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.

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.

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, Exeter Phoenix Black Box, Thursday 28th November at 7.30pm: Julie-Ann Rowell and Mark Totterdell

Uncut Poets, Exeter Phoenix Black Box, Thursday 28th November at 7.30pm: Julia-ann Rowell and Mark Totterdell

 A slightly early notification of the last Uncut of 2013 (since the last Thursday in December is Boxing Day and so a twilight zone and a no-go area). We’ll be exiting the year with a bang rather than a whimper, with our clever combination of guest poets. Julie-ann Rowell’s poetry, regularly available in print form (her most recent collections, Letters North and The Sun At Midnight, show her abiding interest in the complicated interactions of people and landscapes), has long been a favourite with Uncut audiences; she is also an accomplished writer of fiction and a teacher. Mark Totterdell’s increasingly assured and varied contributions to Uncut have been one of the pleasures of the last couple of years, and his guest spot is well-merited and eagerly anticipated. He is a recent prize-winner in the Barn Owl Trust poetry competition and won first prize in this year’s Fire River Poets poetry competition.

The evening will be presented as usual by Gemma Green and Alasdair Paterson. Those wishing to book one of our 5 minute open mic spots should make haste to contact Gemma on 07855 809394.

Missing us already? Uncut poets, Hallowe’en special, 7.30pm on Thursday 31st October 2013 at Exeter Phoenix with Diana Gittins and Jonathan Waley

Uncut poets

7.30pm on Thursday 31st October 2013

Exeter Phoenix

with Diana Gittins and Jonathan Waley

After the dazzling success of the Exeter Poetry Festival, the Uncut management are pleased to maintain the high standards set across Festival week with a guest reading from Jonathan Waley and Diana Gittins. Jonathan, whose translations of Chinese poetry are among the manifold delights of Shearsman Books publications, has been working on versions of Japanese haiku as well as his own poetry. Diana will be reading from her latest chapbook Bork, published by the award-winning Happenstance Press, after tantalising the Uncut audience with snatches of the poetry of poultry in recent times.

The usual opportunities for 5 minute open mic spots apply. These can be booked via Gemma Green, on 07855 809394. Gemma will co-present the evening with Alasdair Paterson, who will make no references at all to the fact that it will be Hallowe’en in the Black Box…

Admission £5 (£3 concessions and open mic).

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).