Words on Tap

Open Mic Event

Contact: wordsontap@email.com

Not-for-profit literary night Words on Tap celebrates its first birthday Friday 29th November at its home the Chemic Tavern, Woodhouse. Staying true its credo of showcasing a diverse range of authors in the region, the event features readings from Leeds performance poetry stalwart Richard Raftery (Raftery the Poet), Red Shed Readings founder and international troubadour John Irving Clarke and stars of the LS13 anthology Aissa Gallie and Claire Stephenson. Plus, the usual open-mic slots and a raffle boasting home-brewed prizes and poetry magazines and collections. Admission is FREE, doors open 7.30pm.

Tickets for the Michael Symmons Roberts event on January 31st will be available at this event, too.

More info at: wordsontapblog.wordpress.com

Aissa Gallie is a writer, mother and business woman. Having blogged on and off for a few years, the LS13 competition marked her first real step out of the closet and into a public sphere as a writer. Gaining confidence from the LS13 experience Aissa has gone on to write two children’s stories which she is currently preparing for publication. She also aims to write her first novel in 2014 which is a political thriller aimed at young adults. Originally from Brixton, Aissa, age 36, has lived in Leeds off and on since the age of 5 and is now settled in Meanwood with her husband Ritchie and two sons, Bernie and Bruce.

Claire Stephenson is a writer, artist and counsellor. Her writing has recently been included in the anthology "LS13 - A New Generation of Leeds Writers". Originally from the West Midlands, Claire came to Leeds in 1996 and it has been home ever since. She now lives in a housing cooperative with her partner and young son where she pens stories and poems, sometimes on her computer and sometimes on parchment with a swan's feather she found in Gledhow Valley.

John Irving Clarke has been published in Raven, Cutting Teeth, Retort and Smith's Knoll magazines and has recently returned from Italy after reading as a guest of the Amici di Piazza, Mondovi. Having resigned his teaching post, John now divides his time between co-organising the Red Shed Readings event in Wakefield and staring out of windows.

Richard Raftery, the self-styled 'Viscount of Verse', was born in Warwick before moving to Merseyside/Lancashire at the age of three where his grandfather had been the village blacksmith. After leaving school at sixteen he worked in a number of occupations including tax office clerk, labourer and journeyman weaver before eventually training as a teacher.– a trade which he pursued for a number of years, despite being ‘consumed by lack of ambition’. Currently he is a trade union officer.


Richard has been writing and performing his own poetry in Leeds for a number of years, including a number of appearances on local radio. He has published two collections of poetry – ‘Smart Boy Wanted’ and 'Too Big For This Town'.
A diverse range of issues, from serious to humorous, are addressed including teenage pregnancy, voter apathy, sunbeds, flip-flops, unfortunate trousers and catastrophic events in a curry house.
Richard lives and works in Leeds and is married with three grown-up children.

Entry: FREE

Time: 7:30pm