Coming Home with Poetry - a reading and open mic

Open Mic Event

Contact: cpfboxoffice@yahoo.com

Website: https://cheltenhampoetryfestival.co.uk/

Coming Home with Poetry - a reading and open mic
Francis Close Hall Chapel, Cheltenham, GL50 4AZ
Wed 21st September 2022

'Home is so sad,’ Philip Larkin wrote, others have claimed it is 'where the heart is', and James Baldwin described it as 'not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.' In this fascinating event we reveal how ' home' has affected the work of four Gloucestershire-based contemporary poets. Will they, like John Clare 'sing the pleasure of a home'? Or have they, like Dylan Thomas 'longed to run away'.
The event also includes an open mic - bring your poems about 'home'.

David Clarke
David Clarke is a Gloucestershire-based poet who has published two pamphlets and two full collections, the most of which was The Europeans (Nine Arches Press, 2019). His poetry has also appeared in journals such as Poetry Wales, Magma and Long Poem Magazine, as well as in The Guardian. His next book, Out of True, is due to appear with Nine Arches Press in the autumn of 2022.

Derek Healy
Derek was born in and grew up in Cheltenham. His second collection Home, (Graffiti Books 2020) explores our sense of rootedness in many ways – our family, our friends, our lovers, through to our place in time and the universe. Derek has been published in a number of journals here and in the USA and is presently working on his third collection, to be titled Uncharted.

Duncan Forbes
Duncan’s poems have been published by Faber, Secker and Enitharmon, who brought out a Selected Poems in 2009, drawn from five previous collections. He read English at Oxford and has taught for many years.

Anna Saunders
Anna Saunders is the author of Communion (Wild Conversations Press), Struck (Pindrop Press), Kissing the She Bear (Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox, Ghosting for Beginners and Feverfew, (all Indigo Dreams). Feverfew has been described as ‘rich with obsession, sensuousness and potency’ by Ben Ray, and as ‘a beautiful and necessary collection’ by Penny Shuttle. Anna's new book is The Prohibition of Touch (Indigo Dreams.)
She is also the Executive Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

With thanks to John Oldham, The Oldham Foundation, Jordan's Solicitors and Arts Council England for supporting our September Festival.


BOOK NOW

Price: £10.00 / £7.00

Time: 8:00pm (doors open 30 mins before start )