I have archived the posts from WLF site for 2017-18 for prosperity and to complete this blog which was set up for my year as Worcestershire Poet Laureate.
Archive: Congratulations – Where It All Began!
Archived from journalread.com
Congratulations Nina Lewis Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2017
The climax to the seventh Worcestershire Literary Festival was the crowning of our new Worcestershire Poet Laureate Nina Lewis. The opening night was magical with readings from young writers, from the Flash Fiction winner Christine Griffin, plus an ultra-cool compere in Poet with Punch Matt Windle.
Laureate finalists Damon Lord and Louise Reeder wowed us with their words. Damon gave an impressive performance and Louise’s second poem was emotional, heartbreakingly beautiful.
Nina told the Worcester audience that as Laureate she would wish to build on the legacy of past Laureates. She has a passion for promoting poetry and experience in organising poetry events independently and for festivals, and she’d endeavour to raise awareness of local talents while her overarching theme is to get people connecting with poetry.
Congratulations to Louise and Damon for their achievements. Mega-congratulations to Nina, Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2017!
Nina’s WPL Blog—August 2017
ARCHIVE WPL Review #1 June-Sep
Worcestershire Poet Laureate News and Reviews
I am delighted to be Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2017/18. I cannot believe that two months have passed already. There are lots of plans in the making and several current opportunities you can take advantage of.
Submissions
Submissions are now open for poems about Worcestershire. Send 1-3 previously unpublished poems in the body of an email to worcspl@gmail.combefore the 31st August.
I am producing several digital magazines during my tenure and work for this latest call out will appear in Contour in the Autumn, a free online magazine.
I am also looking for artwork/photographs for this issue.
Workshop
Tickets are on sale for a workshop I am delivering on Monday 18th September at Jinney Ring Craft Centre, Hanbury. We are using the Sculpture Trail as initial inspiration. Tickets include free cake and tea/coffee, a marquee for the workshop and a tour of the Sculpture Trail.
Attendees have the chance to see their finished poems exhibited at the Jinney Ring and a possible reading later in November.
All this for just £7.00, book your tickets now as places are limited. Get in touch worcspl@gmail.com for further information.
Performances
Lakefest
August 12th From 1:15 PM
A whole bunch of Laureates performed in the Pen & Parchment Tent at Lakefest this weekend, 12th August, thanks to Ruth Inglis for organising this.
The programme was exciting and included: A Children’s Workshop with Pete the Temp.
A Lot of Laureates performances from Maggie Doyle, Suz Winspear, Chloe Clarke, Matt Windle and myself.
A Poetry Brothel with Matt Windle, Rick Sanders and myself.
A SpeakEasy Special with the Laureates plus Polly Stretton, Charley Barnes, Rick Sanders.
Poetry on Demand throughout the day.
A Poetry Slam.
The Anti-Poet.
It was a fantastic day, this is the first year Lakefest has had a poetry tent and it was a great success.
Huntington Hall – Worcester Festival
Poetry Open Mic Night with Ben Parker
August 23rd 7 PM
For £2.50 you can spend the evening listening to poetry. More information can be found here:
All pre-booked slots are full, performers listed include myself, Myfanwy Fox, Timothy Stavert, Suz Winspear, Robin Hector, Cass Osborn, Bob Woodroofe and Sue Johnson.
Remaining slots filled first-come-first-served on the night. Whether you’re a seasoned performer, or new to the spotlight, this will be a welcoming and enjoyable event.
Future Opportunities
A Tale of Two Cities & Twinned Towns
I am currently negotiating two International Poetry Projects, one within Europe and another with the States.
I am looking for poets who are interested in being partnered with a poet across the Atlantic and/or Europe. Look out for more information at the end of the summer and register your interest by dropping a quick email to worcspl@gmail.com – participating poets can take part in both projects.
Open to poets based in Worcestershire.
And Now, A Step Back in Time…
June
What has happened so far? Well, you were probably there but just in case you missed it… June.
The Worcester LitFest Bit
What better way to celebrate my Laureateship than the 7th Worcester LitFest. It was an incredible programme this year – kudos and credit to the WLF team!
I loved that people came from far and wide to Worcester and events saw new audience as well as new faces perform.
My first official engagement as WPL was The Night at the Museum III, an evening at Museum of Royal Worcester, hosted and organised by the former WPL and Poet in Residence, Suz Winspear.
I performed alongside former Young Poet Laureate Chloe Clarke, the Young Poet Laureate of Worcestershire Oakley and Matt Windle the current Birmingham Poet Laureate.
It was also the official Launch of Suz’s Porcelain Pamphlet ‘The Aniseed Elite’, which she performed. This is a book I can thoroughly recommend and a snip at £4.00!
I spent the first week of my Laureateship immersed in WLF. I couldn’t attend everything as I was working but I managed a lot of the programme. This year excitingly, I was part of the bill with a show I created in collaboration with Kathy Gee and Claire Walker.
Something I had been mulling over for a year as I patiently redrafted my pamphlet ‘Fragile Houses’. I knew I wanted to do something dynamic with the poetry and was delighted when fellow V.Press Poets agreed to come on board.
We created 30-40-60 a multimedia poetry show which debuted at the festival on Sunday 11th June.
This special evening began with a host of poets on the mic including: Elaine Christie, Nigel Hutchinson, Neil Richards, Belinda Rimmer, Rick Sanders, Suz Winspear, Paul Woolridge and Kate Weatherby. I love the fact the show exposed new poets to Worcester and a new poet to all of us. Part of every Laureates mission is to find those who write poetry and are not already part of the network. A true bonus.
You can read more about it here 30-40-60.
With Worcester LitFest in full swing I attended and performed at 42 Festival Special, which featured The Anti-Poet and was an anarchy driven night of high spirits and the following night SpeakEasy with Pete the Temp, which was also the evening Suz and I did the official hand over and had a few more photos taken of the now engraved WPL award!
Beyond WLF
I attended the National Writers’ Conference in Birmingham, the day after the Launch of WLF. It is a great Writing West Midlands event, I went as a Room 204 delegate. It is a good investment if you ever get a chance.
I created a dedicated email address and blog – check it out https://worcestershirepoetlaureateninalewis.wordpress.com/
I performed a Guest Spot at Licensed to Rhyme, a night co-hosted by Maggie Doyle (PL Emeritus) and Spoz, at the Artrix in Bromsgrove.
It is a night of open mics, two Guest Spots and a Headliner. Always a great night and this one saw Ben Parker and Gareth Owen perform.
I visited Croome Court for a National Trust Project I am involved in through Room 204 ‘Adam Speaks’. Room 204 is a Writing Development Programme with Writing West Midlands. I applied in February and was one of 15 successful candidates for this year’s cohort. Over 135 people applied, I am grateful I made it onto the 2017/18 cohort.
At the end of the month I Headlined alongside Tom Crossland at Spoken Trend, a night of Spoken Word and Poetry run by Tom McCann at The Bull’s Head in Kings Norton. I don’t get to events in Birmingham as often as I used to, always a pleasure.
The Poet Laureate Bit
I organised a poetry performance and picnic at an established event ‘SALT KING 200’ at the Chateau Impney – in celebration of John Corbett and put a call out for poetry submissions for a Refugee Anthology to mark World Refugee Day/ Refugee Awareness Week.
The poetry anthology can be found here.
Showcasing established, emerging and beginner poets – Local, National & International poets represented. I was amazed by the response and with just 48 hours from call out to end result – it is a fine collective of voices. Strong points that need to be heard and should be made.
Salt King 200 brought eight poets together, again at incredibly short notice. Performers included: Mike Alma, Leena Batchelor, Holly Daffurn, Cass Osborne, Neil Richards, Timothy Stavert, Suz Winspear & myself.
It was a special start to being WPL, delighted that so many took the opportunity to research and write Corbett poetry. It was a fine day in every way. Ten poets originally signed up for Salt King 200, unfortunately they couldn’t all make it. I liked the correlation between being the 7th WPL and having 7 Poets at my first event!
Salt King 200 with added Poetry
I promoted National Writing Day, set up a radio slot with BBC Hereford & Worcester, wrote media content to announce my new role and started writing lots of Laureate plans in a pink, glittery (of course) notebook.
I performed at WLF event Words on Water, a beautiful Solstice Walk along the Severn, one I have enjoyed for a few years now.
July
The Poet Laureate Bit
I performed in my 4th official event as WPL for Evesham’s Festival of Words. This event had a great turn out and beautiful Sunday morning sunshine for the poetry walk, a gentle stroll across the green park around the Bell Tower in Evesham.
I performed some Evesham poems written especially for the event and enjoyed listening to poetry and prose. It was good to see some people who happened upon our merry group, stay and listen.
BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester
I had my first Radio slot with Tammy Gooding BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester. This was something Maggie Doyle instigated during her WPL tenure (2013/14). It is a tradition picked up by other Laureates and I am happy to continue with it.
I read ‘Gander’ one of the poems written for Evesham Festival of Words. Tammy is amazing at putting you at ease. She was impressed with an interview which needed no editing! It has been decades since I stepped foot inside a studio. I was nervous, but had such a great time!
I am already booked in for August, listen in from 1 PM on Monday 14th.
I had a Guest Spot as the new WPL at Licensed to Rhyme, Maggie Doyle & Spoz’s monthly poetry event at the Artrix. The other Guest Spot Poet was Claire Walker and Headlining was Suz Winspear. It was an opportunity for me to perform many of the poems created as WPL so far, the list is already fairly lengthy. There were a plethora of open mic-ers. It was a fabulous evening.
On the 22nd I was part of Watch Out Worcester thanks to Suz Winspear, who organised a fantastic event at St. Swithin’s with her DanceFest connection. It was a wonderful event and a pleasure to perform some of my Poetry Ballroom set again.
I was Poet in Residence at Droitwich Library for the morning as part of the Artsfest. It was a chance to wear my personalised WLF t-shirt and spread poetry joy. The children enjoyed making poetry kits, I wrote several library poems and chatted about all things poetry.
Photo credit Rhys Jones
After this I dropped some Poetry for Display into Canal Side Studio and talked about more WPL opportunities, so watch this space for more exciting Poetry Projects to sink your teeth into!
Beyond
I headlined at Uncorked at the beginning of the month alongside Clive Oseman, Sean Colletti and Jake Scott. This is a great evening created by Holly Daffurn that happens at the lovely Bottles Wine Bar in Worcester.
I went to a workshop in Shrewsbury with Helen Ivory and Martin Figura, it was great to finally meet these two and catch up with Shropshire based poets. I managed to get a quality poem from this workshop too – and of course bought more books for my poetry bookcase.
I spent a day catching the end of Ledbury Poetry Festival with an action packed schedule starting with a performance of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ poetry at Coffee Morning with Malika’s Kitchen hosted by Jill Abram. Read more about it here. 21 Years of Gold Ledbury Poetry Festival
I performed in Cheltenham at Chapel Lates, an amazing night of poetry and prose as part of Cheltenham Music Festival curated by Anna Saunders (Founder Cheltenham Poetry Festival). Read all about it here Chapel Lates
Buildings Talk: Hospital Histories – poetry performed at the George Marshall Medical Museum. Charley Barnes asked me to participate in this project at the end of June along with Mike Alma and Polly Stretton.
We had access to historical archives (photographs) which are not on general display to the public and from these we created a 10 minute set of poetry.
It was a great project to be involved in, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Louise Price had the creative vision to intersperse the medical talks with poetry. We performed our poems with the images projected behind us.
I performed at Open Poetry in Walsall Arboretum (an event organised by David Calcutt), this month was a charity event to raise awareness of the refugee crisis in Greece. We raised funds for PIPKA – refugees in Lesvos.
I attended the Nine Arches Press Summer Party at Waterstones Birmingham with readings from Angela France, Gregory Leadbetter, Tania Hershman and Rishi Dastidar.
I went to Cheltenham for Angela France’s Book Launch, ‘The Hill’ is her latest collection, published by Nine Arches.
I had a workshop with Chris Alton, the Lead Artist on the Croome Court Project and another workshop with Angela France.
Droitwich Artsfest happened, this festival is something I have been involved in organising the poetry element for the past 5 months.
The 22nd saw Poetry in St. Andrew’s Square with myself, Antony Owen and Val Harrison and later in the evening Fergus McGonigal (former WPL) hosted Poetry Extravaganza at Park’s Cafe. A fantastic night of poetry and I was presented with my newly engraved WPL Award.
In between I managed to get across to Suz’s event for Watch Out Worcester, Poetry at St. Swithin’s.
I finished the month with a night of poetry and prose at Drummonds 42 and the pleasure of seeing Kevin Brooke in action as the Guest host, it was a ‘curious’ night of delight. Kevin did a sterling job!
And now… it is August and I have performed at Lakefest, attended my first WLF Committee Meeting and am busy reading submissions for Contour, finalising PR for the Jinney Ring Sculpture Workshops and liaising with International organisations over the Twin Projects, oh – and celebrating my birthday. Having realised I am the Youngest Worcester Poet Laureate, I don’t feel so old!
See you all soon!
Worcestershire Poet Laureate
Nina’s WPL Blog—September 2017
A Quick Update from Nina Lewis Worcestershire Poet Laureate.
Opportunities for You
Following a sell out Poetry Workshop a second date has been added. Places are still available.
Jinney Ring Poetry Workshop
20th September 6 – 8pm (meet in the Marquee from 5:30pm).
Workshop based on Sculpture Trail at Jinney Ring Craft Centre, Hanbury.
£7.00 ticket includes Guided Tour, Poetry Workshop in the Marquee, Refreshments (including cake) and future opportunities to exhibit & read work.
To book your place please email worcspl@gmail.com
National Poetry Day
Send 1- 3 poems 20-25 lines on the theme of FREEDOM to worcspl@gmail.com
Send your poems in the body of an email with a three sentence bio.
I will be compiling a collection of NPD poems.
Hanbury Hall Poetry
Every year the Droitwich Arts Network fill the Long Gallery at Hanbury Hall with work from local artists. In past years Poets have been involved in writing projects run alongside the Gallery. This year I am gathering interested poets together on the first part of the project.
This involves going to look at the exhibition (free entry) any time from 11thOctober to the 29th October. Choosing a piece of Art and writing Ekphrastic poetry.
There will be opportunities to share your finished work.
FREE
To register your interest please email worcspl@gmail.com
https://worcestershirepoetlaureateninalewis.wordpress.com/2017/09/13/writing-opportunity-for-you/
Twin Town Project
This European project has been planned since June, I am now in the final stages meeting with committees and actioning plans. I am currently asking for poets to email to register their interest. A knowledge of language is not necessary. I am setting up projects with Twin Towns both from Germany and France.
There is also a Transatlantic project still in proposal/committee stages. The project with the USA has also been in the making for the past couple of months.
All good things take time.
If this excites you, let me know. I already have a number of poets involved. The first project will be based on partnerships with poets in Germany, so the more the merrier / je mehr, desto besser!
Email worcspl@gmail.com
Performances
National Poetry Day
Voices of 1919
Autumn in Malvern Festival
Elmslie House, 8 Avenue Road, Malvern, WR14 3AG
Tickets £8.00 available from Malvern Theatres, The Box Office, Malvern Theatres, Grange Road, Malvern WR14 3HB – telephone 01684 892 277
7pm for a 7.30pm start.
The Great War is over. In the Spring of 1919 the village of Oakby awaits the return of survivors. Each household has its own story. Through the words of 20 contemporary poets, we hear the voices of villagers struggling to recall their past, to understand the present and to imagine the future.
https://worcestershirepoetlaureateninalewis.wordpress.com/2017/09/16/voices-of-1919/
Credo
29th September 7.30pm, Elmslie House, 8 Avenue Road, Malvern WR14 3AG
I will be performing at Elmslie House myself the night after, 29th September as part of Credo. To reserve your seat for the evening recital please call Anna on 07789 470780 Tickets £10 on the door including a free interval drink.
To find out more visit http://www.elmsliehouse.co.uk/2017/08/31/creative-synergy-credo-by-liz-johnson/
ARCHIVE WPL Review #2 Nov-Dec
Worcestershire Poet Laureate News and Reviews
Nina’s WPL Blog – November/December 2017
What a fantastic 5 months it has been. I am enjoying being Worcestershire Poet Laureate and still pinch myself some days. What excites me most is discovering secret poets and helping people turn to and return to poetry. I have met new-to-me poets and encouraged them gently into the wonderful world of poetry. These were some of my targets, and I am delighted that they have already been realised…
Poetry Magazine
My last blog post in August mentioned Contour. The first issue was released on 29th October; it launched at the end of INKSPILL, an online writing retreat I run annually over at awritersfountain. You can read a digital copy of Contour now just here.
Let me know as soon as you can if you would like a printed version as a limited run is being ordered. Drop me a line worcspl@gmail.com; cost will depend on the size of the order, it will be around £5 plus P&P.
The next issue is scheduled for February and submission details go live on the WPL blog TODAY (you can have a peak now by clicking here).
September
I was booked for my first talk as a poet by Evesham Festival of Words for Second Friday Stories; I organised an Open Mic Poetry Event to celebrate the Salt Day Festival in Droitwich Spa; met with Janet King to discuss the European Twin Town Poetry Project – we are currently gathering poets based in Germany; headlined SpeakEasy and Permission to Speak; and wrote poems for The Unremembered of WW1, a Living Memory Project published by Black Pear Press.
I facilitated the Sculpture Trail Poetry Workshop at the Jinney Ring (18th September) and poets gave positive feedback on the experience. Since the workshop I’ve compiled 16 poems for an exhibition in the Restaurant at the Jinney Ring Craft Centre and am meeting with Carolyn Baldwin (Events Manager) in the New Year to finalise plans. We hope for an Easter time exhibition.
To celebrate National Poetry Day (28th September) I compiled the 2nd WPL anthology, on the theme of Freedom, which you can find details of just here.
Later on in the month I received a commission from Liz Johnson (Composer) to write for Credo, Creative Synenergy and perform on the 29th September at Elmslie House, Malvern. This was a fabulous project to be part of. Liz had collaborated with Visual Artist Dora Williams to create Credo, and the evening event celebrated the launch of the exhibition. My poem ‘Terra Firma’, based on one of Dora’s abstracts, was exhibited too. I wrote 7 new poems for this collaboration, and you can click here to read more about that experience.
October
I compiled a 3rd Anthology, dedicated to Mental Health Awareness poems, for World Mental Health Awareness Day, and submissions for this remain open for the rest of my Laureateship. Details can be found on my blog.
I also performed at the SpeakEasy Special for Mental Health Awareness & Wellbeing event.
Halloween was covered both by the creation of a Poetry Film of your poems and, as a one off, some flash fiction was published alongside poetry on the blog. I also devised a children’s workshop for LITtleFest over at St. John’s Library as part of the WLF Halloween Event on 28th October.
I spent the majority of October working with Hanbury Hall Poets. We wrote ekphrastic writing based on artwork by Droitwich Arts Network. 15 poets visited the Long Gallery over 3 weeks and wrote poems, and over 3000 visitors attended the exhibition.
Polly Stretton won a competition to read at the closing event on 30th October. She and I went and read to the artists, shared their lunch and generally did lots of networking! I met one of my artists, Stephen Evans, and my poem will appear in his next exhibition in December.
A reading of our poems was planned for 14th November at Parks Cafe, Droitwich.
November
I was a Guest Speaker for Worcester University Creative Writing Society and a week later at the U3A Worcester group.
Rosie Philpott and I collaborated on collecting images of the artwork from DAN for the reading that was scheduled for this month. Rosie created a show of all the Artwork which was displayed as 9 Hanbury Hall poets gathered to read their work. The readers included a first time reader and poets from Gloucestershire. It was a great success and a fantastic example of cross-arts work. It also marked my final event as WPL for 2017; you can click here for more information about this event.
I also worked on a new commission. Peter Sutton asked me to take part in his Elgar Poetry Event (you can find more details of this event just here). I wrote 14 new poems about Elgar and Worcestershire. The event was held at the Elgar School of Music, Worcester; other readers at this event were Lesley Ingram and Michael W. Thomas. Peter cleverly tied our work together in a performance that flowed beautifully and included poetry from Elgar’s contemporaries as well as some facts and memories. It was a superb experience!
I compiled my 4th anthology for Remembrance. I received submissions well into triple figures and had to make lots of hard, editorial decisions. The results are incredibly powerful, though. This collection includes International Poets and you can access it now by clicking here.
I had meeting with the Basement Project, a charity who help young homeless (16-25), for a proposal I offered in July. I have organised 3 community workshops for 2018 between March and April. I am looking forward to this new challenge and promoting the work they do. For more information on what to expect from this work, head over to my blog.
It is amazing how long projects can take in planning stages. I already have several stacked up ready for the New Year!
Other projects and performances include:
September: Performance Birmingham Literature Festival, V. Press
Performance at Free Verse Poetry Book Fair, London V. Press
Worked as WMRN Reader in Residence at Rugby Library (ongoing)
October: V. Formation, Reading at Poetry Swindon Festival V. Press
INKSPILL Online Writing Retreat
November: Verve Poetry & Spoken Word Festival Launch
Adam Speaks, Croome Court.
To find out more about what I have been up to please visit my personal blog, available here.
ARCHIVE WPL Review #3 Dec – Feb
Worcestershire Poet Laureate News and Reviews
Nina’s WPL blog – December to February
Well here we are, I have just a quarter of my term left as Laureate – where did that time go? Here’s my review of December to February in case you have somehow missed everything!
PS: Don’t miss World Poetry Day 21st March 7 PM start at Café Bliss.
December:
Submissions for Contour – the Worcestershire Poet Laureate Poetry Magazine – opened. This time the theme was Love as I was editing for February release.
A Tale of Two Cities, my Transatlantic poetry project, was launched with 46 poets from the USA and UK. All the poets were partnered up and our ‘Call’ poems were shared.
My poem from the Hanbury Hall Poets project went on display at an Exhibition at the Maltstones in Cutnall Green, with thanks to Stephen Evans for this.
January:
I was a Guest Poet along with Kevin Brooke and Holly Magill at Suz Winspear’s Book Launch, ‘The Awkward People’, her WPL collection was published by Black Pear Press. It was a wonderful event and I have now read the full collection. If you haven’t bought a copy I urge you to do so, you will not regret it! It’s available here.
I shared poetry with Tammy Gooding on BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester.
Poets involved in AToTC started working on ‘Response’ poems with their partners. I became an expert on Salmon!
I started planning World Poetry Day (my official event from WPL remit). It is going to be a lot of fun. I devised the creative elements and booked some of the performers for the evening.
I started preparing school workshops (booked for March) and had some face to face meetings. I am very excited to get back into schools in this role and this is definitely something I want to pursue in the future.
February:
I planned a Suffragette Workshop to coincide with the exhibition at The Hive. The workshop took place on February 10th. There were 12 participants on the day and several additional poets online. Work submitted from this event will appear in an anthology published on the website in April.
I continued editorial work on ATOTC, the deadline for ‘Response’ poems came and went; I am now in proofing stages and the Special Edition Contour is due for release in April.
The 2nd Issue Contour Love was published on the 12th February. This issue is nearly twice the size of the last one and includes interviews with SpeakEasy Featured Artists as well as PL News and of course, poetry. There were over 600 readers in 24 hours of release!
All the poets have now been confirmed for World Poetry Day.
Haiku Raffle tickets have been produced and an open submission call is still currently open (deadline 10th March) for Little Poems, these will be used as part of the Poetry Take Away at the end of the evening and can be previously published. For more details click here.
I had my BBC Hereford & Worcester Radio Interview with Tammy Gooding and this month it was a slightly extended recording due to us discussing love poetry and the work of Pablo Neruda! It was fun and I shared the love poem recently published in Contour.
I met with Carolyn Baldwin at the Jinney Ring to finalise our plans for an exhibition of poetry produced in my Sculpture Trail Poetry Workshop back in September. I am delighted to announce our work will be on display in the restaurant for the whole of April. So treat yourself to tea, cake and poetry!
Promoting the Poet Laureate competition is something I have been involved in for the past month or so, it is really painful because it makes me feel like this is over, when in reality I am just ¾ of the way through my term. I look forward to discovering who the next WPL will be though.
Jess Charles at Worcester News asked me for some words about it and used my copy to produce an article, which you can read here. If you are thinking of entering the competition, you have until 30th March. Do it!
Other Work
December
At the end of November I was invited to be an International Guest Poet at Perth Poetry Festival, I spent a lot of December researching Grant opportunities and jumping around in a very excited manner!
WMRN Reader in Residence at Rugby Library. I had fun compiling a 12 month Reading Challenge List for 2018.
Interview for Brum Radio Poets with Rick Sanders, including readings from Fragile Houses, V. Press.
Came 2nd in the Haiku Poetry Slam at Grizzly Pear (Birmingham) and won workshop tickets for Verve Poetry Festival.
V. Press were nominated for the Michael Marks Publishers’ Award. The pamphlets that V. Press had in for this year are: Alex Reed’s A Career in Accompaniment, Nina Lewis’ Fragile Houses, David Clarke’s Scare Stories and Stephen Daniels’ Tell Mistakes I Love Them.
January
I performed poems in Songs of Apollo – Poetry is Life: Colour, Light & Shade, devised by Cordula Kempe. A night of poetry and music at Kempe Studio, Stratford-upon-Avon, with RSC & NT actors and Angela France.
I performed at the Wolverhampton Literature Festival as part of the WoLF Collective, sharing poems from Fragile Houses.
February
WMRN Rugby Library Writing a Book Review Workshop, Reader in Residence.
Verve Poetry Festival (15-18th) Birmingham Waterstones, I was the official blogger this year and my reviews can be read just here.
Stay tuned for my next update in the coming months and, if you don’t want to wait that long to see what I’ve been up to, you can always have a look at my WPL blog!
Poet Laureate 