New Poetry Reads 2019

Changing up from the fiction world into my favourite world: Poetry.

Poetry is my passion. Since uni, sitting in Tim Liardet and Carrie Etter's lessons, I've been secretly enthralled. They instilled a form of writing within me that hasn't vanished; it's blossomed. It's the truest form of expression. 

What I have on my classroom wall:

"I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose is words in their best order; poetry is the best words in their best order."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1827

In my NQT year, I started the Bradfield Poetry Series and realised that the experience from being head of organising speaker events for the Society of Young Publishers meant that organising events at school was a breeze and I enjoyed it. We started hosting poets in the series in June 2018 with none other than Mary Jean Chan. Her recent success is obvious to anyone in the poetry circuit. In the new academic year (18/19), the poetry series starting flying. 

Next up was Azfa Awad, a suggestion by Kate Clanchy, who was taught in an Oxford school after leaving Somalia for Scotland when she was a young girl. She has just released her new pamphlet, Scars Shaped Like Hope. She was incredibly raw and her performance was touching. The second reading in the series was followed by an Ignition Press evening with Belinda Zhawi and Lily Blacksell who were launching their new poetry pamphlets. The pupils connected with their personable characters - the series was starting to take shape. The third reading was with the wonderful Carrie Etter, an inspirational poet and lecturer from Bath Spa University. I'm hoping she left my pupils with what she left me: how great poetry is. Finally, we had Joanna Ingham and Natalie Whittaker. I met Natalie in Italy on the edge of Lake Orta for Poetry on the Lake. during the Exeat weekend of September 2018. A solo holiday to my favourite country to read my poetry for the first time. It was magical, and Natalie's reading was, too. I knew our pupils would love her. Jo and Natalie have both published their new pamphlets with Ingition Press (like Belinda and Lily) and it was a joy to have them read. The pupils loved all of the readings and by buying their books/pamphlets at the end of the readings shows how much of an impression they made.

I know that was a lot of poetry chat but over the last 2 years, I've thoroughly loved getting stuck into the poetry world again. Since Uni, I got lost in the world of publishing and realised that it wasn't for me (well, scientific publishing, anyway - I still don't really know what a polymer is...but my experience with the people in publishing was special and I did enjoy being editor for two magazines at the end - I felt a tiny bit important).

Moving on, I've recently read the following poetry books and I'm hoping one day they'll come to read at the Bradfield Poetry Series...I'm thinking of using my KIT days during Maternity Leave to plan a few readings and host them so the series doesn't get lost.

1. Fleche by Mary Jean Chan

2. Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

3. The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus

4. Alarum by Wayne Holloway Smith