6th
WOODSTOCK POETRY FESTIVAL
Friday
to Sunday 10-12 November 2017
Friday
10 November
7.30 pm
Douglas Dunn & Jim Carruth. £10
The Noise of
a Fly is Douglas Dunn's first collection since The Year's
Afternoon (2000). He was awarded the Queen's gold medal for
poetry in 2013. 'It is hard to think of many poets who can equal his
combination of imaginative ambition, formal resource and range of
tone' – Sean O'Brien; 'The
most respected Scottish poet of his generation' – Nicholas Wroe.
Jim Carruth
was appointed the poet laureate of Glasgow in July 2014. His most
recent collection is Black
Cart,
published this year. 'Many of these narratives make the reader think
of Robert Frost: there is no higher praise for the modern pastoral' –
Bernard O'Donoghue
Saturday
11 November
11.15 am – Free
children's event, Woodstock Library. Richard
O'Brien
reads
from The
Noisy Classroom
– poems about school aimed at children aged 7+. Tickets from the
library, advance booking essential
2.30 pm
The Emma Press & Nine Arches Press. £8
Two
of the best independent publishers of poetry discuss their work and
introduce some of their poets: Jane Commane, founder of Nine Arches
Press, is joined by Rishi Dastidar &
Jacqueline Saphra, with Emma Wright, Andrew Wynn Owen and
Rachel Piercey.
4.30pm Anne
Stevenson. £10
Highly
acclaimed Anglo-American poet, critic and biographer who has lived
most of her life in Britain. Her Poems 1955-2005 are published
by Bloodaxe and In the Orchard, her most recent collection, by
Enitharmon: '...a contemporary Emily Dickinson, a poet who works on a
small canvas, quietly, with big themes' – Jay Parini; 'She is wise
without portentousness, her technique faultless and her imagination
fiery, political and fresh' – Carol Rumens, Independent
6pm
George Szirtes & David Harsent. £10
George
Szirtes, distinguished translator and poet, came here from
Hungary as a refugee at the age of eight. Reel won the 2004
T.S.Eliot prize – 'a brilliantly virtuosic collection of deeply
felt poems concerned with the personal impact of the dislocations and
betrayals of history' – Douglas Dunn. His most recent collections
are How to be a Tiger, for
children, and Mapping the Delta (Bloodaxe).
David
Harsent
is
reading
from his latest book, Salt
(Faber).
His
previous collection
Firesongs
won the 2014 T.S.Eliot Prize. He
has worked with composer Harrison Birtwistle on many opera
collaborations.
'It
is hard to think of any poet working in this country today who is so
demanding, both of himself and of the reader; harder still to think
of one who is as morally and imaginatively rewarding' - John Burnside
Sunday
12 November
2.30 pm Pamphlets and
open mic. £5
Jenny
Lewis, of The Poets House, Oxford introduces three new pamphlets by
Adnan al-Sayegh, Sarah Watkinson and Gina Wilson followed by an
open mic - please book ahead if you would like to participate.
4.30pm
Caroline Bird & Keith Jarrett. £8
A
great performer on page and stage, playwright and poet Caroline
Bird introduces
her fifth Carcanet collection, In
These Days of Prohibition: '...irrepressible;
she simply explodes with poetry' -
Simon
Armitage. Keith
Jarrett,
former London and UK Poetry Slam! Champion, published his first
collection
Selah
with Burning Eye Books this year. Regular Woodstock Festival goers
who heard him at the StAnza festival were so impressed they begged us
to book him. No higher recommendation!
6.30pm
Four Quartets – Woodstock Methodist Church. £10
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets with Ashley Ramsden and Flora Pethybridge - a beautiful and revelatory tandem telling of Eliot's masterpiece.
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets with Ashley Ramsden and Flora Pethybridge - a beautiful and revelatory tandem telling of Eliot's masterpiece.
8.30pm Peggy
Seeger, Bernard O'Donoghue & DellyWellyBoot Band. £10
Peggy Seeger, legendary singer and songmaker,
joins us in Woodstock Social Club on the publication of her
new memoir First Time Ever. Nick Hooper, guitar, Susanna
Starling, bass, and Judith Hooper, fiddle, play and sing an eclectic
mix of traditional and self-penned music. Bernard O'Donoghue
reads from recent work.
Tickets
and information: 01993 812760.
Festival
ticket giving entry to all events - £50, children
and students half price
Tea and cakes are included in the price of all afternoon
events
Readings are held upstairs in Woodstock Town Hall unless
indicated
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