Dead Good Poets – November 2009 Diary

* Monday 2nd November @ 8pm – Come Strut Your Stuff! Poetry and Music Open Mic at The Egg Café, Newington, Liverpool (opposite New Quiggins). http://www.comestrutyourstuff.co.uk/

* Wednesday 4th @ 8pm – DEAD GOOD POETS SOCIETY OPEN FLOOR. 24 slots of 5 minutes over three sets for you to perform your own poetry. New poets always welcome – come early to book a reading slot. The 3rd Room, The Everyman Bistro, Hope Street, Liverpool. £2 / £1 pay on the door.

* Thursday 5th @ 7.30 pm FIRST THURSDAY POETRY EVENING at Linghams Bookshop, 248 Telegraph Road, Heswall, Wirral. The programme will include: Stephen Spender’s centenary – celebrated by Gill Curry and Guest Poet: Kit Jackson. 1poem open mic £4.

* Friday 6th @ 7.30pm - Sarah Waters in conversation. Sarah Waters is one of the UK’s most popular authors and appears at a special event in conversation with publisher and author Helen Sandler. Sarah talks frankly about her career, the importance of lesbian writing and her latest novel ‘The Little Stranger’ which has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2009. Her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, won a 1999 Betty Trask Award and was dramatised for BBC Television. In January 2003, Sarah Waters was named as one of Granta’s twenty Best of Young British Writers. . FACT, Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ £10/£8 Box office 0871 704 2063

* Saturday 7th @ 4.30pm: Joanna Briscoe and Charlotte Mendleson. Charlotte Mendelson, prize-winning author of the Orange Prize-shortlisted When We Were Bad, will be reading from her novels and answering questions about her writing. Her first novel, Love in Idleness [2001], was largely written in her lunch breaks at work. For Daughters of Jerusalem [2003], her second novel, she was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. For her third novel, When We Were Bad, she was chosen as one of Waterstone’s 25 Authors of the Future.Joanna Briscoe is the author of three novels: Mothers and Other Lovers, which won a Betty Trask Award in 1994, Skins and Sleep with Me. Sleep with Me was published in ten countries and has been adapted by Andrew Davies as a two hour drama for ITV. Whilst writing for many magazines and newspapers and being a literary critic for The Guardian, Joanna has just finished her fourth novel and will read from this and her other work. FACT, Wood St, Liverpool, L1 4DQ £5/£3 Box office 0871 704 2063
Monday 9th: 4pm – 5pm: Children’s Poetry Workshop Family groups will be invited to meet renowned author and performance poet Jan Dean. Jan is a frequent visitor to Sefton; she has performed at the annual Summer Reading Challenge awards ceremony for the past three years. The group will listen to Jan reciting some of her poems; Jan will then help the group compose a poem of their own! Formby Library All Library Workshops are FREE! To book please call the Box Office on 01704 540011 or 0151 928 1919. Tickets will be left at the library to be picked up on the day of the event.

* Monday 9th@ 8pm The Bards of New Brighton popular open mic in the Magazines Pub, New Brighton, Wirral. Free.

* Tuesday 10th: 1pm-2.30pm – The Poetry of Philosophy. Debate organised by Philosophy in Pubs. The Hub, The Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool. Free.

* Tuesday 10th: 2pm – 4pm: Introduction to Writing Poetry. Join Sarah Maclennan for an informal workshop which will introduce the world of poetry, get you thinking about rhythm and verse and encourage you to have a go at writing your own poetry. No experience necessary. College Road Library

* Tuesday 10th : 2pm – 4pm Some Girl’s Mothers – Writing Workshop with Anne Caldwell @ Churchtown Library. Anne Caldwell is a poet, prose writer and highly experienced workshop leader. The workshop will explore the theme of mothers and daughters and how to use other biological material as inspiration for creative writing. It is open to beginners and experienced writers.

All Library Workshops are FREE!
To book please call the Box Office on 01704 540011 or 0151 928 1919. Tickets will be left at the library to be picked up on the day of the event.

* For more writing workshops and other poetry events in the Southport Festival of Writing go to http://www.seftonarts.co.uk/whatson.php

* Tuesday 10th @ 8pm: A Poet In New York – with Keith James & Rick Foot
The evening opens with a rare opportunity to see a 50 minute 2006 film documentary of the life and work of Leonard Cohen featuring archive concert and interview footage.
Singer and skilled guitarist Keith James presents an evening of lyrical songs with the accompaniment of the virtuosic and characterful double bass playing of Rick Foot. Songs by other New York voices, including Bob Dylan and Suzanne Vega, provide a counterpoint to the song settings of Lorca’s poems and Cohen classics.
Tickets: £10 (£8 concessions) Booking Fees: Internet Booking Fee: £1.50 per ticket / Telephone Booking Fee: £2 per transaction. Tel: 01704 540011 Crosby Civic Hall, Main Hall Clubstyle

* Wednesday 11th @ 7.30pm – Roger McGough – That Awkward Age. Miracle birth of a new collection and an evening of poems to amaze & delight! McGough wrestles with mortality, seeks love in the launderette, perspires in the Foreign Legion, snaps Henri Cartier Bresson in Liverpool and jives in Macca’s trousers. He shares the pain of Lord Godiva and Mr Nightingale, considers his Final Poem and shakes a fist at Alzheimer’s. Addresses, elegies, prayers & ever perceptive playfulness in the face of awfulness make this a must-go. The event will be followed by a Q & A session and a book signing. Crosby Civic Hall, Main Hall
Tickets: £15 (£13 concessions)
Booking Fees: Internet Booking Fee: £1.50 per ticket / Telephone Booking Fee: £2 per transaction. Tel: 01704 540011

* Sunday 15th @ 7.30pm – Four Poets! Join us for an evening with four of Liverpool’s leading female poets, each of whom will be reading from their publications and talking about their work.
Gladys Mary Coles is one of the country’s most prolific, admired and award winning poets. She runs the hugely popular Headland Press, publishing new works by contemporary poets.
Mandy Coe is a nationally acclaimed ward-winning poet writing for adults and children. Her poetry has appeared in The Guardian, Radio Times and on BBC television and radio.
Pauline Rowe’s first full collection “Waiting for the Brown Trout God” (Headland 2009) is a book of elegies – for childhood, for the experience of motherhood, for lost love. Pauline has been widely published in magazines and has 2 previous pamphlets, the most recent being “Playing Out Time” (Driftwood, 2005).
Rebecca Goss has been widely published in anthologies and magazines, including Ambit, Stand, The Reader and Mslexia. Her work has also been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. A collection of her poems, Keeping Houston Time, was published by Slow Dancer Press.
Venue: Crosby Civic Hall, Main Hall (unreserved). Tickets: £7 (£5 concessions)
Booking Fees: Internet Booking Fee: £1.50 per ticket / Telephone Booking Fee: £2 per transaction Tel: 01704 540011

* * * DEAD GOOD POETS ON TOUR!* * *
Tonight, instead of presenting a DGPS Guest Poet, we would like to encourage DGPS members to support two local poets who are both launching their new books.

* Wednesday 18th: 7.30pm – Mandy Coe launches her latest poetry collection, Clay (Shoestring Press). Mandy Coe is an award-winning poet whose work has been broadcast on BBC TV and radio. She was joint winner of the 2008 Manchester Poetry Prize and is a Hawthornden Fellow. Clay is her third collection. “Mandy Coe’s poems make us see things: they transfigure that world-around-us we think we know but really only half-see.” Venue: Parr Street Studios, Parr Street, Liverpool. Free entry

* Wednesday 18th: 7pm-9pm. Eleanor Rees launches her second book Eliza & the Bear. Eleanor Rees’s second collection from Salt Publishing explores the tensions between wildness and cultivation in poems of lyrical energy and vivid imagination. The launch features a reading by Rees and a performance of the title poem by Cathy Butterworth with Rebecca Joy Sharp on harp. Performance Space, Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool. Free event, but a ticket is required.

* Thursday 19th @8.30pm - The Wirral Ode Show – Poetry Open Mic held at The Stork Hotel, Price Street (a hop, skip and a jump away from Hamilton Square), Birkenhead. Friendly atmosphere, new readers always welcome!

* Tuesday 24th: 6.30pm-8pm – Da’Verse. Poetry workshop with an eclectic mix of poets and poetry, comprising new material and an open mic slot. The Sandon Room, Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool. Free but ticket required.

* Thursday 26th November: 7pm-9pm. Liverpool Poetry Café presents ‘From the Northwest’. A night of northwest poets, and a chance to talk to local poetry press editors. The Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool. Free but ticket required.

* Friday 27th @7.30pm – North End Writers presents The Ian McMillan Orchestra at the Cornerstone Festival at the Great Hall, Cornerstone Buildings, Liverpool Hope at Everton (off Shaw Street – entrance on Haigh Street)
Tickets £8 / £5 concessions Box office: 0151 291 3578
North End Writers is delighted to bring the Ian McMillan Orchestra to Liverpool as part of Liverpool Hope University’s Cornerstone Festival.
The Ian McMillan Orchestra is a meeting of words and music; a place where poems become songs and songs become stories and stories work their way into your imagination so that you think you knew them all along. Words and Music have always complemented each other; in The Ian McMillan Orchestra they share the same space, drive the same train, inhabit the same tent. And it’s a big tent.

* Saturday 28th November: 10.30am-4.30pm – Poetry & Home: Inspiration for your Writing. Poetry Workshop with Neil Rollinson. What is home? Is it where the heart is? What do the different spaces mean to us? The home is symbolic and full of narrative. Explore its resonances in your poetry. Suitable for general level, from beginners on.
To book please contact the Poetry School on 0207 582 1679 or online at www.poetryschool.com

* Saturday 5th December: 12:00pm – 8:30pm From Laptop to Bookshop
Ticket Prices: £20 / 15 Day ticket including readings
£10 / 7.50 single workshop, £5 / 3 readings An exciting day of workshops, readings and meet the author events, suitable for emerging and more experienced prose fiction writers.
12.00 – 2.00pm Workshop (women only): Writing a Synopsis, with Debbie Taylor – helping writers identify what their book is about and communicate it to an agent or editor.
3.00 – 5.00pm Workshop (women only): First Paragraph, with Lesley Glaister – helping novelists and short story writers create an arresting opening.
7.00 – 8.30pm Reading/interview (open to all): Hilary Mantel & Debbie Taylor. Hilary Mantel reads from her most recent work and talks about her personal ‘road to publication’: how she became a writer, her mistakes, regrets, false starts. Followed by an interview and questions from the audience.

For other Wirral-based poetry events, please see http://www.clarekirwan.co.uk/Scene.htm

* * * News/Opportunities* * *

* A last minute poetry competition opportunity! Adoption Matters! are offering a creative challenge for adults and children of all ages across the North West to prepare and submit a poem of 20 lines or less in any format or style on the theme of ‘Family’ reflecting the importance of family and family life. This competition is running across Cheshire, Merseyside, Manchester and Lancashire with the contributions to be judged in two age groups – over 18s and 17 years and younger. Winners for each area and each age group will be chosen for creativity and content by a panel including local representatives for each area such as Cheshire’s current Poet Laureate, W. Terry Fox.
Each lucky winner will win £50 high street vouchers, get their poems published on the Adoption Matters Northwest national website and submitted to the local and national media as part of the National Adoption Week media campaign. Highly commended entrants will also be invited to a VIP invite only poetry evening in Chester during National Adoption Week to hear selections of the poems entered in the competition read out by performers and listen to the first public performance a poem written specially for the event by W. Terry Fox. Closing date for the competition is Tuesday 3 November. Entries can be emailed to adoption@dewinterpr.co.uk

www.blankmediacollective.org/blankpages – blankpages is a monthly digital magazine for emerging artists. ISSUE 16 out is now! Available for FREE download! This month is a POETRY SPECIAL! DOMINIC BERRY, JUSTIN WALSH, an excellent interview with GERRY POTTER and LOADS MORE! www.blankmediacollective.org/blankpages

Kudos Magazine lists a gazillion writing competitions. For details check their website: http://www.kudoswritingcompetitions.com/

For this month’s poetry competitions, please click on this link: http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions/_