Woodstock Poetry
Festival
Friday 9 - Sunday 11
November 2012
We are delighted to announce
our first Woodstock Poetry Festival. Several excellent poets are coming to read their work here, three of whom will be reading from new collections - and there will also be
the chance to meet two very different
local poetry groups.
We would like people to come
to as many events as possible and make a weekend of it in Woodstock so we are offering a Festival ticket
covering all the events on Saturday
and Sunday. This will cost £20 and must be booked in advance, at the latest by David Harsent's reading on Saturday
(each event can also be booked individually). If you present your Festival
ticket to any of the Woodstock pubs and restaurants listed below you will receive a 10% discount on meals (so long as they are booked in
advance) and drinks.
Friday's event has to be
booked separately as it is being held at St Edward's School in Oxford.
Students can attend all
readings free of charge.
Friday 9 November,
St Edwards School, Oxford
7.30pm Sam Willetts
and Robin Robertson (£8)
Sam Willetts' first poetry collection, New Light For the Old Dark, was shortlisted for several awards including the Forward Prize, the Costa Prize and the TS Eliot Prize.
Sam Willetts' first poetry collection, New Light For the Old Dark, was shortlisted for several awards including the Forward Prize, the Costa Prize and the TS Eliot Prize.
Robin Robertson is Sam Willetts' publisher at Jonathan Cape. He was brought up on the
north-east coast of Scotland. Apart from translations of Medea and the
Bacchae, he has also written free versions of the poetry of Nobel
Prizewinner Tomas Tranströmer. He has published four previous collections of
poetry and has received the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts
and Letters and all three Forward Prizes. His new book, published early next
year, is Hill of Doors.
Saturday 10
November, Woodstock Methodist Church
4pm David Harsent
(£8)
David Harsent has published
ten poetry collections. The most
recent, Night, was Poetry Book Society Choice for Spring 2011 and won the Griffin International
Poetry Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the Forward Prize (Best Collection), the TS Eliot Prize and the Costa
Poetry Prize. He has just published
In Secret: Versions of Yannis Ritsos (Enitharmon Press), translations of one of Greece's finest
poets.
6.30pm Gillian
Clarke (£8)
We are very pleased to
welcome back Gillian Clarke, the National Poet of Wales and winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in
2010. She has published many poetry
collections, the last three of which have all been Poetry Book Society Recommendations. Last time she came to Woodstock she launched Washing Lines, the collection of poems edited by Janie Hextall and Barbara McNaught. This evening she will be
reading from her new book, Ice.
8.30pm New
Libertines (£4)
The New Libertines bring
together performance poets from Oxford, the UK and beyond. The show, which encompasses a wide range
of styles and subjects from
surrealism to fin de siecle France, from the Beat to underground Berlin,
has played to full houses and
critical acclaim at venues across the UK (full details and reviews at http://eightcuts.com).
Sunday 11 November,
Woodstock Methodist Church
4 pm Kirtlington
Poetry Group, (£4)
Kirtlington Poetry group is
an independent group of poetry lovers, drawn mostly from the local village of Kirtlington, who have
been meeting every month since about
2004 to discuss poetry and to contribute their own work for appreciation
and scrutiny.
6.30pm Jamie
McKendrick, Jane Draycott and Bernard O'Donoghue, (£8)
Jamie McKendrick will be
reading from his new book Out There (Faber). He has published 5 previous poetry collections, translations of
Magrelli's poems and novels by Giorgio Bassani, and edited
The Faber Book of 20th Century Italian Poems.
Bernard O'Donoghue has
written 5 poetry collections and his Selected Poems are published by Faber; his most recent book, Farmer's Cross, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot
Prize.
Jane Draycott has
published several poetry collections (shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize)
and a very fine translation of the
14th-century dream vision Pearl.
Tickets and information:
01993 812760
Woodstock Pubs and
Restaurants offering 10% discount on meals booked in advance (please contact
directly):
The Feathers
The Woodstock Arms
The Bear Hotel
Brothertons
The Natural Bread Company
The Punchbowl Inn
The Feathers
The Woodstock Arms
The Bear Hotel
Brothertons
The Natural Bread Company
The Punchbowl Inn
