PROGRAMME 2018
Event: Launch of PLAY anthology
Date: Monday 1st October
Time: 19.30
Price: Free
Venue: City Gate Hotel, Iron Bridge, Exeter, EX4 3RB
Map: Location
In place of the usual Festival edition of The Broadsheet, Simon Williams and Susan Taylor will be hosting a pre-launch reading of poems from a new anthology of poetry about play, a labour of love to commemorate their grandson Reuben and to raise money for a new play area on Vire Island in Totnes. There will be readings by contributors, projected images from the book and the opportunity to pre-order copies.
Event: The Alex Cluness Memorial Reading
With: Fiona Benson, Ann Gray, David Woolley and Alasdair Paterson
Date: Thursday 4th October 2018
Time: 19.30
Price: £3 (£2 concessions)
Tickets: Exeter Phoenix Box Office or on the door
Venue: City Gate Hotel, Iron Bridge, Exeter, EX4 3RB
Map: Location
Alex Cluness, who died earlier this year at the age of 49, was a poet and arts administrator who was a driving force behind the establishment of the Exeter Poetry Festival. We are pleased to offer this tribute event on National Poetry Day.
The evening will feature readings from Fiona Benson and Ann Gray, with contributions from other South West poets who knew Alex: David Woolley, and Alasdair Paterson. Some of Alex’s poetry will also be read. Prices are lowered for this event because of financial assistance from Literature Works, for whom Alex once worked.
Event: Matt Harvey and Kimwei McCarthy
Date: Friday 5th October 2018
Time: 19.30
Price: £6 (£5 concessions)
Tickets: Exeter Phoenix Box Office or on the door
Venue: Exeter Community Centre, 17 St Davids Hill, Exeter EX4 3RG
Map: Location
With book titles such as ‘Where Earwigs Dare’, ‘Mindless Body Spineless Mind’ and ‘The Element In The Room’ Matt Harvey has built a national reputation as a poet and performer, at once charismatic, hilarious and profound; he has been, in his time, Official Wimbledon Championship Poet, presenter of Radio 4’s Wondermentalist and ecological columnist.
Kimwei McCarthy is this year’s Bard of Exeter. As well as a writer and performer of beguiling poetry, she is a formidably accomplished musician and singer-songwriter with a long involvement in the Exeter performance and spoken word scene.
Event: Afternoon Workshop with Anthony Wilson
Date: Saturday 6th October 2018
Time: 14.00-16.00
Price: £20 (limited to 12)
Tickets: Exeter Phoenix Box Office
Venue: City Gate Hotel, Iron Bridge, Exeter, EX4 3RB
Map: Location
Poet, teacher and blogger Anthony Wilson has had several collections of poetry published, with another imminent from Worple Press. He is co-editor of the Bloomsbury titles ‘Making Poetry Matter’ and ‘Making Poetry Happen’, and editor of the acclaimed Bloodaxe anthology ‘Lifesaving Poems’. Intriguingly, he has chosen ‘work’ as the theme of today’s workshop.
Event: Family Workshop with Jan Dean
Date: Saturday 6th October 2018
Time: 11.00-16.00
Price: Free
Venue: Exeter Library, Castle Street, Exeter EX4 3PQ
Map: Location
‘Poetry as you Pass’ Stop by and look for hidden poems. Find fabulous words and fit them together. Join Jan Dean to search for poems that are just waiting to be discovered.
Event: Jacqueline Saphra and Melanie Branton with Michelle Madsen
Date: Saturday 6th October 2018
Time: 19.30
Price: £6 (£5 concessions)
Tickets: Exeter Phoenix Box Office or on the door
Venue: Exeter Phoenix Dance Studio, Gandy St, Exeter EX4 3LS
Map: Location
Jacqueline Saphra’s collection from Nine Arches Press, ‘All My Mad Mothers’, was shortlisted for the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize and in the same year ‘A Bargain with the Light: Poems after Lee Miller’ was published by Hercules Editions. She lives in London and teaches at The Poetry School.
Melanie Branton’s first collection of poetry is ‘My Cloth-Eared Heart’ (Oversteps Books, 2017); her second will be published by Burning Eye in late 2018. Her full-length poetry show has been showcased at the Edinburgh Fringe and she represented Bristol at the Superheroes of Slam 2017 national finals.
Michelle Madsen is a poet, theatre maker, activist and investigative journalist. From giant salad tosses to interpretive haiku to compulsive mountaineering, Michelle’s work uses the absurd, the unexpected and the subversive to question power, privilege and the structures we live by.
Event: Morning Workshop with Michelle Madsen
Date: Sunday 7th October 2018
Time: 10.15-12.30
Price: £20 (limited to 12)
Tickets: Exeter Phoenix Box Office
Venue: City Gate Hotel, Iron Bridge, Exeter, EX4 3RB
Map: Location
A spoken word workshop with the host of Hammer and Tongue Slam Nights in Camden. Michelle Madsen is a poet, theatre maker, activist and investigative journalist. From giant salad tosses to interpretive haiku to compulsive moutaineering, Michelle’s work uses the absurd, the unexpected and the subversive to question power, privilege and the structures we live by. Michelle is a member of Poetry on the Picket Line, BP or Not BP and has appeared on BBC1 and BBC Radio 4, Resonance FM and NTS Radio.
Event: South-West Poetry Writing Groups
With: Company of Poets, Poetry Teignmouth, Moor Poets and Fire River Poets
Date: Sunday 7th October 2018
Time: 14.00
Price: Free
Venue: City Gate Hotel, Iron Bridge, Exeter, EX4 3RB
Map: Location
Members of Company of Poets, Poetry Teignmouth, Moor Poets and Fire River Poets will be reading some of their recent work and demonstrating the range and accomplished strength of the South West poetry scene.
Event: Exeter Slam
Date: Sunday 7th October 2018
Time: 19.30
Price: £8 (£6 concessions)
Tickets: Exeter Phoenix Box Office or on the door
Venue: Exeter Phoenix Main Auditorium, Gandy St, Exeter EX4 3LS
Map: Location
The prestigious annual Festival Slam will be staged this year in a new venue but to the traditional formula. Tim King and Samantha Boarer will introduce a clutch of 12 duelling slammers who will perform to an enthusiastic audience and an expert panel of judges, in pursuit of a £75 cash prize and the chance to headline at Taking the Mic. Prepare to be amazed.
Exeter Poetry Festival 