Uncut Poets with Damian Furniss at Exeter Phoenix on Thursday 30th June 2016 at 7.30pm

June’s Uncut Poets features Damian Furniss, who will be reading from his recent Shearsman collection ‘The Best Of All Possible Worlds’ – an ambitious project that offers a poem for every year of the past century. Those who admired ‘Chocolate Che’, Damian’s previous collection, will recognise a characteristic mixture of the sardonic, the compassionate and the innovative.

The usual hosts, Liz Adams and Alasdair Paterson, will be navigating the evening through the Phoenix’s shape-shifting black hole still known as the Workshop. 10 open mic spots of 5 minutes each are available on a first come, first served basis, and can be booked by contacting Alasdair on FB, by email at a.t.paterson@exeter.ac.uk or by mobile on 07783 734523. When they’re gone they’re gone – even in a black hole. Bar and toilets readily available. Admission £5 (£3 open mic and concessions). See you soon!

Uncut Poets at the Exeter Phoenix Black Box on Thursday March 26th 2015 with Josephine Corcoran

March’s Uncut welcomes as guest Josephine Corcoran, whose ‘The misplaced house’ was published towards the end of 2014 by the ever-discerning tall-lighthouse. Josephine also writes a stimulating blog and maintains an online poetry site, a showcase for contemporary poetry called ‘And other poems’.

Liz Adams and Alasdair Paterson will be presenting the evening as usual, and 10 open mic slots of 5 minutes each are available by application to Liz on 07887 600831. When they’re gone they’re gone! Starting in the Black Box of Exeter Phoenix at 7.30 pm. Admission: £5 (£3 concessions and open mic). Bar: definitely.

Steve Spence reading from ‘Maelstrom Origami’ at Uncut Poets, Exeter Phoenix, on Thursday 26th February 2015 at 19.30

he February edition of Uncut Poets features as guest poet Steve Spence, master of the startling juxtaposition and the unexpected sidestep. Steve will be reading from his latest book from Shearsman, Maelstrom Origami, moving deeper in the oddness of contemporary culture while never discounting the appearance of a pirate or two.

The evening, in the Phoenix Black Box at 7.30pm on 26th February, will be presented by Liz Adams and Alasdair Paterson. There is also space for 10 open mic slots of 5 minutes each, and these can be booked by phoning Liz on 07887 600831. Admission is £5 (£3 open mic and concessions).

Uncut Poets at Exeter Phoenix on September 25th at 7.30pm with Andy Brown and Lynne Wycherley

Uncut Poets returns from its summer on the beach with a vintage programme that will also get you nicely limbered up for the mighty Exeter Poetry Festival, due to start the following week.

Our guest poets will be giving an Uncut launch to their recently published collections.

Andy Brown‘s Exurbia, from the increasingly impressive Worple Press, showcases a characteristic adventurousness with form and expression, with themes from the urban fringe and beyond.

Lynne Wycherley‘s latest collection from Shoestring Press is Listening to Light: New and Selected Poems, full of emotional light and shade and landscapes on the brink of the visionary.

The evening at Exeter Phoenix is presented by the old firm of Liz Adams and Alasdair Paterson. Ten open mic spots of 5 minutes each are available, and can be booked by phoning Liz on 07887 600831. Admission in £5 (£3 open mic and concessions). Get the latest Festival and competition news. Get a drink! See you there. Starting at 7.30pm.

Uncut Poets, 26th June, Exeter Phoenix, 7.30pm with Jackie Juno, Jane Holland

The June Uncut welcomes as guest poets Jackie Juno and Jane Holland. Jackie has long been a force in Devon poetry, equally capable of the serious, the politically committed and the outrageously funny, of weirdness and wisdom. She is a former Grand Bard of Exeter. Jane now lives in the Bodmin Moor area and her acclaimed Salt publications include Boudicca and Co and Camper Van Blues; she also writes historical fiction under the name of Victoria Lamb.

The evening will be presented as usual by Alasdair Paterson and Liz Adams, and there is room for 10 open mic spots of 5 minutes each. To book one, contact Liz on 07887 600831

Admission £5 (open mic and concessions £3). The bar will be open. See you there!

Kenny Knight and Robert Garnham at Uncut Poets, Exeter Phoenix, Thursday 29th May, 7.30pm.

King Kenny

Uncut Poets is proud (and a little bemused) to find itself presenting the most dynamic pairing of guests since the unhinged soirees of Dada (those were the days) or the golden years of the Batley Hippodrome (1923-1928, since you ask). Kenny Knight, celebrant of sheds, local characters, family oddities and yesterday’s music will be reading from his hit collection “The Honicknowle Book of the Dead” and pushing the boundaries still further with selections from his developing combination of Brautigan and Stevenson, ‘Trout Fishing on Treasure Island’. Robert Garnham is Master of the Revels at Poetry Island, responsible for turning those Blue Walnut Cafe performance evenings into a hotbed of surrealist laughter and poems about men called Simon. His printed collections, coming soon to a table in The Black Box, include ‘Year of the Cassowary’.

The evening wil be presented by Liz Adams and Alasdair Paterson, and there will be 10 open mic slots. To book one, or get a foothold on the very short reserve list, please call Liz on 07887 600831. The evening begins at 7.30pm, the bar will be open, and something outrageous is quite likely to happen.

Harry Guest at Uncut Poets, Exeter Phoenix, Thursday 24th April 2014, 7.30pm

Uncut Poets welcomes as its guest for April none other than Harry Guest, poet, novelist, translator and editor. Harry’s work first found a wide audience as part of the original Penguin Modern Poets series (no. 16) and he has built a long (forty years plus) relationship with Anvil Books, who published his Collected Poems (A Puzzling Harvest) in 2002 and most recently Some Times in 2010. Harry is a much-loved figure in South West poetry and a perennially welcome visitor to Uncut; his readings are models of clarity, gentle humour and (just enough) exposition.

The evening, in Exeter Phoenix’s Black Box from 7.30pm, will be presented by Alasdair Paterson and Gemma Green. 5 minute open mic spots (up to 10) are available and can be booked through Gemma Green at 07855 809394. Admission is £5 (£3 open mic and concessions). There’s also a bar for those who like that kind of thing. Hope to see you there!

Uncut Poets: Rose Cook and Richard Thomas on Thursday March 27th at 7.30pm in the Exeter Phoenix Black Box

Our next Uncut Poets meets the Spring in the sylvan confinement of Exeter Phoenix’s Black Box, festooned with guest poets and guest presenters. We welcome Rose Cook and Richard Thomas, whose most recent publications both come from the exotic-sounding Cultured Llama Press, located among the Inca ruins of Kent. Rose’s ‘Notes from a bright field’ finds its themes in the natural world, in everyday beauty, the experience of loss and what we talk about when we talk about the spiritual. ‘The strangest thankyou’ is Richard’s first collection and showcases his distinctive linguistic playfulness and deployment of the surreal to undercut or overhaul our perceptions of the mundane.

Since Alasdair Paterson and Gemma Green are rather skittishly taking the month off, we’re pleased to welcome two guest presenters, by no means unknown to Uncut regulars, in the forms of Ian Chamberlain and Liz Adams. There will be the usual 10 open mic slots, and Gemma Green will be accepting bookings for these via her mobile at 07855 809394. Book early – they soon go! Admission is as usual £5 (£3 open mic and concessions).

Uncut Poets: Julie Sampson and Alwyn Marriage on Thursday January 30th at 7.30pm in the Exeter Phoenix Black Box

Springing from their winter torpor, the management of Uncut Poets are looking forward to throwing open the doors of the Black Box and discovering what colour it’s going to be this year. Our guests on January 30th will be Julie Sampson, whose first collection ‘Tessitura’ has just come out from Shearsman, and Alwyn Marriage, whose ‘festo’ is the latest of her several widely-admired books. Julie, who grew up in mid-Devon, now lives in Taunton; as well as writing poetry, she has researched and published on Devon women writers and the imagist poet HD. Alwyn is Managing Editor of Oversteps Books; last year she was Poet in Residence at the Winchester 10 Day Festival,
and took part in the prestigious post-AGM reading at the Poetry Society.

Alasdair Paterson and Gemma Green continue as hosts/ keepers of the peace. There will be the usual number of Open Mic spots, one of which can be reserved (if you’re quick) by contacting Gemma on 07855 809394. Admission is £5 (£3 concessions and open mic). There’s a bar, I believe.

Uncut Poets, Exeter Phoenix, 26th September at 7.30pm – Alex MacDonald

Uncut Poets, Exeter Phoenix, Thursday 26th September at 7.30pm with Alex MacDonald

Refreshed after the August break and in training for the extravaganza of the Exeter Poetry Festival in the following week, Uncut Poets is back with a flourish of dactyls and dithyrambs. Our guest this month is Alex MacDonald, poet, blogger and organiser of the Selected Poems reading series at the V&A. Expect a lively, provocative and wide-ranging set.

The evening, organised by Alasdair Paterson and Gemma Green in the legendary Black Box, offers the usual ten open mic slots at 5 minutes apiece; while stocks last, these can be booked via Gemma at 07855 809394. Admission is £5 (£3 concessions and open mic performers).