The Final Kulturá

June at Kulturá

Spotlight On Sheila Wild

Sheila Wild gave the Kulturá Poetry Lecture in June.



Sheila is a poet from Littleborough. Her work has been published in a range of magazines including The North, Orbis, and Obsessed with Pipework. She has won a number of awards, including the Manchester Cathedral International Religious Poetry Competition 2012, and, most recently, she was runner up in the 2014 British Haiku awards. Sheila’s first collection Equinox will be published by Cinnamon Press in 2016.

"the hind so silent
that when she startles,
you hear the cold sound of frost"

June at Kulturá

We had a super evening of poetry at this month’s Kulturá.

Sheila Wild captivated us with her lecture on “Poetry and the Art of Unsaying” and Michael Conley delighted us with poems from his book ‘Aquarium’.

8 poets read in the open mic section: 

• Anthony Costello
• Shirley-Anne Kennedy
• Eileen Earnshaw
• Marion Tonge
• Annie Phillips
• Jacqui Phillips
• Robert Baylis
• Bob Horne 

with poems and prose on such diverse subjects as mineral trees, childhood traumas, love, escaped gorillas, life experiences, poetry police, environmental scientists, festival T-shirts and others.

Our audience included writer, theatre and spoken word artist Emma Decent as well as members of her life writing classes.

In July we have Ben Wilkinson as feature poet and Steve Ely giving the fourth Kulturá poetry lecture.

Thanks to the staff at Kava Café, Todmorden for accommodating us and to Dale Hibbert and his wife Sveta for providing us with the venue.

June at Kulturá

This month's event takes place on Thursday, 25 June from 7:30pm.

Poetry Lecture by Sheila Wild

"Sheila’s poems have been published in a number of journals, including The North, The Rialto, Orbis and MsLexia. She has a collection forthcoming with Cinnamon Press. Her work has been widely anthologised and she has won several awards, including first (2012) and second (2014) prizes in the Manchester Cathedral Poet of the Year competition, and runner up in the Wigtown Poetry Competition (2013). Most recently she is the runner up in the British Haiku Award 2014."

Feature Poet:

Michael Conley

"Michael Conley is a teacher from Manchester. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at MMU in 2013. Aquarium is his first published pamphlet."

Angel Dempsey

Will read one of her favourite poems and tell us why she chose it.

Followed by an open mic.

£2 entry.

May at Kulturá

We had a fantastic evening of poetry at this month's Kulturá.

Michael Francis Crowley had us enthralled with his lecture on history and poetry with regard to the first fleet of 1788, and Carcanet Press poet Evan Jones entranced us with a reading from his book 'Paralogues'.

Eight poets read in the open mic section:

• Jackie Phillips
• Shirley-Anne Kennedy
• Eileen Earnshaw
• Richard Holley
• Bob Horne
• Robert Baylis
• Joe Ranter
• Natalie Burnett

with poems about egg-yolk children, the Yorkshire moors, 'Northern Powerhouses', flirting with girls in France, coffee, magpies, blood, testosterone and other subjects.

We had a full audience which included Bob Horne of the Puzzle Hall Inn Poets and poetic luminaries such as Sarah Corbett and Peter Riley.

In June we have Michael D Conley as feature poet and Sheila Wild giving the third Kava poetry lecture.

Thanks to the staff at Kava Kafe, Todmorden for accommodating us and to Dale Hibbert and his wife Sveta for providing us with the venue. And to Shirley-Anne Kennedy for helping me run the event and creating our new website.

Anthony

Lectures

April

John Foggin

John Foggin author of the award-winning 'Larach', gave the inaugural Káva poetry lecture on a theme of 'Reinventing Poetry'. In a virtuoso lecture which included audience interaction, John's talk included a personal reflection on his time as an English teacher, a paeon to the importance of the oral tradition in poetry and a homage to the work of Andrew Marvell and Tony Harrison. A truly memorable experience. John's lecture is available for sale in pamphlet form for £2.  

28 May

Michael Francis Crowley

Taking as its staring point quotes from Elizabeth Fry and Simon Schama's 'Landscape and Memory', Michael Crowley's lecture focusses on the First Fleet in 1788. Michael's lecture merges historical fact with the voices of historical characters like Jane Fitzgerald, James Ruse and the aborigine Bennelong, to poeticise the experiences of people who are ill-served by dry historical enquiry, or who are barely mentioned in the literature of 18th Century Australia. Michael's humane and ambitious project is a collection of poems to give space to these voices, and his lecture argues forcibly and passionately their right to be heard. Michael's lecture is available at £2 for those who could not make the evening. 

25 June

Sheila Wild

A beautifully written lecture of clear vision and passionate intent. 'The Art of Unsaying' focusses on the white page that foregrounds and frames the poem, teaches us the value of the spare beauty of Japanese poetry, particularly haiku, the elements of Buddhist practice that informs the poet's raison d'etre. Sheila Wild, with many examples from Japanese and Norwegian and English poetry, argues successfully the case against prolixity in English verse and reminds us of the importance of attentiveness in our reader responses, and highlights poetry's exquisite ambigousness. 

30 July

Steve Ely

Steve Ely's ambitious lecture argues for the importance of an authentic idiom for contemporary English poetry that can both pay homage to, and revitalise the language from, the classic English Bibles of the past. The lecture highlights the poetic literary tropes - repetition, parallelism, economy - that make reading bibles such as the king James Version a high and essential literary experience that somehow connects to what Englishness means in terms of culture, history, language, peoples. Steve interweaves his personal journey as a poet into a narrative of high seriousness and parochial passion. A desert island discs selection of his current favourite passages from various bibles adorn this lecture pamphlet. There are a limited number of copies of his lecture available for ordering via this website. A must read from one of England's most interesting and intelligent poets.  

27 August

Sarah Corbett

Sarah Corbett"s lecture - The Wrong Fit - examined the role of both place and people on the development of her writing. As an incomer to the calder valley, Sarah talked of the powerful impact the landscape had on her imagination and the different ways in which Sylvia Plath's and Ted Hughes' poetry affected her own development as a poet. Sarah read from The Red Wardrobe and her verse novel And She Was to demonstrate how a search for home and identity can manifest itself in moving and powerful ways in poetry. The lecture ended on an optimistic note with both a paeon to the landscape in spring around her adopted home and a homage to the nature poems of John Clare. A beautiful lecture.

24 September

Peter Riley

"Peter Riley prefers to be referred to as “writer” rather than “poet”. Born in Stockport 1940, now living in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, following a long period in Cambridge.” Peter Riley is author of several poetry books. His latest Due North is shortlisted for this year's Forward Prize for Poetry. Peter is a poetry book reviewer and poetry editor for The Fortnightly Review."

29 October

Ian Duhig

"Ian Duhig was the eighth of eleven children born to Irish parents with a liking for poetry. He has won the National Poetry Competition twice, and also the Forward Prize for Best Poem; his collection, The Lammas Hireling, was the Poetry Book Society's Choice for Summer 2003, and was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Forward Prize for Best Collection. Chosen as a New Generation Poet in 1994, he has received Arts Council and Cholmondeley Awards, and has held various Royal Literary Fund fellowships at universities including Lancaster, Durham, Newcastle and his own alma mater, Leeds. His poetry is open to a multiplicity of subjects, from Apollinaire to Yorkshire pudding, from string vests to sutras; he has a particular gift for ignoring barriers between subjects that could be thought to be distinct.” 

26 November

Clare Shaw

"In 2006, my first poetry collection was published with Bloodaxe. In the same year, I launched a user-led self-harm training organisation. I continue to work on a freelance basis as a mental health adviser, trainer and consultant. Poetry and mental health might seem like very separate careers. They aren’t. Where they meet is in my passion for language; a passion rooted in my own experiences of lacking the right words to describe who I was, what my life was like, and what I needed. As a young person growing up in difficult circumstances, I found a means of expression in self-injury and other difficult behaviours. Later in life, I discovered how I could make language work for me; as a means of expression and communication, a way of walking in other people’s shoes, learning about – and changing - myself and the world around me.”  

17 December

John Duffy

"John Duffy was born in Glasgow and lives in Huddersfield. He works for Kirklees Libraries as a bibliotherapist, promoting reading as a mental health tool. He was a founding member of the Albert Poets, who perform alone, together and with musicians; run monthly readings in the Albert, the most venerable Huddersfield town centre pub; and run weekly workshops in the Albert and occasionally in other venues. He has run writing workshops for a wide range of community groups, including mental health service users, people with learning impairment and people affected by dementia. He has been published in Scotland and England,in Wide Skirt, West Coast, Scratch, New Writing Scotland, The North, Northlight, Northwords, Stand, Pennine Platform, Cencrastus, Radical Scotland, Lines Review, Envoi, Fatchance, Braquemard, Out From Beneath The Boot, Smiths Knoll and Verse among others and has three collections: Troika 1 (with Paul Donnelly and William Park) - Scratch 1994 Perpetual Light - Spout 1998 The Constancy of Stone - Nepotism Press 2002 The Constancy of Stone was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Writer's Digest 12th International Self-Published Book Awards."

Guest Poets 2015

April

John Foggin

"John lives in Ossett, West Yorkshire. He has been a teacher, lecturer and LEA Adviser for Drama and English. he has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Leeds, but learns much more from The Poetry Business and all the poets he has met there. His poems have appeared in 'The North', 'The New Writer', and 'The Interpreter's House', among others. He was First Prize winner in the Lumen/Camden Poetry Competition (2014) and of The Plough Prize (2013). His first collection of poems , a chapbook: 'Running out of Space' was published in April 2014, and his second, Larach was published by Wardwood in November 2014."

 Steve Ely

"Steve Ely is a poet from the West Riding of Yorkshire. His book of poems, Oswald's Book of Hours, is published by Smokestack and was nominated for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2013 and the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry in 2014. Englaland, his second book of poems, was published in April, 2015, also by Smokestack. His novel, Ratmen, is published by Blackheath Books. Ted Hughes's South Yorkshire: Made In Mexborough, a biographical work about Hughes's neglected Mexborough period, will be published by Palgrave MacMillan in July 2015."

28 May

 Evan Jones

"Canadian poet Evan Jones has lived in Manchester since 2005. He is the author of Paralogues (Carcanet, 2012) and was co-editor of the anthology, Modern Canadian Poetry (Carcanet, 2010)."

Sheri Benning

"Sheri Benning's new and selected poems, The Season's Vagrant Light, is forthcoming with Carcanet in July, 2015. Sheri has published to books of poetry in Canada, Thin Moon Psalm (Brick Books 2007) and Earth After Rain (Thistledown Press). Sheri divides her time between Glasgow and her family's farm in Saskatchewan." 

25 June

Sheila Wild

"Sheila’s poems have been published in a number of journals, including The North, The Rialto, Orbis and MsLexia. She has a collection forthcoming with Cinnamon Press. Her work has been widely anthologised and she has won several awards, including first (2012) and second (2014) prizes in the Manchester Cathedral Poet of the Year competition, and runner up in the Wigtown Poetry Competition (2013). Most recently she is the runner up in the British Haiku Award 2014." 

 Michael Conley

"Michael Conley is a teacher from Manchester. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at MMU in 2013. Aquarium is his first published pamphlet."

 30 July

Ben Wilkinson

" Ben was born in Staffordshire and now lives in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. He holds an MA in Writing with distinction from Sheffield Hallam University, and has won numerous awards for his poetry, including the Poetry Business Competition and a 2014 Northern Writers' Award. His latest short collection of poems, For Real, is published by Smith|Doorstop. With support from Arts Council England, he is working towards a first full collection of poetry, for which he is seeking a publisher." 

 27 August

Kim Moore

"Kim Moore was born in 1981 and lives and works in Cumbria. Her first full length collection “The Art of Falling” was published by Seren in April 2015. She won a New Writing North Award in 2014, an Eric Gregory Award in 2011 and the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2012. In 2014 she was Poet in Residence for Ilkley Literature Festival and Digital Poet in Residence for The Poetry School. Her first pamphlet ‘ If We Could Speak Like Wolves’ was a winner in The Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition, judged by Carol Ann Duffy. ‘If We Could Speak Like Wolves’ was chosen as an Independent Book of the Year in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Pamphlet Award and the Lakeland Book of the Year Award. Her poems have been published in Poetry Review, Poetry London, Poem, The TLS, Ambit, The Rialto, The North, Magma, Staple, Stand, Iota, Mslexia, The New Writer, Obsessed With Pipework, Brittle Star, The Interpreter’s House, The Frogmore Papers, Orbis and Other Poetry. Her work has been anthologised in Salt’s ‘Best British Poetry 2012′ and Oxfam’s ‘Lung Jazz'. Her reviews and articles have been published in Poetry Review, Mslexia, Artemis, Agenda and Under the Radar." 

 24 September

Anne Caldwell

"I grew up in the north-west of England and have been a keen reader all my life. My poetry has been published in a range of anthologies - Poet’s Cheshire (Headland) and The Nerve (Virago) and three books by Cinnamon Press who have also published my first full length collection. My work has appeared in many British magazines including Writing Women, The North, Poetry Wales and Quattrocento. I finished an MA in writing poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2007; I perform all over the UK. My current poetry collection is called Talking With The Dead and is published by Cinnamon Press. I have been short-listed in the Huddersfield Literature Festival Poetry Competition and won a micro-story competition that explores the theme of shoes, set up by Museums and Libraries in West Yorkshire by Cartwright Hall. I won an award to attend the Wired Writing Programme at The Banff Centre in Canada in 2006 which involved staying in Banff for two weeks and then working alongside Canadian writers until April 2007."

29 October

Wendy Pratt

"Wendy was asked to co-judge Prole's first poetry competition, something which she enjoyed immensely. Her first poetry pamphlet, Nan Hardwicke Turns into a Hare was published by Prolebooks in late 2011 and is selling well. She was delighted to see it reviewed favourably in the Times Literary Supplement, Other Poetry and several other publications. Her second, full size collection, Museum Pieces, also published by Prolebooks launched in January 2014 and is also selling well. Her third collection, a pamphlet entitled Lapstrake will be published by Flarestack Poets in 2015."

 26 November

Lucy Burnett

"Leaf Graffiti, Lucy’s first collection of poetry, was published in 2013 by Carcanet Press / Northern House, while individual poems have been published in a wide range of magazines. In 2007 she was shortlisted for the Chroma International Poetry Prize. She is currently seeking a publisher for her latest creative project, Through the Weather Glass, an exploration of climate change via the myth of Icarus and the narrative of a cycle expedition from Salford to the Greek island of Ikaria. This hybrid ‘novel’ is written in a generically experimental form combining magic realist travel writing with poetry and the visual image." 

 17 December

Maria Isakova Bennett

"Maria Isakova Bennett is an artist, poet and teacher from Liverpool.  During 2014 she was highly commended in the Gregory O’ Donoghue Poetry Competition, shortlisted in the Munster Literature Chapbook Competition, and awarded first prize in the Ver Open Poetry Competition. Last month, Maria’s debut pamphlet was published by Poetry Bus Press in Ireland."