Oxfam Poetry Series Is Back

I am doing another season of Oxfam poetry events, at 91 Marylebone High Street, due to popular demand, between December 2008 and summer 2009.

This includes the December Christmas fundraiser, on December 2, featuring:

AF Harrold
Peter Robinson
Phil Hancock
David Prater
Nancy Mattson
Joe Dunthorne
Niall McDevitt
and
Julian Stannard

-

A January mini-festival, with two end of month events featuring poets such as Annie Finch, Ken Edwards, John Hegley, Mimi Khalvati, Kathryn Simmonds, Michael Horovitz, Tug Dumbly, and others.

-

The March launch of the latest Manhattan Review issue, featuring the special section on The Young British Poets, including Emily Berry, Sally Read, Daljit Nagra, Melanie Challenger, and more.

-

More details of the 2009 events in 2009.

Do rsvp for the December event with Martin Penny, starting today, if you wish.

Comments

Sue Guiney said…

Todd, Congratulations again, and great to meet you last night. I just listed you on my blog, for what it's worth. And if you want to check mine out, it's http://sueguineyblog.blogspot.com.
Take care.

Wed Nov 05, 04:16:00 pm 2008

Tommaso Gervasutti said…

Thank God Eyewear was wrong in its prediction on Obama's defeat and the "iettatura" brought the opposite effect: a landslide.
I think your readers would need a post on that.
Even more than one.

Wed Nov 05, 07:37:00 pm 2008

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Search This Blog