (2022), Aloneness is a Many-headed Bird (with Dawn Gorman, 2020), Two Girls and a Beehive: Poems about Stanley Spencer and Hilda Carline (with Graham Burchell 2020).

www.rosiejackson.org.uk