As the Carnival Tour comes to an end, Ian Parks and I strike out with our menagerie, smoke and mirrors, big top voices and a crowd in our wake. Over the coming months we will be reading in Lancashire, Yorkshire and London. Rather than bamboozle you with dates, I’ll give you a gentle nudge, then another nudge, then a loud yell to spread the word.
Our first stop is part of the run up to Leeds Independent Poetry Presses Festival, the festival kicks of on the 24th Sept 2011. Ian and I will be involved with this on the day but on MONDAY 6 JUNE 2011 we will be reading at THE CARRIAGEWORKS THEATRE, MILLENNIUM SQUARE, LEEDS at 7 : 30pm. Tickets cost £4.00/3.00 and can be purchased from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/116241
This will be a Lapwing Tour celebrating the legendary LAPWING PRESS of Belfast. Ian and I will read alongside four of the region’s hottest new talents.
A bit more about the poets and the wonderful promoters supporting poetry at a difficult time:
IAN PARKS was one of the Poetry Society New Poets in 1996. His collections include Shell Island ( 2006 ), Love Poems : 1978 –2009 ( 2009 ), and The Landing Stage ( 2010 ). He has taught creative writing at the universities of Sheffield, Hull, Oxford and Leeds. His poems appear in, among others, Poetry Review, Poetry ( Chicago ), The Liberal, Stand, The Observer, and the Independent on Sunday. A selection also appears in Old City : New Rumours, edited by Carol Rumens and Ian Gregson. A new collection, The Exile’s House, is due from Waterloo Press in 2011.
ANDREW OLDHAM is an award – winning writer and poet. His work has featured in the Sunday Times, Ambit, the London Magazine, Interpreter’s House, North American Review and Poetry Salzburg. His poetry has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please. Andrew lectures on creative writing for Edge Hill University and the Open University. He lives in Saddleworth, where he curses rain and climbs trees to face North winds.
LIZ VENN’s poetry has been published in magazines including Smiths Knoll, Iota, the New Writer, and the Frogmore Papers. Originally from Essex, she now lives in Glossop, in the Peak District, and she is currently completing her portfolio for an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
TIM ELLIS’s first book was published by Flarestack in 2003. His poems have appeared in many magazines, including The Dalesman, Orbis, and the Poetry Society’s Poetry News. Apart from winning several competitions, including the 2011 Grist poetry competition, Tim is a well-known face at slams and open mics throughout the North of England. He is this year’s York Poetry Slam Champion, a previous winner of the Ilkley Literature Festival Poetry Slam, and was a contestant in the BBC Radio 4 National Poetry Slam in 2009.
BECKY CHERRIMAN is a writer, creative writing facilitator and performer. Her successes to date include being shortlisted for the 2009 Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg award, the 2009 – 2010 Fish Short Stort Prize, and the 2011 Grist Poetry Competition. She won second prize in the 2010 Ilkley Literature Festival Open Mic competition. Her poem “ Behind His Eye” will be published in the 2011 Grist anthology.
DAVID BORROTT lives in Lancashire with his partner and their three sons. He has just completed an MA in Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. His poetry has appeared in various magazines and in an internet anthology by Flax Books, the publishing arm of the Lancaster Litfest.
LIPPfest—the Leeds Independent Press Poetry Festival—kicks off on September 24th at the Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds, with a programme of readings from twenty-one poets, six workshops, symposiums, and publishing talks. An independent presses book fair will give people the chance to browse and buy from a range of literature not stocked on the shelves of your average bookshop. www.lippfest.co.uk
chapman & scarecrow is a not-for-profit organisation committed to presenting the very best in independent talent throughout the country, assisting the sale of literature from independent presses, encouraging people to read more widely, taking the local and making it national as part of our cultural life and heritage. www.chapmanscarecrow.co.uk
Andrew Oldham's Boneyard 