Life Lines: 7 Poets for Oxfam
February 1, 2007, 7.00 pm
Oxfam Books & Music, 91 Marylebone High Street
London, W1
with
Derek Adams
Philip Fried
Mark Ford
Martha Kapos
Blake Morrison
Jacob Polley
Penelope Shuttle
hosted by Todd Swift
February 1 2007 Oxfam Winter Reading
1. Derek Adams
was born in London in 1957, now lives in Essex where he is an organiser of the Essex Poetry Festival. He is BBC Wildlife, Poet of the year 2006 & was winner of the 2004 Poetry Monthly booklet award with his pamphlet "Postcards to Olympus". A full collection Everyday Objects, Chance Remarks was published by the Littoral Press in 2005. He is also a professional photographer and is currently working on a series of portraits of poets, some of which were exhibited at the Poetry Cafe in October 2005.
2. Martha Kapos
is an American (originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts) but now thoroughly rooted in London. Her collection My Nights in Cupid’s Palace came out from Enitharmon in 2003. It was a Poetry Society Special Commendation and won the Aldeburgh Prize for Best First Collection. She taught in the Art History Department at the Chelsea College of Art for many years before she became Assistant Poetry Editor of Poetry London.
3. Philip Fried
has published three books of poetry: Mutual Trespasses (Ion, 1988), Quantum Genesis (Zohar, 1997), and Big Men Speaking to Little Men (Salmon Poetry, Ireland, 2006). His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, and in anthologies such as Poetry After 9/11 and What Rough Beast: Poems at the End of the Century. Since 1980, he has edited The Manhattan Review, an international poetry journal that often features the work of Australian, Irish, and UK poets.
4. Penelope Shuttle
lives in Cornwall and is the widow of poet Peter Redgrove. Together they wrote the ground-breaking feminist studies on menstruation, The Wise Wound, and its sequel, Alchemy for Women. Shuttle has published many collections of poetry, including Selected Poems (Oxfordpoets/Carcanet) in 1998, which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, as were two of her other books. Her new collection, Redgrove's Wife (Bloodaxe, May 2006) looks back at her life with Peter, and the processes of loss and grief. It was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize, 2006.
Interval
5. Jacob Polley’s
first book, The Brink, was a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. His second collection, Little Gods, was published in December, 2006. Jacob was born in Carlisle, where he still lives, but is currently the Visiting Fellow in the Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge.
6.Mark Ford
has published two collections of poetry, Landlocked and Soft Sift, from Faber, and a study of the French writer Raymond Roussel. He was editor of Carcanet’s anthologies on The New York School Poets. His latest publication is a collection of essays, A Driftwood Altar. He teaches in the English Department at University College London.
7. Blake Morrison
was born in Skipton, Yorkshire. His books include two collections of poems, Dark Glasses and The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper; two memoirs, And When Did You Last See Your Father and Things My Mother Never Told Me; and a novel, The Justification of Johann Gutenberg. With Andrew Motion, he co-edited the very influential The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry, and he has also collaborated on plays and operas. His new novel, South of the River, will be published in March. He is currently Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College, London.
1. Derek Adams
was born in London in 1957, now lives in Essex where he is an organiser of the Essex Poetry Festival. He is BBC Wildlife, Poet of the year 2006 & was winner of the 2004 Poetry Monthly booklet award with his pamphlet "Postcards to Olympus". A full collection Everyday Objects, Chance Remarks was published by the Littoral Press in 2005. He is also a professional photographer and is currently working on a series of portraits of poets, some of which were exhibited at the Poetry Cafe in October 2005.
2. Martha Kapos
is an American (originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts) but now thoroughly rooted in London. Her collection My Nights in Cupid’s Palace came out from Enitharmon in 2003. It was a Poetry Society Special Commendation and won the Aldeburgh Prize for Best First Collection. She taught in the Art History Department at the Chelsea College of Art for many years before she became Assistant Poetry Editor of Poetry London.
3. Philip Fried
has published three books of poetry: Mutual Trespasses (Ion, 1988), Quantum Genesis (Zohar, 1997), and Big Men Speaking to Little Men (Salmon Poetry, Ireland, 2006). His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, and in anthologies such as Poetry After 9/11 and What Rough Beast: Poems at the End of the Century. Since 1980, he has edited The Manhattan Review, an international poetry journal that often features the work of Australian, Irish, and UK poets.
4. Penelope Shuttle
lives in Cornwall and is the widow of poet Peter Redgrove. Together they wrote the ground-breaking feminist studies on menstruation, The Wise Wound, and its sequel, Alchemy for Women. Shuttle has published many collections of poetry, including Selected Poems (Oxfordpoets/Carcanet) in 1998, which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, as were two of her other books. Her new collection, Redgrove's Wife (Bloodaxe, May 2006) looks back at her life with Peter, and the processes of loss and grief. It was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize, 2006.
Interval
5. Jacob Polley’s
first book, The Brink, was a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. His second collection, Little Gods, was published in December, 2006. Jacob was born in Carlisle, where he still lives, but is currently the Visiting Fellow in the Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge.
6.Mark Ford
has published two collections of poetry, Landlocked and Soft Sift, from Faber, and a study of the French writer Raymond Roussel. He was editor of Carcanet’s anthologies on The New York School Poets. His latest publication is a collection of essays, A Driftwood Altar. He teaches in the English Department at University College London.
7. Blake Morrison
was born in Skipton, Yorkshire. His books include two collections of poems, Dark Glasses and The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper; two memoirs, And When Did You Last See Your Father and Things My Mother Never Told Me; and a novel, The Justification of Johann Gutenberg. With Andrew Motion, he co-edited the very influential The Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry, and he has also collaborated on plays and operas. His new novel, South of the River, will be published in March. He is currently Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College, London.
Comments
It was also a real treat to hear (and meet) Philip Fried, from New York - he also reads exceptionally well and I loved hearing his stuff. Very funny & full of humanity.
Penelope Shuttle wonderful as at the TS Eliot readings.
I always think this is an amazing series, and poetry in London will suffer when it finishes. It's been such an amazing chance to hear amazing people read, in an intimate venue...