Category Archives: Exeter Central Library
Exeter Poetry Festival 2014 free-to-enter competition open to Devon residents: ‘Voices and Memory’ of World War One
On the Saturday of this year’s Exeter Poetry Festival we will be holding a series of events exploring the less heard voices of World War One including a presentation of work by female poets of the period, an independently produced film on Ivor Gurney, and poems by Devon school children. We are now inviting adult residents in Devon to become part of the day and the publication we are launching on it.
Terms and conditions for open submission to WW1 pamphlet project:
• Poems must respond to the anniversary of the outbreak of WW1, through the theme of ‘Voices and Memory’. Selected poems will appear in a pamphlet of the same title, together with writing and art created in a schools workshop held in Exeter Library.
• Any style of poem is allowed but it must not exceed 25 lines including the title and spaces between stanzas.
• Poems must be typed, single-spaced, on A4 size paper
• Poems will be selected anonymously; your name, or any other mark of identification, must not appear anywhere on the poem.
• Provide a separate cover sheet with your name, postal address, phone number, email address, and title of your submission(s).
• You can enter up to 3 poems. There is no charge for entry.
• No alterations may be made once a poem has been submitted.
• The successful entrants will be contacted by post during the first week of September 2014.
• Selected poems will be published as part of a limited edition pamphlet launched on the 4th October 2014 at 3pm, Exeter Central Library, as part of Exeter Poetry Festival 2014. In submitting a poem(s) you guarantee that you will be available to read on the 4th October at the library and will have previously made yourself available for an audio recording of your poem, during September 2014.
• The copyright of the poem, both text and recording, remains with the author, but ExCite reserves the right to publish or broadcast the work in its entirety or in part in the UK during 2014-15 for PR purposes.
• The judges’ decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into. Entries will be selected by members of the ExCite board.
Eligibility:
• Entrants must have a Devon postcode.
• Entrants do not need to be a member of ExCite Poetry in order to submit a poem, but agree to having their details stored by ExCite Poetry for future reference.
• Poems should be in English or English dialect, and the original work of the author.
• The poems may not have been previously published (this includes online) or broadcast.
How to Enter:
• Deadline for entries is August 12th. Entries are by post only. The address for entries is:
Exeter Poetry Festival,
FAO Alasdair Paterson,
Taddyforde House North,
New North Road,
Exeter
EX4 4AT.
Your work will not be returned, so please keep a copy. If you wish acknowledgement of receipt, include an SAE.
• Entry indicates acceptance of these rules. Entries failing to meet all these conditions will be automatically rejected
Exeter Poetry Festival 2014 – 29th September to 5th October – funded by Arts Council England
Excite Poetry are very happy to announce we have been awarded an Arts Council England grant to help fund a full week’s programme of events for this year’s Exeter Poetry Festival.
We have been working hard behind the scenes with our partners to arrange a varied and multi-national programme with something to entertain, educate and inspire all those who enjoy the reading, writing and performance of poetry.
Most events will be held in the upstairs performance space of the fabulous new Exeter Central Library which was officially opened today. Do visit to check out its restocked poetry shelves.
Keep an eye on our website, Facebook page and Twitter account for further updates over the coming weeks and for the announcement of this year’s competition. We promise what we have in store is worth waiting for!
Exeter Poetry Festival Workshop with Greta Stoddart at Exeter Central Library on Saturday 5th October at 2pm
Saturday 5th October 2013
FESTIVAL WORKSHOP with Greta Stoddart Exeter (Temporary) Library, 2pm-5pm – £12
To book contact barbara@excitepoetry.org
Last few places! For those who have booked but not paid, please confirm.
Notebooks are full of the stuff of poems: first lines, quotes, thoughts, memories, dreams, rants, lists. Delving into, and sharing, her own notebook entries Greta will be using these as prompts to write, discuss and think about poems. So bring along your own notebook and delve into its poetic potential!
A partnership event between Excite Poetry and The Poetry School.
Exeter Poetry Festival 30th September to 6th October 2013 Programme
ExCite and its partners are delighted to announce the Exeter Poetry Festival 2013 programme.
The festival programme was launched on September 5th 2013 at the Exeter Phoenix when a packed house enjoyed readings by Carol Ann Duffy and Ann Gray.
The festival will take place from Monday 30th September 2013 to Sunday 6th September 2013 at venues around Exeter.
We’ll be featuring the poets performing at the festival over the next few weeks in the build-up to festival week.
Monday 30th September 2013
THE BROADSHEET with the Bard of Exeter Simon Williams City Gate Hotel, Cellar Bar, 7.30pm – £2, free to readers
Thursday 3rd October 2013
NATIONAL POETRY DAY with Sean O’Brien and Jo Shapcott Exeter Barnfield Theatre, 7.30pm – £12.50 Book at the Barnfield box office online or phone 01392 271808
Friday 4th October 2013
BEYOND BORDERS with Roddy Lumsden, Peter Finch and Hannah Silva Exeter University Queen’s Building – Lecture Theatre 7.30pm – £9 Book at the Exeter Phoenix box office online or phone 01392 667080
preceded by
EXETER UNIVERSITY MA SHOWCASE with Barbara Farley, Isabel Galleymore, Louise Jenkins, and Naomi Williamson Exeter University Queen’s Building – Senior Common Room 6.30pm – Free Event
Saturday 5th October 2013
FESTIVAL WORKSHOP with Greta Stoddart Exeter (Temporary) Library, 2pm-5pm – £12 To book contact barbara@excitepoetry.org
EXLIBRIS launches ‘Making History’ Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 5.45pm By invitation only – if interested email contact@excitepoetry.org
TRIPLE BILL with Lemn Sissay, Dizraeli and Benin City Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 7pm – £12 / £9 (concessions) Book direct from the museum or via undergroundtickets.net
Sunday 6th October 2013
STUDIO 36 with Marcus Wylie (workshop), Rachel McCarthy and Alasdair Paterson Gallery 36, Denmark Road, Exeter – £5 (workshop), £5 (reading), £8 (all day) Pay on the door, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support
EXETER POETRY SLAM 2013 hosted by Morwenna Griffiths and Tim King The Bikeshed Theatre, 7.30pm – £5 Tickets from The Bikeshed box office or phone 01392 434169 To take part email slam@speakinsong.co.uk
Graham Burchell at Exeter Poetry Festival 2012
It is my pleasure to be able to formally confirm that Exeter Poetry Festival will be taking place this year from 4th-6th October at a variety of venues across the city. This year, Cyprus Well is working in partnership with ExCite Poetry Stanza and Apples and Snakes to produce the third annual festival. This year’s primary funder is Arts Council England, with additional support from the Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation. Exeter University’s Andy Brown is also due a mention, both in his capacity as organiser for the PhD poets event, and as a poet in his own right. More detail on the full programme will be provided imminently.
In the meantime, I wanted to announce that we’ll be hosting a special book launch for South West Poet, Graham Burchell. His collection The Chongololo Club is of particular interest to us, given the fact that Graham was awarded a TLC Free Read from Cyprus Well, and we are proud to say we played a small part in helping him develop as a writer. The hard work was down to him though, and we’re delighted to see the fruits of his labours in this exciting new collection.
The Chongololo Club is a compelling recreation of the poet’s time in Zambia in the early 1980’s; a series of vivid snapshots that captures the people, the wildlife, the politics with colours ‘brash enough’ for this ‘dark continent’ as we slide down it alongside him – ‘glass in hand, whisky gone, just a melting ice-cube cold’ against our teeth.
‘These poems have the virtues of close observation and personal engagement in their accounts of living and teaching in Africa. Flora, fauna, people, loneliness, culture-shock, compassion and humour all contribute to making this collection haunting and coherent. The poet sustains triumphantly the demands of his particular subject material.’
– Penelope Shuttle
‘Graham Burchell’s ‘The Chongololo Club’ is a wonderful book. Full of the sights and sounds of Africa he clearly loved, he is not blind to its occasional horror; nevertheless he convinces us of its beauties through his careful observation, his ear for its many languages and his eye for telling detail. His style of writing serves his subject matter, but he is not afraid of demanding forms such as the pantoum. If you want your poetry to be pleasurable, you will enjoy this book.’
– Ian Duhig
Join us for South West launch of Graham’s book on Saturday 6th October in Exeter Central Library at 2pm.
This weekend at the Festival
Jen Hadfield’s ‘Credo’ workshop is sold out, so is ‘Up With The Bard’ with Liv Torc. There are still some tickets left for the other events, and in the library today we’re looking forward today to the University of Exeter Creative Writing Programme Reading (featuring top festival volunteer, Jos Smith), Greta Stoddart and newly Forward Prized, Julia Copus. Later, in the Phoenix, Cyprus Well, ExCite Poetry and Apples & Snakes have the Meter 2010 Networking Event (only a few places left for that one) with a performance by Dorothea Smartt. Saturday finishes off with Apples & Snakes Live, with Bard of Exeter Liv Torc, and Aoife Mannix with accordion hero Janie Armour.
Sunday kicks off in the library with the ExCite Poetry Lunch with Rachel McCarthy, Fiona Benson and Rachael Boast. This is followed by the Shearsman Showcase with Elisabeth Bletsoe, Damian Furniss and Jaime Robles. The festival closes with Ruth Padel at 4pm, reading and in conversation with Rachel McCarthy of ExCite Poetry.
But not quite … supported by Exeter Phoenix, the Festival finally heads off into the night with the utterly brilliant Devon Incarnate Folk Singer and Folk Hero, Jim Causley.
Full details in the programme, and tickets are available from Exeter Phoenix.
A huge thank you to our audiences this week, and we look forward to seeing you this weekend!
Exeter Poetry Festival starts today!
Exeter Poetry Festival kicks off today, Sunday 3rd, with Laughing Arrow’s Exeter Poetry Slam at BikeShed Theatre. The next event is Wednesday night, with ExCite Poetry and the second fringe event, which is at Otto Retro. Details of both events, and the events at the main festival, beginning on National Poetry Day, 7 October, with Alice Oswald and Andy Brown at Exeter Central Library are available in the festival programme.
For full programme details, and ticket information, please click the buttons to your top left.
National Poetry Day 2010: Andy Brown and Alice Oswald at Exeter Poetry Festival
Exeter Poetry Festival is delighted to announce the sponsorship of The Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation, who will be supporting the opening event of the festival in 2010.
The Ronald Duncan Reading will take place at Exeter Central Library on the evening of 7th October 2010, National Poetry Day, and will feature two of the region’s most acclaimed poets, Alice Oswald and Andy Brown.
Alice Oswald lives in Devon and is married with three children. Dart, her second collection, won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 for Weeds and Wild Flowers. Alice won the inaugural Ted Hughes award for new work in 2010. Her most recent collection, Woods etc, was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection and the T. S. Eliot Prize.
Andy Brown is the author and editor of 10 books of poetry including, most recently, Goose Music (with John Burnside, Salt 2008), Fall of the Rebel Angels: poems 1996-2006 (Salt 2006) and The Storm Berm (tall lighthouse 2008). He is Director of Creative Writing at Exeter University and was previously Centre Director for the Arvon Foundation at Totleigh Barton.
The Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation exists to encourage and support creative excellence in the arts, especially poetry, drama and literature and to sustain interest and research in the work associated with its namesake, the poet and playwright, Ronald Duncan. Duncan’s archive is now housed at the University of Exeter as part of their Special Collections hub for research into South West based writers. Please see our Ronald Duncan page for more details.
Full programme and ticketing details for EPF 2010 will be announced in June.
Ronald Tamplin at Exeter Poetry Festival
We’re delighted that one of Exeter’s most distinguished literary figures, Ronald Tamplin, will be appearing at Exeter Poetry Festival. We’ll also be publishing Checkpoint next month, a Chapbook of new poems by Ronald. Keep an eye on this site for news of the launch.
Ronald Tamplin was born in London, his father English, his mother Irish, educated there at the same school as Johnny Dankworth though sometime after, and then at Oxford. From there to teaching English Literature at universities in New Zealand, France, and Turkey, but mostly at the University of Exeter. His academic books include studies of TS Eliot and Seamus Heaney and Rhythm and Rhyme, a study of verse method. He has also edited an anthology of love letters, not his own, and The Arts: A History of Expression in the Twentieth Century. Both these books have been translated into a number of languages. His poems and translations have appeared widely in magazines and collections, mainly in England, but also in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Turkey, the United States and in two chapbooks, Vivaldi and Trouble in Mind. He has won a number of awards and is a Trustee of The Charles Causley Trust.
The Checkpoint poems are characteristic of much of his work. Poetry he feels is not a casual art. ‘When you do not know how to say it, that is the moment the poem must come. It will bring into play the resources of music and of painting – structures of sound and colour, communication certainly but heightened beyond a mere passage of words. Nor is it a single voice but an interweaving of many voices, many images, “a web of disparates … holding all possibilities in tension”.
Exeter Poetry Festival 