We are working on the 2012 programme but you can still reading about the 2011 live readings below:
Live readings 2011
Hearing a poet read and talk about their work is often illuminating, can bring a poem to life and can open up new ways into poems. For anyone wishing to heighten their enjoyment of reading and writing poetry, these events are indispensable.
5. New Order: Hungarian Poets of the Post-1989 Generation - Arc Publications Showcase
‘Just now, there are no directions.’ Anna T Szabó
Our Publishers-in-Residence, Arc Publications, are champions of poetry in translation. This important event brings the Editor of their new anthology of Hungarian poetry, George Szirtes, together with poets Anna T Szabó and András Gerevich . Anna Szabó was born in Transylvania and is a prize winning poet and translator. András Gerevich is a poet, translator and screenplay writer. With George Szirtes, a wonderful poet in his own right, they will share the poetry of the new, post- 1989 Hungary.
We are grateful to the Hungarian Embassy for their support of this event.
Sponsored by Worcester University.
The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is the key competition for poets aged 11-17, discovering the best new voices from across the UK and beyond since 1998. A staggering 6,885 poets entered in 2010. This reading brings together winners from the last two years - Adham Smart, Phoebe Power, Dominic Hale, Fielding Ronshaugen, Fergus Blair and Sarah Lucas -. This year’s competition deadline is: 31st July 2011. www.foyleyoungpoets.org
Supported by The Poetry Society, The Fenton Arts Trust and The Foyle Foundation
11. 20 mins with ... Joel Lane
Arc Publications present a short reading by Joel Lane.
Joel Lane’s two previous collections of poems are The Edge of the Screen and Trouble in the Heartland, His other work includes two novels, From Blue to Black and The Blue Mas, and three collections of short stories, The Earth Wire, The Lost District and The Terrible Changes. Come and hear him read!
13. Mohan Rana & Bernard O'Donoghue
‘All my life I have lived without seeing/ All that is ordinary.’ Indian poet Mohan Rana is from a new generation of Hindi poets. He reads with his translator, the poet Bernard O’Donoghue. Bernard O’Donoghue’s work celebrates nature, Irishness and all things literary and he is much admired as a perceptive chronicler of his life and times. He will read from his new collection Farmer’s Cross.
Supported by the Poetry Translation Centre
15. Brian Turner & Matthew Sweeney
‘…here, Bullet/ here is where the world ends, every time.’ Brian Turner served for seven years in the US Army, deployed to Iraq and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Following his first collection Here, Bullet, his new book is Phantom Noise – shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. He is joined by Donegal-born poet Matthew Sweeney, reading from The Night Post, a new selection of his poems drawn from five decades of writing. Two masculine, but never macho, poetic voices.
Sponsored by the US Embassy and Butler and Sweatman
21. As Time Goes By - Celebratory Reading for the National Poetry Competition 2010
The National is the UK’s biggest open poetry competition. Judge George Szirtes is joined by the three top winners, Jo Haslam, Matthew Sweeney and Paul Adrian - a previously unpublished poet who scooped a field of thousands to win first prize. ‘It felt like somebody snuck into my head when I wasn’t looking and rearranged all the furniture,’ he says. As well as reading winning poems, they will discuss what poets gain or lose as their writing develops.
The Poetry Society
24. The Talking Wall - Nick Alexander
To celebrate The Talking Wall, an exhibition of letterpress printed poems made by Martin Clark of Tilley Printing, the poet Nick Alexander – a Ledbury local - reads his poems. This is a repeat of Event No. 20
Sponsored by Tinsmiths www.tinsmiths.co.uk
25. 20 mins with .... Jacqui Rowe
Chrysanthemums steal/ the route out of the other world.’ Poet, publisher and poetry activist Jacqui Rowe reads a short selection of her poetry.
Presented with Flarestack Publishing
27. Maram al-Massri & Penelope Shuttle
‘Physical passion, faithlessness, adultery, loneliness, despair… dreaminess and half-light pierced by hard, precise detail’ (The Times). Syrian poet Maram al-Massri’s poems are beguiling and erotic. She reads in Arabic from her collection A Red Cherry on a White-tiled Floor, with English translations performed by Sara-Jane Arbury. They are joined by distinguished poet Penelope Shuttle, whose most recent collection Sandgrain and Hourglass is likewise haunted by love, and the grief that comes with its loss.
32. Festival Open Mic hosted by Adrian Johnson
Get up on stage and share your poems with a friendly Ledbury audience, and with host, poet Adrian Johnson. Get there at 8.30 to sign up to perform. Places are limited and they go like lightening! Everyone will be limited to two poems or four minutes maximum. BYO (Bring your own drinks, we provide corkscrews and glasses.)
36. Geology Poetry Competition Readings
Ledbury is one of the 'Gateway Towns' for the Geopark, which stretches from Bridgnorth to Gloucester. It is an area designated for its outstanding geology and landscape. Gloucestershire Geology Trust has run a competition to inspire writers to think about how the land was formed how it has been shaped. Hear the winners tonight at a readings and award ceremony in Ice Bytes.
37. Alasdair Paterson & Tony Williams
Having won an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry in 1976, Alasdair Paterson only recently returned to writing after a 20 year gap with On the Governing of Empires (Shearsman) and Brumaire and Later (Flarestack Poets). He will be joined by Nine Arches Press poet Tony Williams whose debut collection was The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street and whose new collection is All The Rooms of Uncles's Head.
38. New Dutch Poetry – Esther Jansma & Thomas Möhlmann
Poet Esther Jansma is one of the Netherlands’ most interesting writers. She is also a leading archaeologist and the poems in her collection, What It Is (translated by Francis R Jones), gives voice to the distant past. She is joined by Thomas Möhlmann, a prize-winning Dutch poet who as well as publishing two collections, has edited a selection of Nijhoff's poetry.
The prestigious Eric Gregory Awards (now in their 51st year) are for poets under 30. Over a half-century they have identified the promise of many of our best poets, including Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy and Alice Oswald, to name but a few. Hear some of this year’s winners and enjoy the poetry of the future.
Sponsored by Society of Authors
Free to Friends of Ledbury Poetry Festival
56. Peter Didsbury & Katrina Porteous
‘I’m inventing a Bag/which will accommodate everything...’ Peter Didsbury has spent many years producing poems of absolute originality; quirky, learned and thoughtful. He is by profession an archaeologist and by inclination a lover of rain. Like him, Katrina Porteous is deeply interested in landscape and in playing with language. The Northumbrian coast, its people and their language are her main subjects.
58. Zimbabwean New Generation Poets
Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Kimberley-Rose Kasirowore and Michael Tsingo are all featured in State of the Nation: Contemporary Zimbabwean Poetry (2009). They focus on the unasked questions, unstated views, unattainable dreams and unfulfilled promises that have marked contemporary Zimbabwe. ‘An edgy, sometimes bleak, sometimes sorrowful and sometimes fiercely funny poetry’. –Horizon Review.
70. Ledbury Poetry Festival 2011 Celebratory Readings
Our poetry competition is one of the landmarks on the UK poetry scene and has rewarded fine poets like Mick Wood, Jacqueline Saphra and Mike Barlow. This year we changed the closing date – so you will hear this year’s winners, not last year’s, in this reading of the best work submitted. The competition judges, Anthony Thwaite and Mandy Ross will announce the winners and host the event.
71. 20 mins with ... Angela France
Our twenty minute slots give a taster of the best poetry on the fringes of our programme – small publishers, literary bloggers and other interesting new voices. Keep an eye on our daily newsletter (available at the box office) to see which guest will speak in this ‘wild card’ slot.
74. 20 mins with ... Deborah Tyler-Bennett
Deborah Tyler-Bennett's Nine Arches Press pamphlet is called Mytton, Dyer, Sweet Billy Gibson and paints the poem-portraits of three characters - a Regency eccentric, a ballard singer and a great-grandfather.
77.20 mins with ... Max Wallis
Max Wallis is a model blogger – in fact, he is a model and a blogger. Join this rising star of the poetry scene to hear about his rolling blog somethingeveryday, which invites guest artists to contribute poems and art work daily; and to hear some of his own passionate, sensual work.
79. Modern Tunisian Poetry – Tahar Bekri, Amina Saïd and Marilyn Hacker
‘If your planes violate my sky/How can you wipe off your shadow /on the stones?’ (Tahar Bekri, transl. Prometeo). Tunisian poetry reflects the country’s extraordinary culture and its changing politics. Tonight’s gala performance opens with a reading by distinguished American poet Marilyn Hacker, who has translated much Tunisian poetry. Following a delicious supper we will hear readings by the poets Tahar Bekri and Amina Saïd in Arabic, French and English. Tahar Bekri and Amina Saïd are widely published, engaging presenters of their work. Food for the body and soul, in magical surroundings.
85. Andrew Forster & Helen Mort
Andrew Forster’s poems stalk the hills of lowland Scotland, echoing communal and personal histories. He has an attention for detail that is breathtaking – his Damselflies are ‘sparks in the scratched dark /riding the warm air into the kitchen.’ Helen Mort is currently Poet-in-Residence at Dove Cottage and the WordsworthTrust. Her poems sparkle with the suspect glitter of contemporary life.
86. 20 mins with ... Nick Pearson
Nick Pearson is a Forward Prize nominated poet who has been widely published in magazines and anthologies. Made in Captivity is a debut collection that draws together work written over the last ten years. Urbane, sharply observed and often humorous.
Presented with Offa’s Press
87. Ten: An Anthology with Karen McCarthy Woolf & Rowyda Amin
Rowyda Amin and Karen McCarthy Woolf read from the striking new anthology Ten, a showcase for new Black, Asian and multicultural poets described by Carol Ann Duffy as ‘a joyful and important moment in publishing.' Join us as these two poets bring their work to Ledbury for the first time.
In Association with Spread the Word
88. 20 mins with ... Caleb Klaces
Caleb Klaces has twice been among the Foyle Young Poets of the Year and is a former Young Poet of Ledbury Festival. His first collection All Safe All Well is published by Flarestack Poets.
Presented with Flarestack Publishing
89. Lorraine Mariner & Annie Freud
Lorraine Mariner’s poems are beguiling and distinctive; precise, witty, moving. Her first full collection is Furniture. She is joined by Annie Freud, whose book, The Mirabelles, was short-listed for the 2010 T S Eliot Prize. Gloriously, sometimes outrageously, packed with images that ignite the imagination, her poems are absolutely compelling.
90. 20 mins with ... Gail Ashton
Gail Ashton will read from Ghost Songs, a finely tuned collection full of the voices of family, of fairy tale, of myth, of strangers and of ghosts: all those voices which cannot be silenced.
Presented with Cinnamon Press
Book online >
Live readings 2011 highlights...
George Szirtes
Andras Gerevich
Penelope Shuttle
Paul Adrian
Matthew Sweeney
Kimberley-Rose Kasirowore
Tinashe Mushakavanhu
Karen McCarthy Woolf
Helen Mort
Annie Freud
Lorraine Mariner