Next Buzzwords, Sunday 4th January 2015

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 4th January
Workshop, led by Jenny Lewis 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poet: Jenny Lewis

Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
 £5 waged, £3 unwaged

 

Jenny Lewis is a poet, playwright and songwriter who specialises in cross-arts collaborations combining poetry with visual art, music and dance. Her first collection, When I Became an Amazon (Iron Press, 1996/ Bilingua, Russia, 2002) was dramatized, widely toured and broadcast on BBC Woman’s Hour. Her recent collections are Fathom (2007) and Taking Mesopotamia (2014) published by Oxford Poets/ Carcanet, and two pamphlets in English and Arabic, with the Iraqi Poet, Adnan Al-Sayegh, Now as Then: Mesopotamia-Iraq (2013) and Singing for Inanna, (2014) both published by Mulfran Press. Jenny has also had seven plays and poetry cycles produced at major UK theatres including After Gilgamesh a verse drama for Pegasus Theatre, Oxford and a major Arts Council-funded programme of new writing, workshops and performances at the British Museum, Iraqi Cultural Centre, Keats House and other venues. Jenny teaches poetry at Oxford University, is a Core Writing Tutor at Pegasus Theatre, Oxford and a Tutor for the Poetry School. In 2012 she was awarded a prestigious Hawthornden Fellowship.

Five of the excellent reviews Taking Mesopotamia has received to date:

“[Taking Mesopotamia] is compulsory reading, even for those who don’t normally read poetry: an eloquent rejoinder to those who say poetry can’t, or shouldn’t, concern itself with public matters.”   Bernard O’Donoghue.

“Taking Mesopotamia is a stunning collection, one that sticks to you like a burr after you’ve read it. It is as if in writing it, Jenny Lewis has stumbled across one of the marvels contained within the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of its groves of jewels – and laid it out across the page for us to look at.” Laura Scott, The North

“Jenny Lewis’ Taking Mesopotamia is a brilliantly conceived and executed, very moving book…This is a modernist route – we will see more poetry collections built on these lines.” Dilys Wood, Artemis Poetry

“[Taking Mesopotamia] is a lyrical collection of poetry, witness statements, interviews, diary entries and reports that have been meticulously researched…Lewis will take many on the search with her, such is the overwhelming poignancy of the work, which is testimony that there is a place for poetry in politics.” Jane Fraser, New Welsh Review

Taking Mesopotamia by Jenny Lewis (Carcanet) is a stunning collection interweaving myth, history and poignant biography. The story of Lewis's father (a Welsh officer in the Mesopotamia campaign in WW1) is offset against past and present wars in Iraq, the history of Lewis's mining ancestors, and the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh. Beautiful, intricate and humane.” The Poetry Society

 

Next Buzzwords, Sunday 7th December

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 7th December
Workshop, led by Angela France 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poet: John Clegg

Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
 £5 waged, £3 unwaged

 

John Clegg was born in 1986. His first collection, Antler, was published by Salt in 2012. In 2013 he won an Eric Gregory award for a manuscript provisionally entitled The Actively Planning Silence of a North German. Earlier this year, the Emma Press made a handsome pamphlet of his long poem, Captain Love & The Five Joaquins. His work has been included in Best British Poetry 2012 and Best British Poetry 2013. He works as a bookseller in London.

Next Buzzwords Sunday 2nd November

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 2nd November
Workshop, led by C L Dallat, 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poet: C L Dallat,

Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
 £5 waged, £3 unwaged

 

C.L. Dallat, poet, musician and critic, was born in Ballycastle, County Antrim, and now lives in London where he has reviewed literature and the arts for the TLS and Guardian among others, and has been a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Review since its inception in 1998. His first poetry collection, Morning Star, was published in 1998, he won the Strokestown International Poetry Competition in 2006 and his latest collection is The Year of Not Dancing (Blackstaff Press, 2009). www.cahaldallat.com

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday 5th October

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 5th October

Workshop, led by Alicia Stubbersfield, 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poet: Alicia Stubbersfield

Alicia Stubbersfield’s fourth collection The Yellow Table (Pindrop Press) was published in 2013 and described as ‘a humane collection about human vulnerability’ by Gillian Clarke. Michael Laskey said ‘A light touch and luminous clarity characterise these grown-up poems.’ She lectured in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Aberystwyth and regularly tutors for The Arvon Foundation. Now that she is back in Cheltenham, she is Writer-in-Residence at Gloucester Academy as part of a collaboration between Cheltenham Festivals and First Story.  

Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
 £5 waged, £3 unwaged

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 7th September

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 7th September

Workshop, led by Peter Wyton, 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poet: Peter Wyton

Please note: To mark the WWI commemorations, Peter will be reading war-themed poetry, his own and other peoples. If anyone would like to read a favourite war poem at the open mic instead of their own work, please do (but it isn't compulsory!)

Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
 £5 waged, £3 unwaged

 

Next Buzzwords Sunday 6th July

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 6th July
 
Workshop, led by Anna Saunders, 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poets: Wendy Klein and Anna Saunders
 
Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
 £5 waged, £3 unwaged  

Wendy Klein was born in New York and brought up in California.  Disillusioned with U.S. politics and the Vietnam War, she left, never to return, in 1964. She has lived in Sweden, France and Germany, coming to roost in England in1971. She has won and been commended in many poetry competitions (notably The Ware 2009 and The Torriano 2010) and is published widely in magazines and anthologies.

Her two collections from Cinnamon Press have been praised by Peter Carpenter: ‘Wendy Klein’s poems ponder the tugs of the past on collision course with distinctive rhythmic control and technical finesse.’  ‘There is,’ says Myra Schneider ‘a great immediacy in her writing and the way she brings to life the experiences, characters and complex feelings of people.’ Her material ranges from the intensely personal, a family background skewed and disrupted by her mother’s early death, her travels to Cuba, Vietnam, Mongolia and India, to her love of dogs, dance and her daughters.  

Jane Draycott comments that ‘several continents run richly in Wendy Klein’s blood, and with her strongly cinematic imagination and energetic, delicate musicality, she maps and sings them powerfully.’ She is currently musing on a 3rd collection.


Anna Saunders is the director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival and the author of two collections of poetry – Communion (Wild Conversations Press ) and Struck, ( Pindrop Press).

Communion was praised for its ‘lush imagery and music’, by Nigel McLoughlin and was described as comprising of ‘moving poems of flesh and spirit from ‘ears finely tuned’ by Alison Brackenbury.
Anna’s second collection, Struck, weaves myth, art, autobiographical material and fantasy in an journey through love, grief and heartache. 

Struck has been described as ‘a very fine, beautifully sustained collection by a gifted poet whose work is unfolding in remarkable directions’ by Nick Drake and she has been described as ‘a poet of quite remarkable gifts’ by Bernard O’Donaghue. 

Anna’s work has been published in journals and anthologies which include Ambit, The North and Amaryllis. She has recently completed a Masters in Creative and Critical Writing at The University of Gloucestershire. 

Next Buzzwords Sunday 1st June

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 1st June
Workshop, led by Kate Fox, 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poet: Kate Fox
Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
 £5 waged, £3 unwaged 

Kate Fox is a Northern stand up poet. Regular on Radio 4’s Saturday Live, she’s also been commissioned by The Verb on Radio 3, BBC2’s Daily Politics show and Chelsea Flower Show coverage, BBC1's Great North Passion, You and Yours, the Manchester Literature Festival, Humber Mouth Festival, BBC Online and many more. 

She can write to order at the drop of a stanza, but is also known for her energetic, comedic stand up sets and has performed everywhere from The Stand comedy clubs to the Latitude Festival, the Eden Project, Edinburgh and Prague Fringe Festivals. She's been Poet in Residence for the Glastonbury Festival, the Great North Run and a colostomy nurse's conference!

Her thoughtful, playful one woman shows about the news, running, Autism and not wanting children have been booked in venues across the country. Her poetry collection "Fox Populi" is published by Smokestack Books and has been described by Acumen as "Warm and witty", by Poetry Salzburg as "Funny, poignant and likeable" and  Critical Survey said 'Fox has a gift for anecdote, a lively ear that catches the nuances and shifting fashions of everyday speech, and a strong sense of rhythm and musicality.' 

http://www.katefox.co.uk/

Next Buzzwords Sunday 4th May

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 4th May

Workshop, led by Charles Bennett, 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poet: Charles Bennett

Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
 £5 waged, £3 unwaged  

CHARLES BENNETT’s award-winning poetry has been published to wide acclaim. He has collaborated with musicians, photographers and artists, and seen his work translated into German and Spanish. His work as a librettist with choral composer Bob Chilcott featured in the 2012 BBC Proms. He was the first Director of Ledbury Poetry Festival and is currently Associate Professor of Poetry at the University of Northampton where he leads the BA in Creative Writing.

His highly-acclaimed second collection, How to Make a Woman Out of Water established him as a poet concerned with marvellous transformations of the landscape. His poems have featured in over 125 poetry magazines including the TLS and The Times (as Frieda Hughes’s Monday Poem). The BBC made a short film about the poetry trail he created in a Herefordshire orchard, and he has given readings (described as ‘captivating’) at a large number of national and international festivals. Quickly becoming recognised as a significant librettist through his collaborations with choral composer Bob Chilcott, he has recently completed work on Soundings, a new non-fiction book which explores relationships of sound and place by discovering the source a North Norfolk river during the course of one spring.

His powerful new collection, Evenlode, is a is a river-journey which moves through a series of names – past considerations of healing places, magical birds, wise ancestors and herbal remedies – until in the end ‘it arrives where it needs to become’ at a healing destination of music and balance. Its emphasis on ecology and environment, combined with memorable evocations of places, people and wildlife, is rich in fresh images which evoke the song of landscape.

Next Buzzwords Sunday 6th April

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 6th April

Workshop, led by Carrie Etter, 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poet:  Carrie Etter

Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
£5 waged, £3 unwaged


Originally from Normal, Illinois, Carrie Etter spent thirteen years in southern California before moving to England in 2001. She has published three collections, Imagined Sons (Seren, 2014), Divining for Starters (Shearsman, 2011), and The Tethers (Seren, 2009), and edited the anthology, Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets (Shearsman, 2010). Her poems have appeared in The New Statesman, Poetry Review, The Rialto, The Times Literary Supplement and many other journals in the UK and US. Since 2004 she has taught creative writing at Bath Spa University. Of her new book, Imagined Sons, Bernard O'Donoghue says, "This quite extraordinary book by a writer of great imagistic power and skill leaves a mark on the reader which is ineradicable. These are poems of the utmost importance."

Next Buzzwords Sunday, 2nd March

Next Buzzwords - Sunday, 2nd March

Workshop, led by Peter Daniels, 7pm
Guest readings and open mic 8pm
Guest poet:  Peter Daniels

Upstairs at The Exmouth Arms, Bath Road, Cheltenham
£5 waged, £3 unwaged

Peter Daniels has won first prize in a number of poetry competitions including the Ledbury (2002), Arvon (2008) and TLS (2010), and he has twice been a winner of the Poetry Business pamphlet competition. His first full collection Counting Eggs appeared from Mulfran Press in 2012, following a number of pamphlets since 1992 including three from Smith/Doorstop, and Mr Luczinski Makes a Move (HappenStance, 2011). The historically obscene Ballad of Captain Rigby, based on court records at London Metropolitan Archives, came out in 2013 with illustrations by Peter Forster. During a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2009 he began his translations from the Russian of Vladislav Khodasevich, now published by Angel Classics, which was the Poetry Book Society’s autumn 2013 recommended translation.