Cath Drake, Kate Potts and Alison Winch read poems from their new and upcoming collections exploring gender, desire, and the natural world. Kate Pott’s new book Feral (Bloodaxe), a PBS recommendation, was described by Tristram Fane Saunders in The Telegraph, who picked it as a Poetry Book of the Month, as ‘musical, joyously weird and filled with moments of pure pleasure’. Alison Winch’s Darling, It’s Me is out in May with Penned in the Margins, described as a fierce and funny book about politics, power, sex and love!

Cath will read her new long poem published as a centrepiece in ‘Waymaking, an anthology of women’s adventure, writing and art’ .

Sunday 17 February, 7.30pm; £5/4 according to pocket – Sign up to read in the open mike

Torriano Meeting House, Kentish Town https://torrianomeetinghouse.wordpress.com/where-we-are/

Kate Potts:

Come and listen to an incredible line-up of writers and poets and enjoy an art exhibition at ‘The Two of Us’ Festival Fundraiser 23rd February – only £10 (plus booking fee)!

SUNDAY LUNCH with Mslexia Magazine: Poetry Pamphlet prizewinners

10 February 2019, 1:00-3:00pm
(Must book in Advance)

Mslexia Editor (and novelist) Debbie Taylor joins Seren Poetry Editor Amy Wack in this celebration of seven years of pamphlet prize winners: with Polly Atkin, Cath Drake, Mara Bergman, Ilse Pedler, Yvonne Reddick, Bryony Littlefair. Special guest Welsh poet and singer-songwriter Rhian Edwards. 

Poetry readings, music, full 3 course Sunday Lunch.  (Veg options)

The whole weekend programme looks great so see you there!

I have a reading and Q&A at a sundowner (with wine) on 28th Sept at 6.30pm, a reading at the Mundaring Library on 9th November at 5.45pm, a writing workshop (Stirring the Writer’s Cauldron) on 13 Oct at 1-4pm and reading at a literary dinner (Mexican food with a Halloween theme!) on 16 Oct.

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Wild Writing, 22nd September: Stretch beyond the predictable, re-invent the ordinary, sneak into the surreal, flirt with freefall and have fun taking your writing to unexpected places. Often you have find more powerful truths by stepping aside from reality. Put aside the editor and critic and let your creativity fly. A great antidote to writer’s block, in this workshop you’ll find lots of emerging ideas for poems and stories and gain confidence in your creative muscle.

22nd September, 1.30-4pm, Fremantle Arts Centre.  Cost: $30 for members/$35 non- members.  Places are limited. Contact Marlish Glorie at marlish@westnet.com.au to secure your place.

Reading and Writing Rev-up, 14th Sept: A popular informal workshop of reading and discussing contemporary poets to challenge and excite! Meet at the Fremantle Arts Centre cafe, Friday 14th September, 10am-12, cost is $15. Contact Julie Watts from OOTA writer’s group or message me here to book a place and pay on the day. We need numbers for table booking and handout numbers.

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I’m also offering mentoring one-to-one sessions: One-to-one mentoring/feedback sessions at $50/hr for advice, tips and mentoring on poetry writing and publishing, to include feedback on poems. These sessions can help you gain fresh perspectives, impetus, ideas and inspiration. Poetry feedback for 3-4 poems. Limited slots are available. Contact me to book.

Thank you to KSP, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and of course Arts Council England for giving me time to write and helping make this trip possible.

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