Coffee-House Poetry : Readings, Classes, Prizes

Poetry Readings, Classes and Prizes at the Troubadour: 263-267 Old Brompton Road, London SW5

“… life, literature, and the pursuit of happiness in the famous Troubadour cellar-club, London’s liveliest and best–loved poetry landmark since the 1950s …”

welcome

from Coffee-House Poetry organiser, Anne-Marie Fyfe

Get in the mood for another Troubadour summer season with the cafe’s music-video ‘short’, a taste of that ambience you’re all familiar with from vibrant Monday nights & stimulating Sunday afternoons. Check out our readings and workshops/classes and get all our dates into your poetry diaries now!

next event

mon 20 may: transatlantic signals: us &uk poets featuring margot farrington, claire dyer, joshua weiner, kim moore, kathryn maris, janet rogerson, linda gregerson, sarah jackson & henry fajemirokun

A change to the usual seasonal kick-off format — new & established voices — this evening’s programme offers a rare chance to hear what’s now & happening either side of the Atlantic with—

NYC-based literature, visual-arts & theatre organiser, activist & reviewer Margot Farrington — 2nd collection Flares and Fathoms, Bright Hill Press, NY);
Claire Dyer — debut poetry collection, Eleven Rooms, (Two Rivers, 2013) — also has a novel, What If, due from Quercus (October 2013);
Joshua Weiner who holds the Amy Lowell Travelling Scholarship & has edited At the Barriers (on Thom Gunn) — third collection, The Figure of a Man Being Swallowed by a Fish (Chicago, 2013);
Kim Moore, a peripatetic brass teacher in Cumbria & a 2011 Eric Gregory & Geoffrey Dearmer award winner; If We Could Speak Like Wolves was a 2012 Poetry Business winner;
Kathryn Maris from NYC, 2nd collection, God Loves You (Seren, 2013) — her poems appear in Best British Poets 2012 & Oxford Poets Anthology;
Janet Rogerson who lives & works in the North-West of England; A Bad Influence Girl (Rialto, 2012) is her debut collection;
Linda Gregerson’s Magnetic North was a 2007 NBA finalist; she teaches at Univ. of Michigan & divides her time between London & Ann Arbor;
Sarah Jackson’s first collection Pelt (Bloodaxe, 2012) was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award & her pamphlet, Milk, was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award.

readings - may-jul 2013

mondays 8-10 pm, £8 (concs. £7)

mon 20 may: transatlantic signals: us &uk poets featuring margot farrington, claire dyer, joshua weiner, kim moore, kathryn maris, janet rogerson, linda gregerson & sarah jackson
mon 3 jun: simon armitage, frieda hughes, paul stephenson, huw warren & stuart silver in what we should have said: an entertaining, enlightening, innovative & unpredictable spoken-word shindig
mon 17 jun: a wnaed yng nghymru /made in wales with phil bowen, marianne burton, rebecca perry, robert seatter, judy brown, graham clifford, rhian edwards & kathryn simmonds, introduced by amy wack (ed.)
mon 1 jul: magma #56 launch night with special guest, david morley
mon 15 jul: simply red! themed end-of-season poetry-party

See full details of this season’s poetry readings

classes - jan-jul 2013

workshops & seminars, sundays 12-3.30 pm

£28 (concs. £24) all advance booking only, with cheque, please, as our workshops/classes are frequently oversubscribed

sun 19 may (rpt) a northern spring: poetry seminar with c.l. dallat
sun 2 jun, seeing red! themed writing workshop with anne-marie fyfe
sun 16 jun, to sleep, perchance… themed writing workshop with anne-marie fyfe
sun 30 jun, 12-2.30 pm: land of heart’s desire — a w.b. yeats walk with c.l. dallat
sun 14 jul, mapping the island: themed writing workshop with anne-marie fyfe

See full details of this season’s classes and workshops

Joshua Weiner — Transatlantic Signals, Mon 20 May

Found Letter

What makes for a happier life, Josh, comes to this:
Gifts freely given, that you never earned;
Open affection with your wife and kids;
Clear pipes in winter, in summer screens that fit;
Few days in court, with little consequence;
A quiet mind, a strong body, short hours
In the office; close friends who speak the truth;
Good food, cooked simply; a memory that’s rich
Enough to build the future with; a bed
In which to love, read, dream, and re-imagine love;
A warm, dry field for laying down in sleep,
And sleep to trim the long night coming;
Knowledge of who you are, the wish to be
None other; freedom to forget the time;
To know the soul exceeds where it’s confined
Yet does not seek the terms of its release,
Like a child’s kite catching at the wind
That flies because the hand holds tight the line.

Joshua Weiner from From the Book of Giants, (University of Chicago Press, 2006)

may 2013 newsletter

Date: 7th May 2013

Dear Poetry Fans

Great to be back in a London of cherry blossoms, sunlit parks & the Troubadour’s verdant, Pimm’s-flavoured urban garden (check out the delightfully atmospheric video ‘short’ on the Troubadour’s website) and good to know, after my 5-week mission, that US East Coast poetry’s thriving as ever in coffee-bars, galleries, arts-centres & writers groups from Boston to Baltimore, from Greenwich Village to Washington Heights & Williamsburg! So it’s really good to have writers from Washington DC, Michigan & New York City reading alongside poets from the England’s North-West, South-East and Midlands, in Transatlantic Signals, our high-profile starter (Monday 20 May) for our ultra-high-energy summer sequence through to July.

There’s a classic Coffee-House Poetry celebration of Wales’ Seren Books imprint (Monday 17 June) with a dazzling range of the press’s poetic voices from around the UK and a chance to meet the poets, & meet Seren editor, Amy Wack, who’ll be introducing. And there’s mega-unmissable Magma, edited, this time, by Julia Bird & Helen Mort, with (Mon 1 July) an irrepressibly imaginative & eclectic selection from issue #56’s contributors.

What We Should Have Said continues to fascinate with Stuart Silver’s off-beat philosophical detours, Huw Warren’s mesmerizingly subtle piano-playing and (for our Monday 3 June event) a seamless spoken-word segue from Troubadour prize-winner Paul Stephenson, painter-&-Bloodaxe-poet Frieda Hughes (with five poetry collections) & poet/dramatist Simon Armitage whose work has inspired a new generation of poets over the past twenty years (a must for advance booking!).

Our themed end-of-season party’s always a colourful occasion but this season’s carnivalesque Simply Red! theme—specially chosen for the height of summer, on Mon 15 July—should provide us with a vivid, vibrant fiesta, a riot of passionate, primary-colours poetry, plus quizzical questions & salsa sounds…