Waymaking is an anthology of prose, poetry and artwork by women who are inspired by wild places, adventure and landscape…  it’s exciting to have a long poem in this anthology due for release later in 2018.  Woman power!

Published in 1961, Gwen Moffat’s Space Below My Feet tells the story of a woman who shirked the conventions of society and chose to live a life in the mountains. Some years later in 1977, Nan Shepherd published The Living Mountain, her prose bringing each contour of the Cairngorm mountains to life. These pioneering women set a precedent for a way of writing about wilderness that isn’t about conquering landscapes, reaching higher, harder or faster, but instead about living and breathing alongside them, becoming part of a larger adventure.

The artists in this inspired collection continue Gwen and Nan’s legacies, redressing the balance of gender in outdoor adventure literature. Their creativity urges us to stop and engage our senses: the smell of rain-soaked heather, wind resonating through a col, the touch of cool rock against skin, and most importantly a taste of restoring mind, body and spirit to a former equanimity.

With contributions from adventurers including Alpinist magazine editor Katie Ives, multi-award-winning author Bernadette McDonald, adventurers Sarah Outen and Anna McNuff, renowned filmmaker Jen Randall and many more, Waymaking is an inspiring and pivotal work published in an era when wilderness conservation and gender equality are at the fore.

Order your copy with the publisher’s Kickstarter campaign.

I’m so chuffed to come second in the wonderful Resurgence Poetry Prize

From environmental writer and journalist in Australia to ecopoetry prize winner! That’s pretty special.

The Resurgence Prize with The Poetry School is the world’s first major ecopoetry award. Three prizes are awarded each year for original and previously unpublished ecopoems in English. This year’s judges were Lavinia Greenlaw and Dr Mina Gorji.

Here’s the three winners Emily Diamand, me & Sean Hewitt. Plus I got to meet one of the prize founders Peter Phelps, entrepreneur, environmental activist and writer.

No Place Like Home: Four diverse poets from far flung parts of the globe explore the concept of home: imagining, finding and making home./

FREE – booking essential

Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. Her most recent poetry book, her eighth, At the Time of Partition (Bloodaxe, 2013) focused on the partition of India and Pakistan and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. A new collection in preparation Blackbird, Bye Bye contains poems inspired by her parents and, particularly, the loss of her Pakistani father. She lives in Norfolk where she tutors for the Poetry School. https://www.moniza.co.uk

Miriam Nash was born in Inverness and spent her early years on the remote West coast island of Erraid. Her pamphlet Small Change was published by flipped eye (2013), she received an Eric Gregory Award in 2015 and was Writer-in-residence at Greenway, the holiday home of Agatha Christie in 2016. In 2017, her first full-length collection, All the Prayers in the House, was published by Bloodaxe. https://miriamnash.com

Kayo Chingonyi has two pamphlets, Some Bright Elegance (Salt, 2012) and The Colour of James Brown’s Scream (Akashic, 2016), and a full-length collection, Kumukanda (Chatto & Windus, 2017). He was born in Zambia and his poems have been translated into Spanish, German, and Swedish. He won the 2012 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and was as Associate Poet at the Institute of Contemporary Arts 2015/2016. https://kayochingonyi.com/

Cath Drake, an Australian who lives in London, Cath has been published in anthologies and literary magazines in UK, Australia and US. Her poetry pamphlet Sleeping with Rivers won the 2013 Mslexia/Seren poetry pamphlet prize and was the Poetry Book Society summer choice 2014. She has been included in the Best Australian Poetry anthology and short-listed for the 2015 Manchester Poetry Prize. https://cathdrake.com/

Booking information: http://bit.ly/2gktNWi

Frolicky frightful fun at Clerkenwell ARTSlab’s October event with a scarily good line-up of musicians, poets and storytellers.

Bob Karper – will keep you up all night with his musical talespinning.
Chris Dowding – Horntasia with audience partaking
Kieron Hunter – off the desk and into the limelight.
Cath Drake – poet of your inner outback.
Lesley Scott – fresh poet on the Slab.
Diego Brown and the Good Fairy – putting the pump back in pumpkin.

It’s hardly any money and no bother at all. Get there early for the best seats in the house. Eat cake and chips (in any order you like).

The Betsey Trotwood 56 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3BL London, United Kingdom

830-1130pm   It’s £7/5 ish I think!  More info 

To celebrate National Poetry Day this week I’ll be popping up into St Thomas’ Hospital on Sept 25 and Guy’s Hospital on  Sept 27 to read poems at lunchtime  to passers by as part of Breathing Spaces for Breathe Arts.

http://breatheahr.org/performing-arts/

I’m reading at the Urthona, the Buddhist Arts magazine launch!

It’s a great magazine with art, poetry, reviews, and comment pieces – really worth a read. This issue includes a feature by Maitreyabandhu on poetry mentoring with his mentor the amazing Mimi Khalvati.

Introduced by Urthona poetry editor, Dharmavadana, there will be readings from four poets featured in issue 33 – Caroline Maldonado, Cath Drake, Ian Marriott and Subhadassi.  Also Satyadaka will read his brilliant new Rilke translations, editor Ratnagarbha will read translations from Dante, plus there will be music from the Bright Moments Duo: Jonathan Cohen (Piano) and Francois Moreau (Double Bass) . The duo play jazz and Latin standards and originals: music for head, heart and feet. And there will be some surprises! You can buy copies of the new Urthona magazine on the night. There will also be meditation in the main shrine room from 6 pm, introduced and guided for those who are new to it and would like a taster.

Sat 1 July 7-9pm ,  West London Buddhist Centre, 45A Porchester Road W2 5DP , entry by donation.

I’m helping out at this fab event – please support!

With Nia Davies, Kayo Chingonyi, Clare Pollard, Siddhartha Bose, Claire Trevien and Ruth Padel. Hosted by Somewhere in Particular with Holly Hopkins.
What does it mean now to be British, European, or a Londoner?
How can contemporary poetry in the UK contribute to new and vital conversations about identity and belonging? Six poets perform and discuss their work in the wake of a referendum that exposed bitter divisions in the UK – in terms of race, class, education, generations, and ideas about nationhood and globalisation.

Tickets are £8 (£5 concessions). All proceeds go to Refugee Action: http://www.refugee-action.org.uk/?gclid=CO6xwMWX-dICFU4z0wod558E4A.