Sunday, June 30, 2013

Coming soon...

I've been feeling terribly neglectful of my blog of late. (Paid) work has been all-consuming, and any poetry energy available has been channelled into actually writing some poems. Hopefully the summer months will bring a little breathing space.

For now, readers will hopefully be content with another bit of self-publicity, this time for three gigs where they can here me reading some of the poems from Gaud and more recent work.

3rd July sees me in Bristol, at Charles Thompson's Bristol Poetry Review at the Square Club in Bristol. I'm very excited to be involved in this reading in particular, as it sees the first outing for the re-vamped Poetry Factory, a workshop group/performance collective, which will be delivering a programme with the enticing title 'Lucky Dip' to the good folk of Bristol. Full details are below on the excellent flyer created by Philip Rush. You can find out more about Poetry Factory at our blog, run by Sharon Larkin, or on our Twitter feed. We really are very 21st century, as you can see.

Only a few days later on 7th July, I will be reading at Buzzwords in Cheltenham (from 7 p.m. in The Exmouth Arms) along with the aforementioned Philip Rush. I'm especially pleased to be doing this, as Buzzwords - run by the amazing Angela France - was the first open mic I went to when I moved to Cheltenham and the first place I really started to get a sense of how my work came across in performance. The quality of the poetry you can hear at this venue really is excellent, and the support in the room is always magnificent. Can't wait!

Incidentally, Buzzwords has a top-notch competition running at the moment, judged by David Morley. Please do enter - the prizes are generous and the cause is a good one.

Last but not least, one half of the Flarestack Poets team, Jacqui Rowe, has invited me to read on 23rd July at Poetry Bites at Kitchen Garden Cafe in Kings Heath, Birmingham. The gig starts at 7.30 and will also feature Nichola Deane and open mic slots. I'm looking forward to seeing some new faces and hearing some new voices.