Next Buzzwords Sunday July 12th

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday July 12th

Upstairs at the Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham

 

7pm Workshop led by Jean Atkin

Open mic and readings 8pm

Guest poets Jean Atkin and Richard Skinner

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

 

Jean and Richard will be reading from their collaborative project 'Crossing Paths' 

Keen walkers who live 200 miles apart, Richard and Jean had the idea of a book where walks became poems and were swopped rather than taken together. For 10 months they emailed new poems to and fro in a creative and exploratory spirit, until they had a manuscript. Black Cat Poetry Press promptly offered to publish, and have made a beautiful little book.

Jean Atkin grew up in Cumbria, lived for many years in Scotland, and is now settled in Shropshire.  Her Laurel Prize nominated third collection ‘High Nowhere’ is published by IDP. She has published another eight poetry books and pamphlets, which often deal with place, nature and story. ‘Crossing Paths’, her collaboration with Richard Skinner, is published by Black Cat Poetry Press and grew out of a shared interest in poetry and walking.  Since 2010 Jean has worked in both Scotland and England as a poet in education and community, often in collaboration with other artists.

Richard Skinner is a walker and a writer, often at the same time. He has climbed the Wainwrights in the Lakes, the Cuillins on the Isle of Skye and Mont Blanc. In 2016, he switched to long distance walking and, since then, he has completed more than 20 long distance walks in the UK, including the West Highland Way, the Pennine Way and the Coast to Coast. Richard has published eight books of poems. He is Director of the Fiction Programme at Faber Academy and runs poetry courses for the Arvon Foundation and Sarum College.

 

Nest Buzzwords Sunday June 14th

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday June 14th

 Upstairs at the Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham

 

7pm Workshop led by Kate Noakes

Open mic and readings 8pm

Guest poet Kate Noakes

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

 

Kate Noakes lives in Bristol, and has a PhD in contemporary British and American poetry from the University of Reading. Her new book arising from this work is Sublime Lungs, has just been published by Two Rivers Press. Bog Queens, a pamphlet from Green Bottle Press is going to be published this summer.

 

She was elected to the Welsh Academy in 2011. Her content rich website, www.boomslangpoetry.blogspot.com, is archived by the National Library of Wales. Kate’s first non-fiction title is Real Hay-on-Wye 2022 Seren.

 

Her work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies and has read all over the country including at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and the Poetry and Words stage at Glastonbury Festival. She is one third of Bristol poetry performance group, Braid (www.braidpoetry.com).

 

During six years in Paris, she was founding president of Paris Lit Up. She acted as a trustee for London literature development agency, Spread the Word between 2018 and 2022. Kate has taught creative writing for Paris Lit Up, Oxford University, the Poetry School, the Globe Hay-on-Wye and Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, and she offers one to one poetry coaching.

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday May 10th

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday May 10th

 Upstairs at the Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham

 

7pm Workshop led by Sue Leigh

Open mic and readings 8pm

Guest poet Sue Leigh

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

 

Sue Leigh’s work has been published in the TLS, Oxford Magazine and elsewhere. She has had two books published with Two Rivers, Chosen Hill and Her Orchards, and two limited-edition pamphlets with Evergreen Press, ‘Chalk’ and ‘Simmer Dim’. A third pamphlet, ‘Angel Roof’ will be published later this year.

 She teaches at the University of Oxford and runs her own poetry course, ‘Conversations in Poetry’.

 

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday April 12th

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday April 12th

 Upstairs at the Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham

 7pm Workshop led by Vanessa Lampert

Open mic and readings 8pm

Guest poet Vanessa Lampert

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

 

Vanessa Lampert is a writer, mentor, editor and teacher of poetry. Her work is widely published, recently in Magma, The Oxford Times, The Rialto, The London Magazine, Under the Radar, Oxford Poetry, and Poetry London. She runs workshops nationwide for adults and in schools and volunteers at Oxford Poetry Library. She was a co-founder of The Alchemy Spoon magazine and is a committee member for Poetry in Aldeburgh.

 Vanessa has won the Café Writers, Edward Thomas, Ashdown Forest and Sentinel prizes and the Ver Poetry prize (twice). She has been placed in many others including commendations in the Troubadour, Magma, Bridport, Verve, and National Competitions.

Vanessa’s pamphlet On Long Loan’ was published by Live Canon in 2020 and her full collection ‘Say It With Me’ was published by Seren in 2023. Poems from that collection have been published in the Daily Telegraph poem of the week and the Forward Prizes anthology 2024.

She has recently edited a collection of poems on a theme of wellbeing for Candlestick Press.

Vanessa works as an acupuncturist in Oxfordshire.