Spring Rhythm - Poetry at Wainsgate Chapel

Contact: Dave Nelson: 01422 843315

Spring Rhythm: Poetry of Emergence from John Siddique, Rosie Garland and Simon Rennie

Rosie Garland is a writer, poet, novelist and singer with The March Violets. She also has a well-known alter ego, Rosie Lugosi – performer, cabaret chanteuse, and decadent hostess of events such as 'Burlesque!' at The Lowry, Salford Quays. She has held residencies at The Grand Theatre in Blackpool and the greenroom in Manchester.

Rosie has won the DaDa Award (Performance Art), Alternative Oscar (solo performer), Diva Award (solo performer), Poetry Award (People's Café, New York), and a Blue Peter Badge (for drawing a Tyrannosaurus Rex). Following her successful fight against throat cancer, Things I Did While I Was Dead includes both new and many of her award-winning poems, published in a solo collection as herself for the first time. Rosie's fiction debut, The Palace of Curiosities, is published by HarperCollins in 2013.

John Siddique is the author of six books the most recent of which is Full Blood. His poetry, essays and articles have featured in Granta, The Guardian, Poetry Review, The Rialto and on BBC Radio 4. Jackie Kay speaks of Siddique's writing as being 'A brilliant balancing act.' Siddique is the former British Council Writer-in-Residence at California State University, Los Angeles. Think-Tank QED considers John to be one of the 21 most influential people in the UK with South Asian heritage. John is the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at York St. John's University and was recently awarded the title of Honorary Creative Writing Fellow by the University of Leicester in recognition of his contribution to literature.

Simon Rennie has been performing and publishing poetry since 2005. He has performed his work at events, festivals, and university readings across the North of England. In 2007 he established the long-running poetry event, Inn Verse. His publications include the collections Little Machines (Knives Forks and Spoons Press 2009) and Unless Otherwise Stated (KFSP 2011). In 2013 a collection edited by Simon featuring contributors to Inn Verse will be published by Type Factory Press. Simon has been described by Keir Thomas, editor of The Best of Manchester Poets, as 'surely one of the best poets in this part of the country', and by John G. Hall as 'one Manchester's finest poetry engineers'. The poet and librettist, Michael Symmons Roberts, has described Simon's poetry as 'full of assurance, skill and wit'.

Entry: £8/£6/£2 (18 and under)

Time: 3:00pm