More Festival info: POETRY

Warwick Words Festival: 2-5 October 2008

We have a feast of poetry for you at this year’s festival including JOOLZ DENBY, JO SHAPCOTT, JANE HOLLAND, FELIX DENNIS,and BRIAN PATTEN.

Tickets are now available from the Box Office: 01926 776438
For further information please see our web site www.warwickwords.co.uk

JOOLZ DENBY
Masterclass – Thursday 2 October from 2.00pm – 5.00pm at the Friends Meeting House
In Conversation with Joolz Denby – Thursday 2 October at 7.30pm at the Lord Leycester Hospital

JO SHAPCOTT
Imaginative Logic workshop – Friday 3 October from 2,00pm – 5.00pm in Northgate Church Hall

FELIX DENNIS
An event not to be missed! – Friday 3 October at 8.00pm in the Bridge House Theatre
Lots of free wine included (over 18’s)!

BRIAN PATTEN
Gargling with Jelly – Poetry Reading for kids and parents – Saturday 4 October at 3.00pm in the Bridge House Theatre

Growing up Before Your Very Eyes- Saturday 4 October at 7.30pm at the Bridge House Theatre

POETRY CAFÉ with JANE HOLLAND (that's me!)
Thursday 2 and Friday 3 October from 11.00am – 4.00pm in Thomas Oken Tea Rooms, just off Jury Street, Warwick

JANE HOLLAND (and that's me again!)
Warwick Poetry with the Laureate – Sunday 5 October from 2.00pm in the Coach House, Warwick Castle.

This is a book launch event - launching "On Warwick" from Nine Arches Press, a year's worth of poetry written for the Laureateship by Jane Holland, including her long poem "On Warwick Castle".

At the Godiva Festival: Cov's answer to Glastonbury!

I performed on stage last night at the Godiva Festival in Coventry's Memorial Park, two tents down from Cov's favourite band, The Enemy. I also happened to be in the Artist Liaison tent, getting my free food voucher, at the same time as some of the young band members and their families were picking up their backstage passes. My teenage daughter, who's a big fan of The Enemy, now apparently 'hates' me for not arranging a backstage pass for her too!

It was an excellent reading to a massive and appreciative crowd - if a bit 'Glastonbury' at times, thanks to the heavy rain, mud slicks everywhere, and a sudden electrical short in the generator part-way through the unfortunate performer's set immediately before mine. There was a ten minute pause, while people danced about in the noisy semi-darkness and slow-clapped, then the lights came back on and suddenly it was my turn at the mic.

I warmed up the crowd, now rather frisky, with two short poems from my next book, Camper Van Blues (Salt Publishing, 2008): 'Day Tripping', about drug abuse, and 'Neighbours' (just published in Mimesis 4) about the downside of being a lone female traveller.

I then read two pieces from my first collection of poetry, The Brief History of a Disreputable Woman (Bloodaxe, 1997): 'Baize Queens', about my days as a semi-pro snooker player, and 'Not a Love Poem'.

To finish the ten minute set, I read my party piece - an extract from The Lament of the Wanderer, my version of the Anglo-Saxon poem, just published as a chapbook by Coventry's Heaventree Press, who were hosting last night's event.

Other readers in the poetry tent included the great Linton Kwesi Johnson and such stalwarts of the British poetry circuit as Dreadlockalien (aka Richard Grant), Mario Petrucci, Kei Miller, Mike McKimm, Yusra Warsama, Coventry's own Scrubber Jack, plus two excellent Irish poets visiting from Cork, Paul Casey and Billy Ramsell.