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12 May 2008 - Jackie Wills and Poetry in the Countryside
Jackie Wills has just published her fourth collection - Commandments - and has been appointed as Poet in the Surrey Hills - an innovative new venture between the Poetry Society and the Countryside Agency.
Commandments investigates religion, relationships and the mind. Her poems contain a diverse cast of characters ranging from Fidel Castro, a teenage rapper, a priest, an adulterer, and a seamstress, to girls wearing fairy wings on the Palace pier.
Her poetry draws on the surrealism of every-day objects and this collection identifies crossing points where rules are broken, questioned, or simply, no longer make sense. According to Wills, these can happen at random, anytime and anywhere in the world: digging the garden, watching impala on a scorched savannah or simply walking through the streets of Brighton.
Below is an extract from Commandments:
Her sleepless nights
Giant airbags expand to fill her room,
set off by beer cans kicked against a fence,
fireworks for a distant birthday, a phone.
For every night of sleep or sleeplessness
takes the form of the day it ends. Airbags,
soft, suffocating, press her on a desk -
a pen begins altering her face,
pins stab into every letter of her name.
Her worries refuse a shape. She tries ants,
baby shoes, paces the eroded banks
of that river, past docile, long-horned cows.
Hens scatter as she reaches the shack door.
All she feels is the same absence of air,
a tropical night, filles with wings and claws.
07 May 2008 - London Magazine celebrates 'Russian' issue
The London Magazine warmly invites you to celebrate the launch of their “Russian” issue.
The event will take place at Pushkin House, the delightful 18th Century home of Russian culture in London.
Please come and give your support to the ongoing success of TLM and enjoy readings by Mary Michaels, Siriol Troup, Paul Birtill, Catherine Neilan, Richard McKane, Ann Drysdale, Philip Burton, Deirdre Coffey, and Kate Miller.
Event Details:
May 12th
7.30 p.m. - 10.00 p.m.
Entry: £3.00
Venue:
Pushkin House
5a Bloomsbury Square
London
WC1A 2TA
07 May 2008 - Smokestack Books - Summer tour with Martin Espada and Jon Andersen.
This Summer Smokestack is organising a UK tour to promote the US poets Martín Espada and Jon Andersen. They will be reading from their books, Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas and Seeds of Fire: Contemporary Poetry from the Other USA on:
Wednesday 9 July, 7.30pm
The Python Gallery, Royal Middlehaven House, Gosford Street, Middlesbrough, TS2 1BB
Thursday 10 July, 7pm
The Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE
Friday 11 July 1pm
Central Library, St Peter's Square, Manchester, M2 5PD
Friday 11 July, 7pm
Tullie House, Castle Street, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA3 8TP
Saturday 12 July, 7.30 pm
Southwell Poetry Festival, Southwell Library.
Sunday 13 July, 11am
Ledbury Festival
Monday 14 July, 7pm
Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU
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