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21st October 2014 at 19:30

OCTOBER'S GUEST BRENDAN CLEARY - ONE OF UK'S MOST INSTINCTIVELY GIFTED POETS
Write Angle is pleased to have Brendan Cleary as its October guest poet. As Hugo Williams said - 'Some of us stay home & write tame poems about wild things, Brendan Cleary gets out there, captures wild ones & brings them home alive'.

Originally from Northern Ireland, Brendan is one of the UK’s most instinctively gifted poets, After attending Carrickfergus Grammar School, he moved to England, continuing his education and earning an MA - meanwhile launching his poetic career as editor of both the punky DIY magazine 'The Echo Room' and 'Stand' Magazine.

His early work deals with his childhood in a region where 'Despair, like rust, is contagious', but life in an England of broken ideals and rampant class prejudice comes in for equally biting treatment in poems such as 'Newcastle is Benidorm' and 'Rose'.
He's published extensively in journals, anthologies and single-author collections such as 'Tears in the Burger Store','White Bread and ITV', 'The Irish Card', 'Stranger in the House', 'Jackson and some turbulent weather'. In 2010, Tall Lighthouse published his selected poems 'Goin' Down Slow'.
Pighog published Cleary’s 'The Poet’s Notebook' as an exclusive series of updates on its Twitter profile, as well as his latest collection of 'Face' in its entirety. (September 2013).

Meantime, nineteen issues of 'The Echo Room' , edited and published by Cleary appeared between 1985 and 1994. The magazine typically published a mix of new emerging voices often with links to Northern, regional urban centres. Cleary describes his editorship as 'a quest to discover an urgency in poetry that was missing in the mid-80s' and to publish poets willing to 'get their hands dirty'. The Echo Room relaunched in the spring of 2012 with Volume 2 Issue 1, with support from Pighog Press in Brighton. The new magazine published many poets who had appeared in the original series of magazines and retained much of its original low budget style including a Matthew Caley designed cover and a substantial number of typos.

In addition to publishing the magazine, Cleary also launched the Echo Room Press in 1986 with the publication of 4 poetry pamphlets: 'Expecting Cameras' by Cleary himself, 'Hicks' by Matthew Caley, 'The Lost Boys' by George Charlton and 'Tame the Neighbours' by Martin Myers.

Apart from his huge published poetry collections, Brendan is a renowned Performance Poet. Honed by his experience as a live performer, his lyrics have a hard-hitting immediacy as he questions his place in the world around him and his affiliation to the culture and traditions of his country of birth. These are not poems for the faint-hearted, but they provide insights into the human spirit simply not on offer in the work of less courageous artists. Amongst many more, he's performed on 'The Ready Room' (Radio), at festivals in Brighton, Pighog Brighton, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Bridlington, Overground Festival at Crystal Palace etc.

Reviews
'Brendan Cleary's poetry in 'Weightless' was described as a modern blues' (Roddy Lumsden), 'The importance of pamphlets in Cleary’s work ‘architecturally’ shaping different voices and blocks of work. From early in his career much of Cleary’s work has been characterised by its conversational tone. One that "seems to aspire to a state of speech that is highly eloquent, almost as if it is a betrayal to have to write down the poem". (Martin Mooney).

We hope you will come along and enjoy our special guest, as well as sharing your own poetry and music in the popular Open Mic. If you prefer - just come and enjoy!

Please note, we're finding it necessary to raise the entry fee to £5. This is so we can afford to pay our guests appropriately. We do not make any money from Write Angle, but would like to be able to continue bringing you the best performance artists we feel you'll enjoy!

There will be a raffle for a free meal for two at Fez, Petersfield's excellent Turkish restaurant as well as Youtubes made of many open mikers as well as our guest. (free)

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 21 October. It promises to be an evening you won't want to miss!