POETRY WEEKEND + COMEDY WITH LUKE WRIGHT, ELVIS MCGONAGALL, ESTHER MORGAN, CAROLINE BIRD AND MANY MORE
A fabulous weekend of poetry workshops, readings and performances at Sandy Hill Arts featuring Luke Wright, Elvis McGonagall, Caroline Bird, Esther Morgan and many more!
ALL READINGS ARE FREE WITH THE GENEROUS HELP OF T S ELIOT FOUNDATION, “OLD POSSUM’S PRACTICAL TRUST”
WORKSHOPS WITH CAROLINE BIRD AND ESTHER MORGAN ARE ONLY £10!
SATURDAY 31st AUGUST 11:30am – 10:30pm
11:30am – 12:20pm – “VOICELESS ISOLATION” exhibition, reading and Q&A
12:30pm – DORSET POETS
1:45 – 2:45pm – Caroline Bird poetry reading and Q and A session
3-5pm – Poetry workshop with Caroline Bird — £10 to attend
5:15pm – EMERGING POETS (from beyond Purbeck)
7:30-9:30pm – Saturday evening performance featuring Luke Wright and Elvis McGonagall — Tickets £15
SUNDAY 1st SEPTEMBER 12:00pm – 6:00pm
12-1pm – Esther Morgan poetry reading and Q and A session
1:20-3:20pm – Esther Morgan poetry workshop — £10 to attend
3:30-4pm Stephen Boyce reading
4-5pm Emerging Poets from Dorset
5-6pm Music Open Mic and a Bar open until 6pm
All events are free to attend apart from those indicated above. Booking advised.
FOOD & BAR OPEN ALL WEEKEND!
SATURDAY 31st AUGUST
11:30 “VOICELESS ISOLATION” exhibition, reading and Q&A
This exhibition takes its title from a book of poems by Anne Murphy which documents Anne’s response to her own grief at the loss of family members, in particular her mother. Anne’s brother, local artist Tony Kerins, drew their mother in her last days and months. The result is a moving and memorable exhibition.
Anne Murphy and Tony Kerins will introduce the exhibition and reading in Room 14, with Q&A to follow
12:30 DORSET POETS
Come and listen to a quartet of brilliant, published poets from Dorset tackle the big themes of their, and often our own, lives.
Kate Scott’s collection, Stitches, was published by Peterloo and her chapbook, Escaping the Cage, by HappenStance. Other poems and short fiction have been broadcast on Radio 4 and in the US and published in literary magazines and anthologies. She is also an award-winning author of 37 children’s books, and a children’s TV head writer, scriptwriter and story-editor. Her plays have been performed at fringe venues in Salisbury and London.
Pam Zinnemann-Hope is a children’s author, playwright, and poet. ‘On Cigarette Papers’, her first collection, was adapted by her for The Afternoon Play on Radio 4, in which she also acted. ‘Foothold’, her second collection, travels through the seasons and ecology in Thomas Hardy Territory, through deep time, music and love in old age. Some of the poems have been set by David Duberry & Peter Hope, & premiered by James Gilchrist and Lesley-Jane Rogers. Pam is an experienced poetry reader and tutor.
Catherine Simmonds is based in North Dorset and has a collection of poems about Dorothy and William Wordsworth’s time at Racedown Lodge in the Marshwood Vale (We Have Heard Ravens, Flagon Press); as well as poems reflecting on Thomas Hardy’s life and writing. She has just completed an MA in poetry with a collection Evenfall, her poems of the dusk.
Paul Hyland is the author of six travel books, including Purbeck: The Ingrained Island, Indian Balm and Backwards out of the Big World, the biography Raleigh’s Last Journey, The guide Getting into Poetry and six poetry titles including Art of the Impossible. Paul is an entertaining performer and broadcaster of his work.
1:45 CAROLINE BIRD
Poetry reading and Q&A session
A fantastic chance to hear this multi award winning poet read from a collection of their work!
3:00 POETRY WORKSHOP
With Caroline Bird — £10 to attend
The Dark Implications of a Silly Idea
In this workshop, we’ll be writing poems that swerve, poems that take a dark turn, poems that introduce themselves pleasantly then quickly start to freak you out; poems that take a seemingly silly idea and run with it till things get serious. It’ll be horrible and fun.
Do join Caroline Bird’s poetry workshop for only £10! Tickets on web. All levels.
Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to gain some poetic inspiration from Caroline Bird! Provided with help from the T S Eliot Foundation.
CAROLINE BIRD’S selected poems, Rookie (2022), and The Air Year (2020) are two of Carcanet’s most popular books of the present decade. She won the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2020, and has been shortlisted for a number of prizes including the TS Eliot Prize, the Costa Book Awards, the Ted Hughes Award, the Polari Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize.
A two-time winner of the Foyles Young Poets Award, her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes was published in 2002 when she was 15. She won a Cholmondeley Award in 2023. Her seventh collection, Ambush at Still Lake, was published in June 2024.
5:15 EMERGING POETS (from beyond Purbeck)
Come and listen to hugely talented emerging poets from East Devon and Stroud. More info to follow.
Lue Mac is a queer, rural writer from Swanage, now based in East Devon and beyond. Murmurations, a collaboration with the photographer Billy Barraclough, was published by Besides Press in 2021, and their poetry has appeared in many journals including Magma, Anthropocene, and Impossible Archetype. Lue is a regular performer on the open mic scene in the UK. They write about bodies, places, and the weird zones where they come together.
Rhian Thomas grew up in North Wales where poetry was hard to avoid. She now lives in Gloucestershire where she writes about the environment, the everyday and the petty politics of it all. Her work has been published by Planet and Honno, and she was shortlisted for the 2022 Laurie Lee Prize.
FOOD AND DRINK on site all day and evening … TIME FOR A DRINK AND SOMETHING TO EAT BEFORE…
7:30 Saturday evening double bill featuring
LUKE WRIGHT and ELVIS MCGONAGALL
Tickets £15 (see below)
Luke Wright
Whether he’s playing master of ceremonies at a Libertines show or reciting Georgian ballads down your local, Luke is adept at taking poetry places it doesn’t normally go. His poems can be tender, riotous, caustic and romantic and he delivers them with the ferocity and panache of a raconteur at the top of his game.
Celebrating 25 years on stages his latest show Luke Wright’s Silver Jubilee enjoyed a sold out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 before a sixty date UK tour with feature performances at Verve, Ledbury, Winchester and Nottingham Poetry Festivals. The Telegraph said “this his best thing he’s done, and that’s saying something,” and gave the show five stars. Luke’s new show JOY launches in the summer of 2024.
Luke’s work has a won a Fringe First, a 4Talent Award, a Stage Award and four Saboteur Awards, including the 2021 Best Spoken Word Performer. He was poet-in-residence for BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live for six years, and is a regular tour support for John Cooper Clarke.
“Breathtaking … with a sharpness and wisdom that lifts the soul, and soothes the battered heart.” The Scotsman
Elvis McGonagall
Stand-up poet, comedian and broadcaster, armchair revolutionary and walking shortbread tin, Elvis McGonagall resides at The Graceland Caravan Park somewhere in the back of beyond where he scribbles satirical verse whilst drinking malt whisky and listening to
Johnny Cash.
Two series of his sitcom “Elvis McGonagall Takes A Look On The Bright Side” have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 where he appears regularly, most recently on “Radio 4’s “Loose Ends” and on “Stand-Up Specials: Full Tartan Jacket” which was the featured Radio 4 “Comedy of the Week” podcast as well as the documentary “My Name Is Elvis” which featured on Radio 4’s “Pick of the Week”. Elvis also pops up occasionally on the telly.
Elvis is the 2006 World Slam Champion, the compere of the Blue Suede Sporran Club and performs at comedy, literary and music festivals, arts centres, cabaret clubs, pubs and dodgy dives up and down the country and abro
SUNDAY 1st SEPTEMBER
12:00 ESTHER MORGAN
Poetry reading and Q&A session
A wonderful opportunity to hear this award winning poet read from their work FREE
1:20 – 3:20 ESTHER MORGAN
Poetry workshop, all levels — £10 to attend
Esther Morgan will be running a workshop from 1:20 to 3:20
A rare and wonderful chance to learn the craft of poetry with this inspiring poet. All levels, not to be missed! Only £10 (with thanks to the T S Eliot Foundation grant).
Looking at the overlooked – in this workshop we’ll be paying attention to some of the humbler words in the English language like prepositions and conjunctions and seeing what poetic possibilities they hold. We’ll take an inventive approach to bring these small words alive.
ESTHER MORGAN’S four poetry collections are published by Bloodaxe Books. Her third, Grace, was shortlisted for the 2011 T. S. Eliot Prize. Born in 1970, she grew up in rural Worcestershire where she wandered off a lot into the fields and talked to the cows.
She began writing poetry seriously during a stint as a volunteer at the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere before arriving in Norwich to do an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Since then she’s been involved in the poetry world as an editor and teacher. She currently lives on the Norfolk/Suffolk border and works as Communications Manager for Norfolk Museums Service.
3:30 – 4:00 STEPHEN BOYCE reading
Stephen Boyce is a prize-winning poet and co-founder of Winchester Poetry Festival. His most recent collection is The Blue Tree (Indigo Dreams 2019), described by Philip Gross as ‘a seamless weave of thought, perception and emotion’. He has also published The Sisyphus Dog (Worple 2014), Desire Lines (Arrowhead 2010), and three pamphlet collections, most recently The Unforgiving Knot (Marlott 2020). Stephen lives in the Blackmore Vale, north Dorset. stephenboycepoetry.com
4:00 DORSET POETS (established and emerging)
Hear a selection of published and emerging poets with links to Dorset. Have a drink, sit back and let the words seep through you! Followed by Open Mic and music until 6pm.
Amanda Griffin — I was born last century and only started writing poetry this century – it took a global pandemic to tempt me. During lockdown I hung poetry on a tree I called the POETREE and encouraged my neighbours to do so also. I don’t like to describe myself as a poet rather someone who writes poetry. I was long listed for one of my poems in a competition in 2021 and they published a book – this has encouraged me to keep going!
Tim Cumming has published 10 collections, ranging from 1991’s The Miniature Estate with Smith/Doorstop through 1999’s Apocalypso with Stride to The Rapture (Salt, 2011), Rebel Angels in the Mind Shop (2015), and Knuckle (2019), which were published by Pitt Street Poetry in Sydney, Australia. Blueprint Poetry published his pamphlet Adventures Among the Living in 2022. His work has appeared in Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry, the W. S. Graham anthology The Caught Habits of Language, and Bloodaxe Books’ anthology of poetry from Ireland and the British Isles, Identity Parade. In 2007, he made the BBC documentary Hawkwind: Do Not Panic.
Martin Hobdell grew up in North London and taught in a couple of local schools and colleges. He met his wife in 1989 and then moved to Broxbourne in 1992. After a near fatal road accident in 1998, they decided to fulfil their dream of moving to Swanage, which they did in 2005. Since then Martin has belonged to a couple of poetry groups and has increasingly performed comedy poetry at local venues.
Jo Tatchel I grew up in Purbeck and returned to bring up my family here. In my younger days I wrote everyday when travelling and more recently have wandered down the poetry path to express views and emotions.
Last year I had the privilege of writing a version of Romeo & Juliet – Eddie & Ellie – around a framework of songs for the local Allsort’d choir, which was a great success! I am an active member of two local poetry groups and have also contributed to other community projects including the SW!M productions.
And more to be confirmed asap. Keep looking at this webpage!
Music, poetry open mic and bar until 6pm
Please bring a blanket or dress warmly, as seating will be in an open marquee. Accessible parking is available on-site only. To reserve a space, please email info@sandyhillarts.co.uk. There are a number of parking options in the village all within easy walking distance of Sandy Hill Arts.
The Sandy Hill Arts Poetry Weekend is made possible with the support of the T.S. Eliot Foundation’s grant – “Old Possum’s Practical Trust.”
