FREE VERSE The Poetry Book Fair
Free Readings & Discussions 2017
FREE VERSE The Poetry Book Fair Free Readings & Discussions 30th September 2017
Your guide to Saturday 30th Septmber 2017, at a glance... Three sets of fantastic readings and discussions, all free entry, first-come first-served! Flick through for more details, or visit www.poetrybookfair.com
GARDEN CAFE (OUTDOORS, WITH A CANOPY) Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL 11.00 Yew Tree Press – Colin Honnor 11.30 Mother’s Milk Books – Ruth Stacey and Katy Morris 12.00 Silhouette Press – Jamie Thrasivoulou and Andrea Mbarushimana * 15.00 V. Press – Stephen Daniels & Nina Lewis 15.30 Hearing Eye – Pauline Sewards, Peter Phillips and Hylda Sims 16.00 Green Bottle – Kelly E. Sullivan and Sheila Hamilton 16.30 Arachne Press – Jeremy Dixon, Lisa Kelly and Sarah James
BROCKWAY ROOM (CONWAY HALL) 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL 11.00 Discussion: Meet the Editors! 11.30 Valley Press – Carole Bromley, Patrick Lodge, Janet Dean, Hannah Stone, Michael Shann, Fokkina McDonnell & Fiona Ritchie Walker 12.00 Henningham Family Press – David Henningham & Sophie Herxheimer 12.30 The Emma Press – Rakhshan Rizwan & Julia Bird 13.00 Gatehouse – Omikemi Natacha Bryan & Peter Daniels 13.30 William Cornelius Harris Publishing – Amy Deakin, Nick Eisen, George Harris, Rick Dove & Susan Evans 14.00 The Poetry Translation Centre – Jen Hadfield & Bejan Matur 14.30 The Poetry Book Society – Pascale Petit & Karen McCarthy Woolf 15.00 Discussion: Making a Living as a Poet! Sarah Hesketh, Richard O’Brien & Rachel Long 16.00 Rack Press – Chris Kinsey & Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch 16.30 Live New Departures – John Hegley, Adam Horovitz, Michael Horovitz & Vanessa Vie
EVENING DO MAIN HALL (CONWAY HALL) 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL 17.00 Competition Winners – to be announced! 19.25 Hercules – Ruth Valentine and Jaqui Saphra 20.00 Anathema – Eley Williams, Jennifer Cooke, Robert Kiely and Sally-Shakti Willow & Joe Evans 20.25 Nine Arches – Rishi Dastidar and Gregory Leadbetter 21.00 Out-Spoken – Anthony Anaxagorou and Raymond Antrobus 21.25 Clinic – Kit Buchan and Denise Saul
Garden Cafe
Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL 11.00 Yew Tree Press Colin Honnor Independent poetry and illustrated poetry publisher Yew Tree Press, established in the heart of the Cotswolds since 1997, celebrates two decades of publishing with books from its 2017-18 list of collections and pamphlets. Colin Honnor presents and reads poems from books published in the last year. 11.30 Mother’s Milk Books Ruth Stacey and Katy Morris Nottingham-based independent publisher Mother’s Milk Books showcase poets Ruth Stacey and Katy Wareham Morris, the authors of Inheritance, the most recent pamphlet from the press’s popular series of poetry ‘duets’, which focusses on narratives around womanhood and being a mother. 12.00 Silhouette Press Jamie Thrasivoulou and Andrea Mbarushimana Silhouette Press published Andrea Mbarushimana and Jamie Thrasivoulou ‘s debut collections this year. In The Africa in My House, Andrea explores themes of conflict and resolution in post-Genocide Rwanda, while Jamie talks about his journey of working-class struggle in his native Derby in The Best of a Bad Situation. *
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15.00 V. Press Stephen Daniels & Nina Lewis V. Press poets celebrate connection and disconnection, with Stephen Daniels reading from Tell Mistakes I Love Them, and Worcestershire poet laureate Nina Lewis from Fragile Houses. 15.30 Hearing Eye Pauline Sewards, Peter Phillips and Hylda Sims Pauline Sewards’s first collection This is the Band (published this autumn) reveals an individual lyric gift worthy of attention. Peter Phillips’s fourth publication with Hearing Eye, is Four Poems from Saying it with Flowers, which “wears [its] seriousness lightly”. Hylda Sims writes novels, poems, songs and hosts Fourth Friday at the Poetry Cafe. Her Hearing Eye books are Sayling the Babel and Reaching Peckham. 16.00 Green Bottle Kelly E. Sullivan and Sheila Hamilton Green Bottle Press, founded in London in 2014 and focussed primarily on first pamphlets and collections, presents Sheila Hamilton reading from her second full collection The Spirit Vaults, and New York-based Kelly E. Sullivan reading from her first pamphlet Fell Year. 16.30 Arachne Press Jeremy Dixon, Lisa Kelly and Sarah James Showcasing poets Arachne have published in our anthologies, The Other Side of Sleep, Liberty Tales and Shortest Day, Longest Night. Experience a flush of openness in San Francisco, a long day on a till, an even longer night in a hotel, and time shifting about the three occupants of a house.
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Brockway Room Conway Hall
11.00 Discussion: Meet the Editors! Find out what editors really want! Let them tell you what they excites them most, find out what to avoid, and get the chance to ask them some questions. With Seren, Burning Eye and Sidekick Books. 11.30 Valley Press Yorkshire Anthology Poets Join Valley Press for a celebration of our latest anthology, which finds poets from the UK and beyond sharing stories, legends and memories from VP’s home county – dodging the ‘flat caps and whippets’ to showcase Yorkshire’s modern, diverse landscapes and communities. Featuring Carole Bromley, Patrick Lodge, Janet Dean, Ian Harrow, Hannah Stone, Michael Shann, Fokkina McDonnell and Fiona Ritchie Walker. 12.00 Henningham Family Press David Henningham and Sophie Herxheimer Henningham Family Press present a survey of their innovative concertina books from the last ten years, including a British Council commission printed live in Moscow. Renowned artistpoet Sophie Herxheimer reads from her 30m long The Listening Forest, and her dazzling new homage to Emily Dickinson: Your Candle Accompanies The Sun. Find out how this simple binding could help you disseminate poetry. 12.30 The Emma Press Rakhshan Rizwan and Julia Bird Award-winning publisher the Emma Press is pleased to present www.poetrybookfair.com
the two newest Emma Press pamphlet poets: Julia Bird, reading from Now You Can Look, her poetic biography of a 1930s artist, and Rakhshan Rizwan reading from Paisley, her debut pamphlet of poems which examine class and cultural identity in the context of Pakistan and South Asia. 13.00 Gatehouse Omikemi Natacha Bryan and Peter Daniels Norwich based Gatehouse Press showcase two outstanding writers: Complete Works III poet and Lighthouse pamphleteer Omikemi Natacha Bryan and award-winning poet Peter Daniels. 13.30 William Cornelius Harris Publishing Amy Deakin, Nick Eisen, George Harris, Rick Dove and Susan Evans London-based publishing house, started by William Cornelius Harris, presents the work of five exciting, funny and political poets whose first collections have been published in 2017. 14.00 The Poetry Translation Centre Jen Hadfield and Bejan Matur Acclaimed Kurdish poet Bejan Matur presents If this is a lament, her new PTC chapbook, with English translations by Jen Hadfield. Join us for an electrifying performance of poetry in Kurdish, Turkish and English, by a pair of poets whose work explores the language of landscape and of home. 14.30 The Poetry Book Society Pascale Petit and Karen McCarthy Woolf The Poetry Book Society, founded by T S Eliot, presents two of their finest recent PBS Selections. Pascale Petit has published six collections and is the recipient of numerous prizes including a Cholmondeley Award. Her latest collection Mama Amazonica, published by Bloodaxe, was selected www.poetrybookfair.com
as a PBS Choice for Autumn 2017. Karen McCarthy Woolf has published two Carcanet collections, the latest of which, Seasonal Disturbances, was chosen as a PBS Summer 2017 Recommendation. 15.00 Discussion: Making a Living as a Poet! Sarah Hesketh, Richard O’Brien and Rachel Long Practical advice on earning money while working in poetry from Rachel Long (leader of the poetry collective Octavia) and Richard O’Brien (2017 Eric Gregory Award winner), in conversation with Sarah Hesketh. Questions from the audience will be welcomed. 16.00 Rack Press Chris Kinsey and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch Welsh poetry pamphlet publisher Rack Press presents Chris Kinsey whose Muddy Fox was published this year and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, author of Lime & Winter (shortlisted for a Michael Marks Award). 16.30 Live New Departures John Hegley, Adam Horovitz, Michael Horovitz and Vanessa Vie Live New Departures presents a quartet of performance poetry maestros, alternating individually and conjoined in wordsounds unlimited, with excerpts from Vanessa and Michael’s joint CD and book Lyrical Soulmates, John’s mash-ups from Peace, Love and Potatoes, and New and Selected Potatoes, as well as Adam’s Little Metropolis and 1000 Laurie Lees, and Michael’s Poetry Olympics Marathon.
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Masterclass Workshops WHAT GETS FOUND IN TRANSLATION with Michael Schmidt at the Poetry Book Fair, 11.30am-2pm, £35 C.H. Sisson called translation “fishing in other men’s waters”. He translated from languages he knew. Contemporary poets often work from languages they hardly know, drawn by what they imagine a poem has to offer, the doors it might open. How do we get into poetry we cannot access on a primary level? What authority can such translations have? Michael Schmidt has translated ‘from the Aztec’ with only basic intuitions of Nahuatl; he wrote a tome on classical Greek poetry with hardly even rudimentary Greek, and is currently writing about the Gilgamesh Epic, most translated of ancient poems, translated by writers without knowledge of the original. What benefit do poets get from such oblique imaginings? We’ll work on creating our own oblique translations, taking the ‘original’ for a ride to see where we end up. WHO GOES THERE? with Vahni Capildeo at the Poetry Book Fair, 2.30pm-5pm, £35 The idea of ‘voice’ in poetry raises vexed and exciting questions. Today, poets may be watchful about developing, or betraying, their ‘identity’; reckless, or on guard against, ‘appropriating others’. However, something in any writer remains on watch; listening at the sentinel’s post; vulnerable, if not open, to familiar and strange visitants. This session lets you off being on guard, or having to declare yourself. In this workshop, you will be encouraged to find other voices within yourself. You will experiment with creating personæ who ask questions about some ‘other’ character. About someone whose responses are unpredictable; someone on your conscience, in your dreams – or nightmares. We shall work together on identifying your desired or feared, unknown or unknowable, subject. Booking essential! Email poetrybookfair@gmail.com www.poetrybookfair.com
The Evening Do Conway Hall
17.00 Competition Winners – to be announced! The winners of this year’s Poetry Book Fair competition will read their poems, as well as a few other poems of their own. Come and make them feel welcome! 19.25 Hercules Ruth Valentine and Jaqui Saphra Hercules Editions is an independent press combining poetry and prose with art and archival material to create beautiful small books. Publisher Tamar Yoseloff introduces a reading from the authors of two 2017 titles: Ruth Valentine’s Rubaiyat for the Martyrs of Two Wars and Jacqueline Saphra’s A Bargain with the Light: Poems after Lee Miller. 20.00 Anathema Eley Williams, Jennifer Cooke, Robert Kiely and SallyShakti Willow & Joe Evans A set of short snappy readings from recently published Sad Press poets. Eley Williams’s collection of short stories Attrib. & Other Stories (Influx) came out this year. Jennifer Cooke is a theorist, poet and senior lecturer in English at Loughborough University. Robert Kiely is an Irish writer and poet from Co. Cork, currently living in London. Sally-Shakti Willow is a poet engaged in a collaborative project with visual artist Joe Evans. 20.25 Nine Arches Rishi Dastidar and Gregory Leadbetter Nine Arches Press invite you to join us for two debut poets who travel the whole range of moods and themes, from the irrepressible dayglow pop-picking poetry of Rishi Dastidar www.poetrybookfair.com
to the spectral, supernatural and shifting shades of Gregor Leadbetter’s haunting poetry. 21.00 Out-Spoken Anthony Anaxagorou and Raymond Antrobus Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot award-winning poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. He has published nine volumes of poetry, a spoken-word EP and a collection of short stories. In 2012 he founded Out-Spoken and Out-Spoken Press, an independent publisher that aims to challenge the lack of diversity in British publishing. Raymond Antrobus is a British-Jamaican poet, performer, editor and educator, born and bred in East London, Hackney. He is one of the world’s first recipients of an MA in Spoken Word education from Goldsmiths University. In 2017 he was awarded 1 of 3 inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships. His debut poetry collection will be published by Penned In The Margins (2018). 21.25 Clinic Kit Buchan and Denise Saul Clinic press presents Kit Buchan and Denise Saul! Denise Saul’s White Narcissi (Flipped Eye Publishing), was Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice for Autumn 2007. Her House of Blue (Rack Press) was PBS Pamphlet Recommendation for Summer 2012. She is the winner of the 2011 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize. Denise is a Fellow of The Complete Works. Kit Buchan has been published in The White Review and Clinic 4. He was highly commended for the Poetry London competition 2015. He also writes musicals and for the Observer.
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FREE VERSE The Poetry Book Fair Free Readings & Discussions 2017
Free Verse is an all-day bazaar, market, library, meeting place, performance venue, information resource and more. Celebrating the vitality of contemporary poetry in the UK, publishers both large and small, both experimental and traditional, display and sell their work direct to the public. This year’s Poetry Book Fair takes place on Saturday 30th September 2017 at Conway Hall (10am-6pm for the main fair, then 7pm onwards for the Evening Do), with readings at the Garden Cafe in Red Lion Square throughout. For more information, please visit www.poetrybookfair.com