Anchoress

Last month we read James Caruth's pamphlet, Marking the Lambs, which is available from The Poetry Business.  Here's a link to a review from Antiphon.

This time it's Anchoress by Esta Spalding, which is out of print, but there are copies available from Abebooks and Amazon, or try the library.  It's a book-length poem, described in this review:

Esta Spalding’s remarkable long poem explores, through the memories of a bereaved lover, a young female student’s intense inner life which is increasingly drawn into reports of the atrocities of the last Gulf War. Such is the level of her psychic involvement that she dies at her own hand, in Chicago, dramatically setting herself on fire as an ultimate act of protest.

There's another review here

The March Poetry Cafe will be on Wednesday 5th, from 12pm, at Bank Street Arts.  We'll discuss the book from 20 past, and aim to start the workshop at 1pm.

Hope you can make it!

The Sun Bathers

Discussing the Romantics was brilliant, even though the parameters are so wide, and the era full of disparate poets, motifs and agendas; the changing socio-political context, and how various philosophical responses manifest in the poetry was interesting to think about.  Questions around nature, and the individual's relationship with their environment, demonstrated some of the tensions.  Clare's criticism of Keats's imaginative rendering of his environment through myth was something I didn't know, that he felt Keats hadn't really looked at a nightingale.  We could have gone on for hours, and we decided to do something similar with the metaphysical poets at some point next year.

Next month, though, we're getting more up-to-date with Roy Marshall's debut collection, The Sun Bathers, published last month by Shoestring Press.  I love the front cover image, which is a linocut print by Sheffield-born artist Leonard Beaumont.  Here's a link to the image on Roy's website, where there's also plenty of other information, including links to online poems.

Rhyme & Reason Bookshop, at Hunters Bar, will have copies from next week (w/c 11th Nov), and are offering a 10% discount for Poetry Cafe people.  They've been busily extending their poetry range, so it's worth a visit, and as with so many independents, they'll appreciate the support.

And here's a link to Sphinx's review of Roy's pamphlet, Gopagilla.

The December Poetry Cafe at Bank Street Arts is on Wednesday, 4th December, from 12pm for the reading group, and from 1pm for the writing workshop.

Hope to see you there.

The Romantics

At one of the workshops a few months ago, someone suggested we look back to the Romantics for the reading group, so we'll do that at the next Bank Street Arts Poetry Cafe, on 6th November.  

Rather than look at one poet, we'll look at a few. I've included links to some poems by William Blake, John Clare, Keats and Hannah More on the Poetry Foundation website, which also has links to biographies.  Reading these will give us some common ground for the discussion, but bring your favourites to talk about, too.

Here's a link to the illuminations of Songs of Innocence and of Experience and some general context for the era.

We'll discuss the poems from 12:20 until around 1pm, and then we'll workshop our own poems.  Bring copies.

See you then.

Division Street

Helen Mort's full-length collection, Division Street, was published earlier this month by Chatto.  The book is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and is the collection we're reading for the October Poetry Cafe, which will be on Wednesday 2nd October from 12pm, at Bank Street Arts.

Helen was born in Sheffield and grew up in Chesterfield.  She's won the Foyle Young Poets award five times, an Eric Gregory, and the Manchester Young Writer Prize in 2008.  She's had two pamphlets published with Tall Lighthouse, and was poet in residence at the Wordsworth Trust.

Here's a link to her website, and to her blog, which relates to her PhD research at University of Sheffield about metaphor, poetry and neuroscience.

Here's a link to some of Helen's poems online, and there's an interview in The Oxonian Review, here.

The book is in stock at Rhyme & Reason, which is opposite Endcliffe Park.

We'll talk about the book from 12:20, and then start workshopping each other's poems around 1pm. Bring copies.

Heimlich's Manoeuvre

Paula Cunningham launched her Smith/Doorstop collection, Heimlich's Manoeuvre, at the recent Sheffield Poetry Festival.  She lives in Belfast, and her pamphlet A Dog called Chance was a winner in the Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition.

Here's a link to her poem, "Mother's Pride", from the collection, which appeared in the online journal, Antiphon, in their special edition earlier this year.

If you're looking to buy Cunningham's book, it's available online, via the Poetry Business, or if you prefer to buy from a shop, Rhyme & Reason are happy to order individual titles, if they don't have it in stock.

The Bank Street Arts Poetry Cafe is on Wednesday 4th September, 12pm for a 12:20 start.  We'll discuss the book until about 1pm, then move on to the workshop.

In October, we're hoping Helen Mort's debut full-length collection, Division Street, a PBS recommendation, will be available.  Pretty excited about that!

Czeslaw Milosz

The next Poetry Cafe at Bank Street Arts is on Wednesday 7th August, from 12pm.  We're looking at poems by Czeslaw Milosz in the first part of the session.  All the poems we're reading are online:

Poetry Foundation has 14 poems
There's another three at nobelprize.org and "Artificer" at Poets.org

Poetry Foundation also has some interesting essays, not just about Milosz, but around the political and cultural issues that might offer some potential ways of contextualising his work.  Here's a quote from one of the essays (by Bradford Gray Telford):

Chief among Milosz’s many gifts was his Virgilian assuredness—a contribution unique to Milosz the Poet-Philosopher-Dissident-Statesman-in-Exile—that guided innumerable Polish writers and readers through war, occupation, totalitarianism, and post-Communist bewilderment. 

Dear Boy

While we were discussing The Overhaul, the subject of sequencing poems came up, who might contribute to the ordering process, as well as how we read collections.  I'm keen on the idea of single-author collections as albums, so you might listen to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on shuffle, but I think it's much better to go from start to finish, not least because of that tricky overlapping at the start of "With a Little Help from My Friends" ... I guess I'm just old-fashioned.

The collection we're reading for next time is Emily Berry's Dear Boy, and as an attempt to intervene in the order you read her poems, here's one from page 22.  It's published in the New Statesman, and so I guess you could say it's been released as a single ...

Here's a link to Berry's website, and here's a link to the Guardian's review by Ben Wilkinson.

Rhyme & Reason have copies in stock, as well as an extended poetry section after their stint as festival bookseller for the Sheffield Poetry Festival, which ended on Sunday.  Their website is full of audio recordings, blog articles and photographs, so do have a look, if you've time.

The next Poetry Cafe at Bank Street is on Wednesday 3rd July, 12pm for a twenty-past start.  Bring copies of your poem, as usual.

The Overhaul

The next Poetry Cafe at Bank Street Arts is Wednesday 5th June, 12pm for a 12:20pm start.  We're reading Kathleen Jamie's The Overhaul,  and here are a few links that might be of interest:

A review by Kate Kellaway in The Observer (Jan 2013)

Kathleen Jamie's Poetry Archive page

An interview with Scottish Review of Books

We'll discuss the book until about 1pm, and then start the workshop.  Bring copies of your poem, if you want it workshopped.  About 8 should do it.

This month's Poetry Cafe coincides with the second Sheffield Poetry Festival, and I expect you've all seen the programme, but here's the link, just in case.  

Antiphon are issuing a bumper Special Edition to celebrate the festival, but in the meantime, here's the most recent issue from earlier this year.  Have a look through the back issues for poets who'll be reading or hosting workshops during the festival, such as Fay Musselwhite, Suzannah Evans and Conor O'Callaghan.

Rhyme & Reason is the festival bookseller for the headline events, and they are looking into expanding their poetry section at their shop on Ecclesall Road, so that's pretty exciting.  Give them your support, if you get the chance.  In fact, if you haven't already got it, I think I saw a couple of copies of The Overhaul on their shelf this morning ...

Bee Journal

We're reading Sean Borodale's Bee Journal, for next time.

Here's a short review by David Morley.  And here's the poem that made me want to read the rest of the book, "12th November: Winter Honey".

The next Bank Street Arts poetry cafe is on 1st May, 12 for twenty past start, as usual.  We'll discuss the book until about 1pm, then move on to the workshop.  Bring copies of your poem.

See you then.

Stag's Leap

The next Poetry Cafe workshop and reading group is on Wednesday 3rd April, 12pm for a 12:20 start. We're reading Sharon Olds's, Stag's Leap, this month.  The collection won the T.S Eliot Prize in January.

Here's a link to the Huffington Post's article, "Sharon Old's Discusses Stag's Leap, Her Divorce and Her Ex-Husband After Winning TS Eliot Prize", where she talks about confessional writing, among other things.

And another interview in the Guardian, and a review by Kate Kellaway.

We'll discuss the book first, and aim to get the workshop started around 1pm.  Bring copies of your poem.

See you then.

Bill of Rights

The next Poetry Cafe is on Wednesday 6th March, 12pm for a 12:20 start.

The book we're discussing is Fred D'Aguiar's Bill of Rights, which I think is a bit tricky to get hold of, but seem to be available on Amazon, and Abebooks.  Libraries might have a copy, too.

I've a link here for an extract – I hope you can get hold of a copy.  If not, come along anyway.  This book is a long narrative poem, and there may be something you want to say about the form more generally.

Or you can always just come along to workshop your poem from about 1pm.  Bring copies.

See you then.

The Cloud Corporation

Hopefully you're on the mailing list, and so you already know we're meeting next Wednesday, 6th February, 12pm for a 20 past start.  We're reading Timothy Donnelly's The Cloud Corporation.

Here's an extract, and a review by Ben Wilkinson.  And here's the link to Conor O'Callaghan's review in Antiphon.

See you next week.

The Broken Word

The first Poetry Cafe of 2013 will be on Wednesday 9th January, when we'll be reading Adam Foulds's, The Broken Word,  a poetic sequence set in 1950s Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising.

Here's a review from 2008, when the book won the Costa Poetry Award, and an extract.

12pm for a 12:15 start – we'll discuss Foulds until 1pm.  After that we'll get on with the workshop as usual, and aim to finish by 4pm.

Have a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.
Angelina

A Sleepwalk on the Severn

December 5th will be the last Poetry Cafe this year.  We'll be discussing Alice Oswald's A Sleepwalk on the Severn, from 12:20-1pm, and then we'll workshop each other's poems until 3pm.  Perhaps if you're free, we could go for a drink after the workshop to celebrate Christmas.

There's a review of Oswald's work here, and an extract here.

The cafe is now being run by the cooperative behind The Rude Shipyard.  There'll be a grand opening of Towards the Lighthouse, Beyond the Shipyard, and The Lighthouse Gallery in the New Year, but in the meantime, the cafe is open and serving: http://bankstreetarts.com/news/poetry-cafe-3/

See you there

Poetry Prizes

Here's a link to the finalists at the Manchester Poetry Prize.  The winner will be announced on October 19th, but Antiphon and I were wondering what you thought of the finalists' work, and whether you had any thoughts on who should win, in your opinion.

Perhaps you have thoughts more broadly on poetry competitions in general?  The prize at Manchester asks for a selection of poems for the judges to consider, rather than everything hanging on a single poem, and the judging panel consists of three poets, this year: Ian Duhig, Frances Leviston and Adam O'Riordan.

The finalists' work is available via the link above.  Let us know what you think.

Swamp Area

In November (12pm Wednesday 7th) we'll be discussing Alistair Noon's Swamp Area, a pamphlet published by Longbarrow Press.  You can order copies from the website for £4 inc P&P

There are recordings of Alistair Noon reading his work available on line, as well as a review of his work by Susie Wild.

This is the first time we've looked at a pamphlet in the group, so it would be good to hear what we think about the format, as well as the poetry.  It's been said in recent years that the pamphlet is making a comeback, possibly because there is less investment required from publishers, and so less risk?  Perhaps people are more easily persuaded to part with £4 rather than £10.

On the other hand, bookshops have found it difficult to merchandise pamphlets effectively, alongside full collections, maybe because often pamphlets don't have a spine, and so need to be facing out to get noticed, which takes up a lot more shelf space.

What's interesting about pamphlets, I think, is the flexibility of the form, that they can be designed to complement the content, perhaps more easily than full-length books.  They are already removed from the mainstream expectations of the book; they are competing for attention on different terms.

The act of designing and making the pamphlet is then an extension of the creative act, and the outcome will perhaps have more in common with the artist book genre, than mainstream publishing.  However, this level of attention can become labour intensive, and so perhaps few publishers are willing to experiment, and realise the full potential of the form.  The need to generate revenue can't be ignored, if a press is to survive, and go on to publish more work.  

The pamphlet can focus its attention, be an exploration of a specific theme.  At the last meeting, we discussed The Water Table, in relation to a concept album.  We talked about the skill of spending a full collection circling a subject, the difficulties of keeping an idea new across a substantial body of work.  Perhaps the pamphlet can lend itself to the concept album analogy, if not an LP, then perhaps an EP?

We'll discuss Noon until 1pm, and then move on to the workshop.  Bring copies of your poem as usual, 8 still seems a reasonable number, I think.  Ten if you're feeling lush.

Angelina

The Water Table

The next Bank Street Arts Poetry Cafe will be on Wednesday October 3rd, 12pm for a 12.20pm start.  We'll begin by talking about Philip Gross's The Water Table.  

There's a review of the collection in the Guardian, here.  And here is a link to his poems on the Poetry Foundation website.  

Gross has said: "In a sense water in itself is nothing, but it is this perfectly clear, perfectly reflective substance in which you can see the world reflected in all its angles.

From 1pm we'll workshop, so bring copies of a poem you want share with the group.  About 8 copies will do.

See you then.

Also Steve Sawyer's review of Continental Shelf is on the reviews page here, so go over and have a look.

Thanks,
Angelina

Evening Brings Everything Back

The August Poetry Cafe at Bank Street Arts is on 1st August, 12pm.  Bring copies of your poem to workshop with the group as usual.  About half a dozen should do it.

For the reading group we're looking at Jaan Kaplinski's Evening Brings Everything Back

See you then!

Art vs Laundry

Our next Poetry Café session at Bank Street Arts is on the 4^th July (all the usual arrangements, bring poems, 12pm start, etc), and to celebrate, or more precisely, by coincidence, we’re reading an American, Elizabeth Bishop. 

We discussed narrowing the reading a little, perhaps just to North and South, from The Complete Poems, but then what about “The Moose”, “Sestina”, etc … So let’s say we’ll read North and South, but then we can throw in any favourites on the day.

Here’s a link to her Poetry Archive and Poets.org pages.

While I was looking around for articles about Bishop, I found this one by Stephen Burt, called "Art vs Laundry", on the Poetry Foundation website, and thought it was interesting.

'More and more, this year—especially since our second child was born—I’ve come to feel that poetry just can’t be as important as most people who write about it now make it seem: that, as Elizabeth Bishop put it in another connection, “Art just isn’t worth that much.”' 


What do you think?

Continental Shelf

The next Poetry Cafe Workshop at Bank Street Arts is Wednesday 13th June, 12pm until about 3pm.  Hope you can make it.

After the workshopping, we'll be reading Fred D'Aguiar's Continental Shelf  for the book group. Here's a link to his page on The Poetry Archive.

You might also be interested in an exhibition and symposium at Bank Street Arts called ArText, which is on this week, and is looking at the relationships between art and text.  Click the links for more information.

Thanks!