Blog Archives
Exeter Poetry Festival Programme 2014
Tickets for events can be purchased:
– Online, using the links below or by browsing upcoming events
– By phone, 01392 667080
– In person in advance from Exeter Phoenix Box Office, Gandy Street, Exeter,
– In person at the venue on the night
Guidance on using the box office to purchase tickets.
Quick links to event ticket purchase:
– 01/10 ‘The Retold Ramayana’ at Exeter University with Daljit Nagra
– 04/10 ‘The Forgotten of World War One’ at Exeter Central Library
– 04/10 Fiona Benson and Carrie Etter at Exeter Central Library
– 05/10 Workshop with Carrie Etter at Exeter Central Library
Monday 29th September
Simon Williams and Susan Taylor
Venue: City Gate Hotel, Cellar bar, Exeter
Time: 7.30pm
Tickets: FREE
After great success last year, we again kick-start the Festival with the launch of a collector’s edition of The Broadsheet, featuring poems from Festival guests alongside work from some of the most talented poets resident in the South West
Tuesday 30th September
NEXT GENERATION
Venue: Queen’s Building, Exeter University, Prince of Wales Road, EX4 45B
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Tickets: Donations to Festival appreciated
Four of Exeter University’s brightest lights read for us as a poetic prelude to the Festival’s signature lecture…
BEYOND BORDERS:
With Víctor Rodríguez Núñez, Harry Guest and Martin Sorrell
Venue: Old Library, Exeter University
Time: 7.30pm – 9pm
For one night only we’re lucky to bring together experts in poetry translation to read their work and discuss the joys and challenges of translation in practice. Introduced and facilitated by Dr. Andy Brown, Director of the Centre for Creative Writing at Exeter University, we bring you multi-award winning Cuban poet Víctor Rodríguez Núñez; poet, editor and specialist in Japanese and French translation, Harry Guest; and esteemed academic, BBC playwright and translator Martin Sorrell, for a stimulating and multi-cultural evening of readings and debate.
Wednesday 1st October
With Daljit Nagra
Venue: Roborough Studios, Exeter University, Prince of Wales Road, EX4 45B
Time: 7pm – 9pm A two hour performance including interval.
Tickets: £12 / Students £8 /children 11+ £6
We are thrilled to have the critically acclaimed Daljit Nagra amongst our line up this year, for a visually stunning retelling of the Ramayana.
Daljt’s technicolour and multi-cultural version of the tale follows Rama’s quest to rescue his wife Sita from her abduction by Raavana, Lord of the Underworld.
Ahead of the event (6pm – 6:30pm) is a free lecture by Dr. Jerri Daboo, Senior Lecturer in Drama at Exeter University: “Exiling heroes and burning demons: examining two productions of ‘The Ramayana’ in Britain”.
Thursday 2nd October
With Gillian Clarke and Adam Horovitz
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 7pm – 9pm
The Festival’s signature reading this year brings National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke and upcoming poet and performer Adam Horovitz, described by Carol Ann Duffy as ‘the real deal’ to the Exeter stage.
Friday 3rd October
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 7pm – 9pm
Tickets are now SOLD OUT! For other events at Exeter Poetry Festival, 30th September to 5th October, buy your tickets here.
Critically acclaimed rapper and spoken word artist Kate Tempest comes to Exeter for one night only.
Her epic narrative poem Brand New Ancients won the Ted Hughes Prize and she has just completed a sell out run in the UK and New York. Everybody Down, her debut solo album, came out earlier this year on Big Dada Records, also to vast acclaim. Her first full collection, ‘Hold Your Own’, will be published by Picador on October 9th 2014. Early booking advised.
Saturday 4th October – Daytime
THE FORGOTTEN OF WW1
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 1pm – 5pm
The Untold story of Ivor Gurney
A special screening of Redcliffe Film’s widely praised biopic of Ivor Gurney, the WW1 soldier, poet and composer.
Women Poets of WW1
Some well known female writers based in Devon and Cornwall read and respond to poems written by women living and working during the Great War including Charlotte Mew and May Sinclair. With Ann Gray, Rachel McCarthy, Helen Evans and Chrissy Banks.
FREE EVENT – Voices and Memory
Time: 3.30pm – 5pm
ExLibris launches a pamphlet of poems based on WW1 objects held in Exeter Library’s archive.
Saturday 4th October – Evening
THE RONALD DUNCAN READING
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 7pm – 9pm
Our final reading brings Fiona Benson, fresh from reading at the Forward Prize for Best First Collection for her widely acclaimed Bright Travellers, together with American poet Carrie Etter, whose latest work, Imagined Sons, was described by Bernard O’Donoghue as simply “of the utmost importance.”
Sunday 5th October – Daytime
WORKSHOP : CARRIE ETTER – Adventures in Prose Poetry
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 11am – 1pm
Join award-winning poet and lecturer Carrie Etter to delve into the intricacies of the prose poem. For both those new to and those familiar with the form, this workshop offers fresh adventures in prose poetry, in reading and discussing wonderful works as well as composing our own.
Sunday 5th October – Daytime
Venue: Bikeshed Theatre
Time: 7.30pm –
To apply to take part, please email: slam@speakinsong.co.uk
15 contestants, 3 rounds, 1 winner, much kudos.
There will be a prize of £50 cash and a further £50 paid slot at Spokes Amaze! for the winner.
Judges for the event are last year’s winner, Saskia Tomlinson, current Bard of Exeter Daniel Haynes and celebrated local poet Graham Burchell.
Gillian Clarke on Radio 4 and at Exeter Poetry Festival On National Poetry Day, Thursday 2nd October 2014
Twenty one years ago, four relatively unknown poets spoke with Peggy Reynolds for BBC Radio 4 about the impact of gender and nationality on their poetry and on their sense of themselves as poets.
Today, Carol Ann Duffy is the first-ever Poet Laureate, Gillian Clarke is the National Poet of Wales, Liz Lochhead is the Makar or National Poet of Scotland, and Eavan Boland is a highly distinguished scholar-poet who divides her year between Stanford and Dublin.
In the light of these developments – not to mention the constitutional changes and wild economic fluctuations of the last 21 years – Peggy Reynolds speaks with each of them again, asking them to reflect on their creative and professional journeys and on the state of women’s poetry – and poetry in general – today.
Finally, she asks them to cast forward and predict what they might say if there were a similar programme in 21 years time. Their replies surprise her.
Thursday 2nd October
With Gillian Clarke and Adam Horovitz
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 7pm – 9pm
The Festival’s signature reading this year brings National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke and upcoming poet and performer Adam Horovitz, described by Carol Ann Duffy as ‘the real deal’ to the Exeter stage.
Good luck to Fiona Benson, shortlisted for the Forward Prize for First Collection awarded 30th September, reading at Exeter Poetry Festival 4th October 2014
Saturday 4th October – Evening
THE RONALD DUNCAN READING
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 7pm – 9pm
Our final reading brings Fiona Benson, fresh from reading at the Forward Prize for Best First Collection for her widely acclaimed Bright Travellers, together with American poet Carrie Etter, whose latest work, Imagined Sons, was described by Bernard O’Donoghue as simply “of the utmost importance.”
Contemporary women poets read from and respond to the women poets of World War One on Saturday 4th October at Exeter Central Library
Saturday 4th October – Daytime
THE FORGOTTEN OF WW1
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 1pm – 5pm
The Untold story of Ivor Gurney
A special screening of Redcliffe Film’s widely praised biopic of Ivor Gurney, the WW1 soldier, poet and composer.
Women Poets of WW1
Some well known female writers based in Devon and Cornwall read and respond to poems written by women living and working during the Great War including Charlotte Mew and May Sinclair. With Ann Gray, Rachel McCarthy, Helen Evans and Chrissy Banks.
FREE EVENT – Voices and Memory
Time: 3.30pm – 5pm
ExLibris launches a pamphlet of poems based on WW1 objects held in Exeter Library’s archive.
Congratulations to Exeter Poetry Festival 2014 competition winners
The winners of the Exeter Poetry Festival 2014 competition are:
Drawing Lesson by Barbara Farley
Lusitania Riots, 1915 by Rebecca Gethin
The Cahills by Graham Burchell
Tunnellers and Moles by Clare Hepworth-Wain
A Village War Memorial by Mark Haworth-Booth
Great Uncle Frank by Sarah E Robinson
Unheard by Ian Royce Chamberlain
Greatcoat by Lucy Lepchani
Shades by Simon Williams
An Awfully Big Adventure by Helen Ashley
‘After great suffering sweet rest at last’ by Rosie Barrett
From the Front 1914 by Julie M Harris
Winter Pink by Suzy Miles
Stuck by Denise McSheehy
The poems will appear in ‘Voices and Memory’ along with poems and illustrations from students of Years 9 to 13 at Stover School Newton Abbot.
The pamphlet will be launched on Saturday 4th October 2014 at Exeter Central Library as the culmination of our ‘The Forgotten of WW1’ day.
Saturday 4th October – Daytime
THE FORGOTTEN OF WW1
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 1pm – 5pm
The Untold story of Ivor Gurney
A special screening of Redcliffe Film’s widely praised biopic of Ivor Gurney, the WW1 soldier, poet and composer.
Women Poets of WW1
Some well known female writers based in Devon and Cornwall read and respond to poems written by women living and working during the Great War including Charlotte Mew and May Sinclair. With Ann Gray, Rachel McCarthy, Helen Evans and Chrissy Banks.
FREE EVENT – Voices and Memory
Time: 3.30pm – 5pm
ExLibris launches a pamphlet of poems based on WW1 objects held in Exeter Library’s archive.
Carrie Etter reading at Exeter Central Library on Saturday 4th October 2014
American poet Carrie Etter has lived in England since 2001 and taught creative writing at Bath Spa University since 2004. She has published three collections of poetry: The Tethers (Seren, 2009), winner of the London New Poetry Prize, Divining for Starters (Shearsman, 2011) and Imagined Sons (Seren, 2014); she also edited the anthology Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets (Shearsman, 2010). Individual poems have appeared in Boston Review, The New Republic, The New Statesman, Poetry Review, The Times Literary Supplement, and many other journals worldwide. She also reviews contemporary poetry, most recently for The Guardian and Warwick Review. As Bernard O’Donoghue wrote of her latest collection, “This quite extraordinary book by a writer of great imagistic power and skill leaves a mark on the reader which is ineradicable. These are poems of the utmost importance.”
Steve Spence: “Carrie Etter’s Imagined Sons may well turn out to be my poetry book of 2014. It comprises a series of scenarios where a mother who has given up her son when she was seventeen, imagined possible meetings at a later stage, envisaging alternative futures where their paths briefly cross again and recognition occurs or doesn’t. This is powerful writing of a higher order and the fact that Etter often utilises the dream-like processes of surrealism allied to the quality of classical myth, in a very modern setting, enhances the intensity of the work and packs a powerful punch into the bargain.”
Saturday 4th October – Evening
THE RONALD DUNCAN READING
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 7pm – 9pm
Our final reading brings Fiona Benson, fresh from reading at the Forward Prize for Best First Collection for her widely acclaimed Bright Travellers, together with American poet Carrie Etter, whose latest work, Imagined Sons, was described by Bernard O’Donoghue as simply “of the utmost importance.”
Sunday 5th October
WORKSHOP : CARRIE ETTER – Adventures in Prose Poetry
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 11am – 1pm
Join award-winning poet and lecturer Carrie Etter to delve into the intricacies of the prose poem. For both those new to and those familiar with the form, this workshop offers fresh adventures in prose poetry, in reading and discussing wonderful works as well as composing our own.
Fiona Benson reading at Exeter Central Library on Saturday 4th October 2014
Fiona Benson completed an MLitt in Creative Writing at St Andrews University in 2003 and received an Eric Gregory Award in 2006. Her pamphlet was published as part of the Faber New Poets series in 2009, and her first full-length collection Bright Travellers was published by Cape in May of this year. Bright Travellers is shortlisted for the Forward Felix Dennis Prize for first collection and for the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. She lives near Exeter with her husband James Meredith and their daughters, Isla and Rose.
Almond Blossom
This morning, love, I’m tired and grave.
I can barely hear the wintered bird’s small song
over the hum of the central heating.
It’s hard to believe,
but spring will be a green havoc
as the trees burst their slums
and the dirt breaks open to admit
crocus-spear and cyclamen;
and though you can’t yet feel it
earth’s already begun
her slow incline, inch by ruined inch,
easing you back from the brink.
Saturday 4th October – Evening
THE RONALD DUNCAN READING
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 7pm – 9pm
Our final reading brings Fiona Benson, fresh from reading at theForward Prize for Best First Collection for her widely acclaimed Bright Travellers, together with American poet Carrie Etter, whose latest work, Imagined Sons, was described by Bernard O’Donoghue as simply “of the utmost importance.”
Gillian Clarke, the Poet Laureate for Wales, performing at Exeter Poetry Festival on National Poetry Day, 2nd October 2014
For the first time in history, all five UK and Irish poet laureates are women. WOW 2014 at the Southbank Centre brought Carol Ann Duffy, Liz Lochhead, Gillian Clarke, Paula Meehan, and Sinéad Morrissey together for a celebratory performance and their first joint reading. Here is Gillian Clarke’s reading, in anticipation of her appearance at Exeter Central Library on National Poetry Day as part of the Exeter Poetry Festival.
Thursday 2nd October
With Gillian Clarke and Adam Horovitz
Venue: Exeter Central Library
Time: 7pm – 9pm
The Festival’s signature reading this year brings National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke and upcoming poet and performer Adam Horovitz, described by Carol Ann Duffy as ‘the real deal’ to the Exeter stage.
Kate Tempest, shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize, at Exeter Poetry Festival Friday October 3rd 2014
The prodigiously talented Kate Tempest, one of the bookies’ favourites to win this year’s Mercury Music Prize, is performing at the Exeter Poetry Festival – Friday 3rd October, 7pm Exeter Central Library. Tickets are now SOLD OUT! For other events at Exeter Poetry Festival, 30th September to 5th October, buy your tickets here.
Modern day poet, spoken word artist, rapper and recording talent of extraordinary soul and grit, The Guardian described her as “One of the brightest British talents around” and The New York Times last year summed up her stage performance as “gorgeous streams of words . . . a story so vivid it’s as if you had a state-of-the-art Blu-Ray player stuffed in your brain . . .”
Her performance career started when she was 16 rapping on London night buses and open mic raves. In a decade she has amassed three plays and a novel and has established herself as a poet and recording artist extraordinaire. Her work includesBalance, her first musical release album with band Sound of Rum, Everything Speaks in its Own Way her first collection of poems, the critically acclaimed plays Wasted, Glasshouse and Hopelessly Devoted, and Brand New Ancients, her self-performed epic poem to a live score which won the Ted Hughes prize 2013 and the Herald Angel at Edinburgh Fringe.
After hearing the news of her nomination, Kate said: “I feel extremely excited, shocked and proud. In a way it’s a similar feeling [to winning the Ted Hughes prize] but it’s also different, because poetry is a different world. I used to watch the Mercury prize on the telly when I was 16, wondering when it would be my time, so this is really special.”
Kate’s most recent album Everybody Down was released in May 2014 on Big Dada records. Her new single, Circles, is out now.
Exeter Poetry Festival 