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Life Lines


Six poets read last night for Oxfam, Tuesday, November 28th, in support of the Life Lines project, at Oxfam's flagship bookshop in London, at 91 Marylebone High Street, from 7.30 pm to around 11 pm.

They were:

Tobias Hill is one of the leading British writers of his generation. Selected as one of the country's Next Generation poets, shortlisted for the 2004 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and named by the TLS as one of the best young writers in the country. Byatt has observed that "There is no other voice today quite like this."

NYC-born Eva Salzman trained as a dancer/choreographer. At Columbia University, she studied with Joseph Brodsky, Derek Walcott Stanley Kunitz, Jorie Graham, C.K. Williams and Elizabeth Hardwick. Awards include a Cholmondeley from the Society of Authors. Her writing has been widely published and broadcast on the BBC. Double Crossing: New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Ruth Fainlight was born in New York City, but has lived in England since the age of fifteen. She has published thirteen collections of poems in England and the USA, as well as two volumes of short stories, and translations from French, Portuguese and Spanish. Books of her own poems have been published in Portuguese, French, Spanish and Italian translation. She received the Hawthornden and Cholmondeley Awards in 1994. Her latest collection of poems is Moon Wheels, 2006.

Interval

Katy Evans-Bush was born in New York and moved to London at the age of 19. Her poetry has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic. Her criticism and reviews have also been published in both the UK and the USA, and she is a regular contributor to the prestigious "Contemporary Poetry Review" in the US.

Ros Barber is a prize-winning poet and writer of fiction. She has been poet in residence in Herne Bay, on the Isle of Sheppey, in Embassy Court, at a barber shop, and at Arts Council England. Of her first collection, PN Review said ‘Barber’s special distinction … is that she has succeeded in writing a collection which grants as much to the general reader as it does to the devotee of contemporary poetry.’ Her second collection for Anvil is due to be published next year.

Michael Rosen has been writing books for children since the early 1970s but has always written poems and articles for an adult audience too. His Selected Poems is forthcoming from Penguin in February. He is also a broadcaster and university lecturer.

http://www.oxfammarylebone.co.uk/events.php

The night was frustrating for me. The quality of the readers was impressive - they all read and performed brilliantly within their own styles, especially Barber and Rosen - Rosen is the funniest reader I've seen - he brought the house down with uncontrollable laughter.

That part was great. But the audience was much smaller than usual - around 60 at the first half - with 20 or so leaving at the interval. Over half the people who had signed up didn't come, including a dozen people I know well, and usually support the series. The main problem was, donations were small - around £375. We usually take in between £600-1,000 on a good night. The series and the readers who donate their time are beginning to be taken for granted by some people, I think. I am still grateful for what was given, though.

I've decided to do just one more season of readings, culminating on December 6, 2007 - five events, three before the summer, and two after. Next year's series will continue the same tradition over the first three years of presenting major poets alongside significant younger voices from Ireland, the UK and beyond, with around 33 poets, such as Bernard O'Donoghue, Anne-Marie Fyfe, Maurice Riordan, Siobhan Campbell, Jeffrey Wainwright, John Fuller, John Hartley Williams, Tim Liardet, Chris McCabe, Melanie Challenger, Frances Leviston, Penelope Shuttle, Jacob Polley and Blake Morrison.

Comments

Jack Ruttan said…
Is that Orson Welles?
Eloise said…
Sorry to have missed it, I wanted to come but couldn't get the night off work.

I hope donations pick up in the future.

Eloise

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