Kostya Tsolakis and Jacqueline Saphra will be reading and in conversation with Tara Bergin at Newcastle University’s Culture Lab on 5 October – National Poetry Day – from 7-8pm in an event staged by Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts and the Poetry Book Society.  

Both poets will be reading from their new collections. Kostya Tsolakis is a London-based poet and journalist, born and raised in Athens. His first full collection of poetry, Greekling is a PBS Winter Choice. Jacqueline Saphra is the author of 10 stage plays, four chapbooks and five collections. Her latest collection and PBS Autumn Choice, Velvel’s Violin, concerns missing histories of the Jewish diaspora. The event is free. More details

In addition, there will be a performance of Oxygen Confetti – Poetry in three voices, a presentation of poetry translated into English from Dutch, with one of the poems set to song, by poet Elma van Haren, translator Rosemary Mitchell-Schuitevoerder and singer Julia Bronkhorst, at Newcastle's Lit & Phil on National Poetry Day at 6pm. Elma van Haren is a Dutch poet whose collection Zuurstofconfetti (2018) has recently been translated into English (Oxygen Confetti) by Rosemary Mitchell-Schuitevoerder, who also writes poetry herself. Soprano Julia Bronkhorst will sing one of Elma’s poems in its English translation. 

PHOTOGRAPH: SOPHIE DAVIDSON