Past Events

2010

Thu 11th March, 7.00am: Whitechapel Gallery, London; Amarjit Chandan, author of Sonata for Four Hands, gives readings.
Whitechapel Gallery website
Thu 11th March, 8.00am: Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill, Waterlow Park, London N6 5HG Tel. 020 8348 8716; Shanta Acharya, Carrie Etter and Annie Freud
Shanta Acharya was born in India, educated at Oxford and
Harvard, and has lived in London since 1985. An internationally
published poet, her five books of poetry are Dreams That Spell The Light (Arc Publications, UK, 2009), Shringara (Shoestring
Press, UK; 2006), Looking In, Looking Out (Headland Publications, UK; 2005), Numbering Our Days’ Illusions
(Rockingham Press, UK; 1995) and Not This, Not That (Rupa &
Co, India; 1994). Her doctoral study, The Influence of Indian
Thought on Ralph Waldo Emerson, was published by
The Edwin Mellen Press, USA, in 2001.
www.shantaacharya.com
Carrie Etter was born in the USA, and has lived in England since 2001. She is a senior lecturer in creative writing at Bath Spa University, and her first collection, The Tethers, was published by Seren Books in June 2009. As Paul
Batchelor commented in The Times, “Carrie Etter is an American expatriate, and her poetry is rootless in the best sense: it moves over wideranging territory and seems able to make itself at home anywhere. Although The Tethers is her first collection, Etter fully possesses her material,” evincing “intelligence and authority.”
Her pamphlet, The Son, was published by Oystercatcher Press in September 2009, and is the Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice for Winter 2009. Annie Freud was born in London in 1948.
She is the daughter of painter Lucian Freud, maternal granddaughter of sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein, and the great-grand-daughter of Sigmund Freud. She was educated at the Lycee Francais de Londres and then studied English and European
Literature at Warwick University. Since 1975, she has worked intermittently as a tapestry artist and embroiderer, exhibiting work and undertaking commissions. Her first full collection from
Picador, The Best Man Who Ever Was, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation in 2007, and went on to receive the Glen Dimplex New Writers’ Award in the same year.
Wed 24th March, 7.30am: THE POETRY CAFE – BETTERTON STREET, LONDON WC2 Tickets at door £5/£3 conc.; POETRY IN TRANSLATION
“The Trace they Wished to Leave”
Timothy Adès will present
Jean Cassou – Robert Desnos – Bertolt Brecht – Victor Hugo
Timothy Adès is a translator-poet who tends to work with rhyme and metre, translating mostly from French, German and Spanish. He has won awards for his versions of Cassou, Desnos, Hugo and the Mexican, Alfonso Reyes. His books to date are two volumes of Cassou’s poetry, and a short version of Victor Hugo’s last book of poetry, How to be a Grandfather.
Jean Cassou 1897-1986 was a major cultural figure, the creator of France’s Museum of Modern Art. Imprisoned as a suspected Resistant in 1941, he composed in his head his 33 Sonnets. Serious injury and rejection led him to write The Madness of Amadis (1950); these poems, translated, are now the core of two volumes of his work. The strict form of the sonnet enabled him to memorise the poems composed in prison; Amadis, taking its name from a hero of old romance, looks deceptively like an antique ballad. The forms chosen are at odds with the modernist, often opaque yet beautiful imagery.
Tue 20th April, 6.30am: The Gallery at Foyles, Foyles Bookshop, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB; Reading by Jill Bialosky and Fleur Adcock; A special event arranged by Inpress Books to coincide with the London Book Fair and to launch Jill Bialosky's first UK collection The Skiers which selects work from her three US collections, The End of Desire, Subterranean and Intruder, all originally published to great acclaim by Knopf.; Jill is reading with the distinguished New Zealand-born poet, Fleur Adcock, whose first collection for 10 years, Dragon Talk, will be published in May by Bloodaxe Books.; Tickets: Free, email events@foyles.co.uk to reserve a place.
Tue 11th May, 6.00pm: The Gallery, Stoke Newington Library, Church Street, London N16; Pistols & Pollinators – collaborative works by artists and poets.
Exhibition Finale – Readings by Katherine Gallagher, Valerie Josephs, Louisa Chambers and others.
Wed 12th May, 6.30pm: British Library Conference Centre, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB ; Jacek Dehnel and Georgi Gospodinov at the European Literature Night.
£7.50 (£5 concessions); For one night, capital cities across Europe are presenting simultaneous celebrations of writing and reading on European Literature Night, and the British Library will once again host an electrifying evening of readings and conversation from some superlative writers, both emerging and established.; Come and meet this year's authors:
Jacek Dehnel (Poland),  Otto de Kat (Netherlands),  Paolo Giordano (Italy),  Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria),  Julya Rabinowicz (Austria),  Giedra Radvilavičiūtė (Lithuania),  and Miloš Urban (Czech; www.PolishCulture.org.uk
Fri 14th May, 12.00pm: Waltham Forest Literature Festival Vestry House Museum, Vestry Road, Walthamstow, E17 9NH; Katherine Gallagher reads with Mimi Khalvati, Anna Robinson, and Charles Bennet.
Info: 0208 496 4391
Sat 15th May, 5.00pm: The Artworkers' Guild, 6 Queen Square, WC1; Katherine Gallagher launches Carnival Edge at the SLN Festival.
Sun 16th May, 7.30pm: The Jewish Museum, Raymond Burton House, 129-131 Albert Street, London NW1 7NB; The Sodom and Gomorrah Golf Club, by MICHELENE WANDOR
Michelene Wandor’s new play explores the overlapping fortunes of four people at the end of World War 1, as they are engulfed by the events leading to the British Mandate in Palestine.
This staged reading will be followed by a discussion with journalist, Jonathan Freedland.
With Jonathan Tafler, Steven Robertson, Steve Hodson
and Diana Quick.; Directed by Jane Morgan
Thu 20th May: May 20th, 21st, 22nd The Skagit Poetry Festival; Tony Curtis and Patrick Lane
Thu 20th May, 6.30pm: The Big Green Bookshop, Unit 1, Brampton Park Road, Wood Green, N22 6BG; Katherine Gallagher, Carnival Edge reading.
Thu 20th May, 6.45pm: Oxfam Bookshop, 12 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3QA; POETRY READING: Shanta Acharya, Michael Horovitz, Judy Gahagan
Entry: Free but suggested donation of £5.00 to Oxfam.
Wed 2nd June, 12.00pm: Toronto; Valerie Rouzeau and her translator Susan Wicks read from Rouzeau's collection Cold Spring in Winter as part of the Griffin Prize celebrations.
See www.griffinpoetryprize.com for more information.
Thu 3rd June: Toronto; Announcement of the prize winner of The Griffin Prize for Poetry.
Sun 6th June, 2.00pm: Waterstone's, Rose Lane, Canterbury.; Katherine Gallagher, Carnival Edge reading.
Thu 10th June, 7.00pm: Needlewriters at the Needlemakers Cafe, West Street, Lewes; Poets Lorna Thorpe and Sonya Smith, and novelist Irving Weinman.
Doors 7pm, readings 7.45pm (get there early if you want to order delicious food and eat before the readings start)
Tickets £5/£3
Sun 13th June, 1.30pm: Bridlington Poetry Festival (11th-13th June) at Sewerby Hall, East Yorkshire; James Byrne and Anne-Marie Fyfe reading from their poems.
Kicking off the festival's final afternoon of poetry readings are James Byrne and Anne-Marie Fyfe. Not only are James and Anne-Marie two of the UK's most energetic and passionate champions of poetry (as editor of poetry magazine The Wolf and founder of London's Coffee-House Poetry at the Troubador, respectively), they're terrific performers of their own work.
A sparky afternoon of dynamic poetry pairings begins here.
£5.00
Mon 14th June, 8.00pm: Jurnet's Bar, Wensum Lodge, King Street, Norwich. 49 Myddleton Road, Wood Green,; Katherine Gallagher reading with Richard Lambert for Cafe Writers.
See also www.katherine-gallagher.com
Tue 22nd June, 6.45pm: The Nehru Centre, 8 South Audley Street, London W1K 1HF; Reading by Shanta Acharya
With George Szirtes chairing the event and Carole Satyamurti releasing the CD
Fri 2nd July, 4.15pm: Ledbury Poetry Festival (July 2nd - 11th), Burgage Hall; Kristiina Ehin, from Estonia, opens the festival reading from her new bilingual book of poems "The Scent of your Shadow" plus songs from her poems sung by Estonian folk singers.
Sat 3rd July, 12.45pm: Ledbury Poetry Festival (July 2nd - 11th), Burgage Hall; Amarjit Chandan, from Punjab, reads from "Sonata for Four Hands" with Stephen Watts, the translator, reading the English.
Sat 10th July, 12.45pm: Ledbury Poetry Festival (July 2nd - 11th), Burgage Hall; Doris Kareva, from Estonia, reading at the launch of "Shape of Time" with her translator Tiina Aleman reading the English plus Mary O'Donnell reading from "The Ark Builders".
Sat 10th July, 7.00pm: 128 Myddleton Road, Wood Green, London. N22 8LZ.; 7pm for 7.30 pm
Launch reading by Katherine Gallagher of Carnival Edge: New & Selected Poems. Wine and Nibbles.
Info: 020 8881 1418. Event: free.
Mon 12th July, 7.30pm: Deptford Deli, 4 Tanners Hill, Deptford, London SE8 4PJ.; 7.30 – 9.30 pm
Katherine Gallagher reads with Russell Thompson
Café open serving food and drink from 5.30 pm.
Entry: £3. Info: 020 8692 7399.
Thu 15th July, 12.00pm: Oxfam Bloomsbury Bookshop, London; Amarjit Chandan (with Manjinder Virk) and other Panjabi poets.; Panjabi is the second most spoken language in the UK and this evening we bring together three poets who have kindly agreed to give us a flavour of this ‘colourful’ language. Chandan will recite his poems in Panjabi and the English translations will be delivered by Manjinder Virk. The session will be chaired by Rakesh Bhanot, the bookshop’s Events Manager, who will provide a very short introduction to Panjab and Panjabi.; To attend any Oxfam Bloomsbury Bookshop events, please email oxfambloomsburyhotmail.co.uk to reserve seats as we have a maximum capacity of 60 (35 seated). Whilst all events are free we suggest a donation of £5 to cover the cost of refreshments.
Mon 19th July, 6.00pm: Middlesbrough Literature Festival; Linda France with Bob Beagrie, Cynthia Fuller, Carolyn Jess-Cooke
Mon 26th July, 6.15pm: Newcastle City Library; Linda France
Tue 14th September, 6.30pm: Nehru Centre, London; Punjabi Poetry : Satrangi
Amarjit Chandan and Parminder Chadha
Mon 20th September, 7.30am: Arvon Foundation, Lecture Theatre, Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA £10/£5 Concessions www.freewordonline.com/flow; Flow the Freeword Festival: Voices from Panjab
This evening of poetry readings and storytelling will give a flavour of the rich and colourful Panjabi language – the second most spoken language in the UK. Major Panjabi writer Amarjit Chandan has published five collections of poetry. He will read in Panjabi, with English translations delivered by actress Manjinder Virk. Shazea Quraishi is a poet and translator whose work has been published in the UK and USA, while Shamhad Khan’s poetry explores themes of power, loss, identity and love. They will be joined by Seema Anand, who weaves together many different storytelling traditions to create spellbinding tales.
Tue 21st September, 7.00pm: Pighog Press London Series at The Leather Exchange, 15 Leathermarket Street, London SE1 3HN; Reading:
Lorna Thorpe, John McCullough, Tim Beech
Doors 7pm for 7.30pm, entry free.
Fri 24th September, 7.00pm: Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton St., Covent Garden, London WC2H 9BX Tel: 020 7420 9887; Fourth Friday Reading: Shanta Acharya
Sat 25th September, 3.00am: 26th Poetry Festival King's Lynn, Thoresby College, South Quay,King's Lynn; http://www.lynnlitfests.com/; Amarjit Chandan reading in Panjabi with his translator and poet John Welch. Other poets Agnes Meadows and John Lucas
Sat 25th September, 7.30am: Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Bl. Venice, CA 90291, USA http://www.beyondbaroque.org/events.html; Beyond Baroque Reading with Michael Hulse and Tony Barnstone
Sun 26th September, 11.00am: 26th Poetry Festival King's Lynn, Thoresby College, South Quay,King's Lynn; http://www.lynnlitfests.com/; Dannie Abse and John Welch, and from France Valerie Rouzeau with her translator, Susan Wicks
Sun 26th September, 4.00pm: West Hollywood Book Fair http://www/westhollywoodbookfair.org/?page id=1825; CROSSTRANSLATIONS: POETRY & OTHER LANGUAGES. Featuring: William Archila, Tony Barnstone, Helene Cardona, Mariana Dietl,Michael Hulse and Mariano Zaro
Mon 27th September, 7.30pm: Shannon Centre, Whittier College, 13406 Philadelphia St. Whittier CA 90608, USA; Whittier Writers Festival: Michael Hulse. Reading of Poetry and German Fiction in Translation
Thu 30th September, 5.00pm: University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA; Michael Hulse Reading
Thu 7th October, 10.00am: Bellingham Heritage Centre; Linda France Poetry Workshop, 10am - 4pm
Fri 8th October, 12.00pm: Hexham Library, time tbc; Linda France
Tue 12th October, 1.00am: 1- 2.30pm Royal Lit & Sci Institute, Bath; 'The Excitement of Rhyme and Metre'. A reading by Timothy Adès, translator of Jean Cassou's 33 Sonnets of the Resistance.
www.timothyades.co.uk
Thu 14th October, 8.00pm: Lauderdale House, Waterlow Park, Highgate Hill, London N6 5HG Tel: 020 8348 8716; Poetry at the House organised and hosted by Shanta Acharya: An evening of readings by poets and translators with Arc Publications –
Shanta Acharya, George Hyde, Lorna Thorpe, Jackie Wills
Tickets: £5.00 (Concessions £3.00)
Fri 22nd October, 7.45am: The New Venture Theatre, Bedford Place, Brighton BN1 2PT; Launch of Poetry South East 2010 from Frogmore Press with: Ros Barber, Brendan Cleary, Maria Jastrzebska, Lorna Thorpe
tickets £7
Fri 22nd October, 6.30pm: The Nehru Centre 8 South Audley Street London W1K 1HF
Tel 020 7493 2019; 'Mushaira': Gathering of Poets: Amarjit Chandan reading with Satyendra Srivastava (Hindi), Niranjana Desai (Gujarati) and Hilal Fareed (Urdu) In association with the DSC South Asian Literature Festival. Free admission
Mon 25th October, 7.30pm: Upper room of the Christian Centre by St. Martin's Church, Dorking RH4 1DW; Katherine Gallagher reads for Mole Valley Poets.
Fri 29th October, 7.00pm: 10th Torbay Poetry Festival; Reading: Shanta Acharya, Martyn Crucefix, Philip Gross
Sat 30th October, 7.30pm: Flux Gallery, 16a Midland Road, Headingly, Leeds LS6 1BQ; Ian Pople will be reading with Edmund Prestwich and Chris Woods
Sat 30th October, 7.30pm: Hebden Bridge Little Theatre; Hebden Bridge Lit Fest. Poetry Reading: Soleiman Adel Guemar & Linda France. Poetry Reading.
Sun 31st October, 2.30pm: Hebden Bridge Little Theatre; NB PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE FOR THIS EVENT
Hebden Bridge Lit Fest. Poetry Reading: Michael Haslam & Elizabeth Barrett.
Mon 1st November, 7.45pm: Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room. Prices: £9 Booking Fee: £1.45 (Members £0.00) Concessions:50% off (limited availability); Elaine Feinstein, Sylva Fischerová and Tomaž Šalamun and Kristiina Ehin.
A generation on from the fall of Communism, we present some of the finest poetry from - and about - the shifting boundaries of the New Europe.
Sat 6th November, 4.00pm: Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, Level 5 Function Room. Prices: £7 Booking Fee: £1.45 (Members £0.00) Concessions: 50% off (limited availability); Mourid and Tamim Barghouti with Ahdaf Soueif
Mourid Barghouti is one of the best-known and most celebrated figures in Palestinian literature.
Thu 11th November, 12.00pm: The Drum Arts Centre 144 Potters LaneBirmingham, West Midlands B6 4UU0121 333 2400; Amarjit Chandan reading and answering questions.
Tue 23rd November, 7.30pm: The Pushkin Club, Pushkin House, 5A Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2TA. Nearest tube stations:Holborn / Tottenham Court Road. Admissions £7 / concessions £5 / Free for friends of Pushkin House. Further information on 020-7269-9770 or 020-7328-9657; Larissa Miller poetry will be read in Russian with English translation.; The Moscow based Russian poet returns to the Pushkin Club to read her new poems following on from Guests of Eternity (Bilingual, translated by Richard McKane, published by Arc 2008) with her translator, Maggie Robertson and Angela Jarman.; Larissa Miller is one of Russia’s most highly regarded writers – novelist, essayist and poet. She is a consummate technician, combining simple words with complicated and intricate rhythms to produce apparently effortless poetry which succeeds in elevating the ordinary to a higher plane. Larissa Miller writes with an intensity and a lyricism that is compelling, mesmerising and unforgettable.
Tue 23rd November, 7.30pm: Poetry Bites, Kitchen Garden Cafe, York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham.; Joel Lane will be reading from his new Arc collection The Autumn Myth. Poetry Bites is a bimonthly event, hosted and programmed by poet Jacqui Rowe, that combines a guest reading with floor spots from the audience. The event is always well-attended, so if you'd like a floor spot please let Jacqui know before 7.30! Food, coffee, soft drinks, wine etc are available.
Wed 24th November, 7.30am: THE POETRY CAFE – 22 BETTERTON STREET, LONDON WC2H 9BX. Tickets at door £5/£3 conc.; POETRY IN TRANSLATION
“The Trace They Wished to Leave”
A reading from Remco Campert with Donald Gardner, Jacques Prevert and Sarah Lawson. Poetry in Translation is a series organised by Sebastian Hayes, co-Director of Brimstone Press Ltd .www.poetryintranslation.org
Sat 27th November, 11.00am: ‘Saying the World’ Festival of Women’s Poetry at NCLA. At Culture Lab, University of Newcastle.; Linda France will be holding a workshop 11am to 12.30pm. More details/to book: 0191 2227619.
Sat 27th November, 2.30pm: Whitworth Art Gallery, the South Gallery, Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL. For public transport and parking near the Gallery, see http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/; Poets and Players and Arc Publications present Valerie Rouzeau and Susan Wicks. Talented Lancaster musicians Jane Lawrence (violin) and Ben Farmer (accordion) will also perform. Admission Free. Come and wander the exhibitions beforehand or visit the cafe for lunch, served from 11.30am. Both the cafe and shop open until 4.00pm. Poets & Players, www.poetsandplayers.co.uk, is a popular poetry and music performance series in Manchester which brings together complementary arts. Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Sat 27th November, 7.00pm: Culture Lab, University of Newcastle. More details/to book: 0191 2227619.; Linda France will be reading at ‘Saying the World’ Festival of Women’s Poetry at NCLA with Jo Shapcott and Deryn Rees-Jones.
Sun 28th November, 3.30am: INTERNATIONAL POETRY DAY IN HEBDEN BRIDGE
Bar Place, Crown Street, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8AH; 3.30pm Larissa Miller
One of Russia's most distinguished poets reads from her first English translation, Guests of Eternity, a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation. Politcal and at the same time lyrical, her poetry is compelling and memorable.; 5.30pm Valérie Rouzeau and Susan Wicks
Leading French poet Valerie Rouzeau reads with her British translator, the emininet poet and novelist Susan Wicks, from a powerful and moving collection – short-listed for the 2010 Griffin Poetry Prize (the world's biggest poetry prize) – about the death of the poet's father, a scrap dealer.; 7.45pm Kristiina Ehin and friends
The day ends with an exuberant partnering of poetry and music from the young Estonian poet Kristiina Ehin – described as the 'Faerie Queene' of the recent Poetry International at London's South Bank Centre – and musicians, singers Ana and Mari and the renowned Estonian folk-musician, Silver Sepp.
Sun 28th November, 10.00am: International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester M1 5BY. 10am - 4pm; Discovered in Translation workshop with Susan Wicks, hosted by Poets and Players. Workshop description on www.poetsandplayers.co.uk , £25 (£20 concessions or 15-18 year olds). Tea/coffee/lunch available in the IABF's new cafe. To book, send cheque (made out to Poets & Players) to Linda Chase, 163 Palatine Road, M20 2GH. For further information, email linda@lindachase.co.uk
Wed 1st December, 1.00pm: City Library, Becker Room, First Floor, Elliot House, 151 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WD.
Contact Libby Tempest 0161 234 1981
email l.tempest@manchester.gov.uk
Get involved at
http://manchesterlitlist.blogspot.com; poetry@city library.
Larissa Miller reads new work and poems from her 'Arc' collection 'Guests of Eternity'.
Fri 3rd December, 6.00pm: The Sahitya Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, 35 Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi 110 001, India; Reading: Shanta Acharya, Keki Daruwalla, Kunwar Narain
Thu 9th December, 8.30pm: The BlueGate Poets of Swindon
www.bluegatepoets.com
Swindon Arts Centre; 'Open Mic' night.
Amarjit Chandan reading.
Fri 10th December, 12.30pm: Hyderabad Literary Festival, Hotel Green Park, Greenlands, Hyderabad. 12.30 - 13.30pm. www.hyderabadliteraryfestival.com; Reading: K Satchidanandan, Mamang Dai, Shanta Acharya. Keki Daruwalla will be delivering the keynote address at the Hyderabad Literary Festival.
Sun 12th December, 7.30pm: Torriano, 99 Torriano Avenue, Kentish Town, NW5.; Katherine Gallagher reads with Linda Rose Parkes.