Thursday, October 05, 2006

Trobadours of Yore (and Today)

There is a fabled place in far-off West London where poetry still thrives amidst the beer drinkers and musicians tuning up in the basement. That place is The Troubadour. OK, so their troubs tend towards the swimmers of the mainstream, but worth a visit if only because all these poets came from one writing workshop. And because Shapcott, Greenlaw and Padel are light years ahead of the Armitages, Farleys and Sweeneys.

Monday 9th October - COFFEE HOUSE POETRY

Many major New-/Next-Gen poets learned their trade at a Notting Hill workshop group founded in the ‘80s by Robert Greacen. Leading names from that group come together for a unique celebration of contemporary poetry— Poetry Society president Jo Shapcott has won the National twice; Her Book: Poems 1988-1998 (Faber 2000) contains poems from her 3 collections— Maurice Riordan edits Poetry London; his 3rd book, The Holy Land is due in 2007— novelist/radio-dramatist Lavinia Greenlaw teaches on Goldsmiths College’s Creative-Writing MA; Minsk, her 3rd collection, was Eliot-prize-shortlisted— Matthew Sweeney now lives in Romania; his many publications include Sanctuary (Cape 2004) and a Selected (2002)— Ruth Padel is Poetry Society chair and contributed, for many years, a uniquely popular poetry column to the Independent on Sunday; The Soho Leopard (Chatto 2004) is her 6th collection.
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Readings 8-10pm £5.50 / £4.50 concs

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Events A-Go-Go

My pixie ears prick up on hearing of the following... launch of sexy new poetry collection The Allotment at Warwick University, Oct 12th, along with the fabulous "greatest hits" of rock star poet Andy Brown. There'll be a reading in Brighton, November 18th, for all you seaside lovers, too.

There's also a whirlagig of poetry this coming weekend in Cambridge, with the Experimental Women's Poetry Festival, including Susan Schultz, Kathleen Fraser, Redell Olsen and other lovely luminaries.

For something a bit more hands on, how about a writing workshop with Saradha Soobrayen and Dorothea Smartt as part of The Fire This Time, dedicated to queering - and celebrating - Black History Month.

And, good golly, there's Poetry International, featuring Lorna Goodison, Ulrike Draesner and others.

Enough to make a librarian want to curl up and snooze, er, read a good book :)