18 December 2021
Here is 14 poetry things to do today! See these events and more featured on the
Poetry News page.
1) (From Eventbrite email)
Online Open Mic! by Sidewalk Beirut
Every Sunday we gather on Zoom to share all forms of self-expression. You sign up when you log in by mentioning it to the host. Each performer has 5-7 minutes. We welcome all forms of art and all languages. The Zoom room opens at 8:15 PM (currently GMT+2 = Lebanon time) for sign-ups, and we kickoff the night around 8:30 PM.
Sunday 19 December 6:30 PM GMT
Sidewalk Beirut went online early 2020 due to the pandemic and since then has had attendees from all over the world. The Sidewalk online community has members from from the Netherlands, Denmark, Morocco, Switzerland, the UK, the US, Canada, Cyprus, Scotland, Pakistan and of course members from all over Lebanon. With every new event, we are meeting new poets and expanding. You are also more than welcomed to just attend and listen, there is never a pressure on anyone to perform and we value our listeners just as much as our performers.
Online Open Mic! Registration, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite
2) (From Nine Pens website)
Virtual launch of Yasmin Djoudi's pamphlet 'Vocation'
Sun, December 19, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM GMT
Online
Cost: Free
Join us for the launch of Yasmin Djoudi pamphlet 'Vocation' with special guest readings.from Stuart McPherson, Hannah Copley and Jem Henderson.
Are you travelling alone? Vocation explores a world pushing itself to the limit in the single-minded pursuit of a calling. Aeroplanes and taxis shuttle us between unexpected destinations: by the side of an airborne conspiracy theorist; a city centre with a knack for psychosexual confrontation; or bearing witness to a tropical plant’s delusions of grandeur. The external drifting of the pamphlet’s speakers is set at odds with their unrelenting internal drive for something more. Against the backdrop of a planet shrinking through over-connection, Vocation follows our attempts to outrun the emptying sands of the hourglass in a race towards some ever-shifting personal goal.
About The Poets:
Yasmin Djoudi works across poetry and performance. She lives in London. She is new to all of this.
Hannah Copley is a writer, editor and academic. She is the author of Speculum (Broken Sleep Books, October 21) and an editor at Stand magazine. Recent work has appeared in POETRY, The London Magazine, Bath Magg, Poetry Birmingham, Into the Void, Under the Radar and others. She won the 2019 Newcastle Poetry Prize and the 2018 York Literature Prize. Hannah is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Westminster.
Stuart McPherson is a poet from Leicester in the United Kingdom. His debut pamphlet ‘Pale Mnemonic’ was published in April 2021 by Legitimate Snack. The pamphlet ‘Water Bearer’ will be published in December 2021 by Broken Sleep Books. His work explores the relationship between the family, trauma, and fragile masculinity.
Jem Henderson is a queer poet from Leeds, UK with an MA in Creative Writing from York St. John University. They have been published in Civic Leicester's Black Lives Matter, Streetcake and recently won a Creative Future award for underrepresented writers. A book, Genderfux, including their work is due out in 2022 from Nine Pens. Their ramblings can be found on twitter @jem_face.
To book go to: Launch of 'Vocation' by Yasmin Djoudi - Nine Pens Press Tickets, Sun 19 Dec 2021 at 19:00 | Eventbrite
3) (From The Poetry Society newsletter)
COP26 and Poetry
Ten young poets spoke out against climate injustice and called for natural and humane solutions to the climate crisis in a live event on 6 November at the recent climate change conference COP26, which you can watch here.
“Where were you / when the seas / were warming?” A Young Poets Network showcase | #COP26 - YouTube
4) (From Seren Books newsletter)
Alternative Stories and Fake Realities Seren Books 40th Anniversary
In this edition we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Seren Books, the publisher from south Wales responsible for launching the careers of many poets and for putting out a series of memorable poetry collections including a few featured previously on Alt Stories.
In this podcast you can hear an interview with Seren’s outgoing poetry editor Amy Wack who leaves the press at the end of October 2021. She looks back at her time with Seren and the changes to the style and readership of poetry since she joined.
The presenter of this podcast is Nadia Wyn Abouayen and the readers from Alt Stories are Tiffany Clare and Chris Gregory.
See Seren Books 40th Anniversary (buzzsprout.com)
5) (From Modern Poetry in Translation email)
Roman Women Poets
We are delighted to present this new digital pamphlet, Romanian Women Poets, curated by Cătălina Stanislav with Sam Riviere, our two Writers in Residence for 2021.
This residency is generously supported by the European Cultural Foundation.
See ROMANIAN WOMEN POETS - Modern Poetry in Translation
6) (From The Guardian website)
A Pandemic Poem: Where Did the World Go?
“There was a world once, but where did it go?” With the richer countries perhaps approaching at least the beginning of the end of the pandemic, it’s time to take stock. This affecting film combines the words of the poet laureate, Simon Armitage, with personal stories ranging from the uplifting to the tragic, to explore the deeply disturbing and utterly strange experience we have all recently undergone. An emotional roadmap of Covid-19 rather than a linear narrative, and all the better for it. Phil Harrison.
Now available at: BBC Two - A Pandemic Poem: Where Did the World Go?
7) (From Poem Analysis email)
Latest Poem Analysis website:
After Making Love We Hear Footsteps - Poem Analysis
The site is advert heavy, but it is free and offers interesting analysis of poems worth reading.
8) (From Faber Website)
Faber Members Four Worlds poetry film
featuring readings from Natalie Diaz, Barbara Kingsolver, Rowan Ricardo Phillips and Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe.
Lavinia Singer (Faber Editor, Poetry) introduces four vibrant and vital voices 2020 and 2021. Listen as the poets read from and contextualise their collections in this forty-minute film, created exclusively for Faber Members.
See Faber Members: Four Worlds Poetry Film | Faber
9) (From PEN Transmissions website)
Noʻu Revilla, Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), on the power of ecopoetry
"Dunya Mikhail argues: ‘Poetry is not medicine; it’s an X-ray’.
During the spring semester, I tested Mikhail’s argument with 25 undergraduate students, who, faced with Covid-19 and the shift to online learning with its despairing isolation, decided to enroll in a creative writing course. During our unit on ecopoetry, we explored how poems can help us as individuals and writing communities to speak back to global crises like climate change.' "
See the resulting work at: EROSION, A6: Notes on the Waikīkī Blackout Poetry Project – PEN Transmissions
10) (From The Guardian website)
Carol Rumens' Poem of the Week
A faultlessly consistent article in a national newspaper, and always available online, too.
See Poem of the week: Pool by Rowan Williams | Poetry | The Guardian
11) (From Literary Hub email)
Abdulrazak Gurnah delivered his Nobel Prize lec
ture in literature on 7 December 2021.
See Abdulrazak Gurnah - Nobel Prize lecture
12) (From Poetry Birmingham tweet)
PBLJ 7 Has Set Sail
'The issue is now live on our website with more free content than ever for you to read. Do check out our website to find out more & order a copy for Christmas.'
Go to Poetry Birmingham
13) (From Ian McMillan Tweet)
The Christmas Dinner Verb
Ian McMillan's guests, John Hegley, Carol Ann Duffy, Kathryn Williams, and Jay Rayner join our virtual audience in a literary Christmas dinner - revelling in the poetry, prose and linguistic satisfaction of Christmas food, in lyrics, recipes and in poetry.
John Hegley gives us the taste of a French
Christmas and of thick skinned roast potatoes, Kathryn Williams and Carol Ann Duffy present brand new Christmas songs from their new album 'Midnight Chorus', Jay Rayner gives us Yule commandments (including the advice that gravy solves everything, and more controversially 'don't serve Christmas pudding'). Ian McMillan channels the New York poet Frank O'Hara t
o write a special Christmas poem (featuring tangerines and the mystic Julian of Norwich). As usual, Radio 3’s cabaret of the word is stuffed full of language play.
Come and warm your hands at The Verb’s fire – the words are sparkling!
See : BBC Radio 3 - The Verb, The Christmas Dinner Verb
14) (From onehandclapping Tweet)
ONE HAND CLAPPING CHRISTMAS ISSUE Available Online
Features with David Harsent, Fran Lock, Toni Visconti, Billy Bragg and lots more poetry, make this worth a minute or two of anybody's time.
See CHRISTMAS ISSUE | onehandclapping (1handclapping.online)