2023

 

Sat.22rd July, Noon, Ventnor Arts Club

K.V. Skene (Toronto, Canada, online)

K.V. Skene's  Seasonal Adjustments  is "a beautifully written and moving elegy for the loss of love, that ultimately transforms into deeper insight into the human condition…what makes the narrative so moving is that the emotional breakdown of a relationship is expressed through the universalizing imagery of natural elements …the seasons, water, rain, snow, apples, moons—all lift the poems to a higher plane.” Susan Ioannou

 

Sun.23th July, 6pm, Ventnor Library

John Goodwin (Ventnor, in-person)

“At 16 John Goodwin went out to work selling fruit and vegetables in a market. One of his jobs was to empty pennies out of ladies loos. By his late 30’s he’d stumbled into taking a post of university lecturer. It was his 3rd career as a writer that he really found himself. His first book co-written with teaching colleague Bill Taylor SOLO MONOLOGUES FOR DRAMA sold twenty thousand copies. BBC Radio plays followed as did further books for children.” (from Oxford University Press Children’s Books)

 

Sun.23th July, Noon, Ventnor Arts Club

Juliusz Erazm Bolek  (Poland, in-person)

Juliusz Erazm Bolek - realizing the effects of the lost bond with the world of nature - in his latest collection of poems "The Garden" - refers to a mythical paradise. Staying in it, the lyrical subject feels happy, fulfilled, internally harmonious. In this dream land, he feels safe. There are no fights here, no primitive noise. The affirmation of the natural world also has its source in the absence of material values ​​that dominate our everyday life. It is these values ​​that are the source of the clash of man with man. This struggle cripples us mentally and physically. In the poetic land of Juliusz Erazm Bolek, one listens to crickets, talks to flowers and birds. A lost paradise that is so distant, yet at your fingertips, "Ogród" ("The Garden") by Juliusz Erazm Bolek is a bilingual collection …translated into English by the poets Anna Maria Mickiewicz and Steve Rushton… published by the British poetry publishing house "Literary Waves Publishing" in London."

Jan Stępien, Source: gazetakulturalna.zelow.pl

 

Sun.23th July, Noon, Ventnor Arts Club

Harold Rhenisch (Vernon, BC, Canada, online)

Harold Rhenisch’s "Living Will, right from its punning title through its pop-culture references to Britney Spears, Wal-Mart, and the like, is a call to life set against the English literary tradition's habit of emphasizing death."
-- Jane Henderson, The Dominion

 

Felicity Fair Thompson  Wight Writers

Sunday 23rd July 4pm Ventnor Library

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS WORK BY FELICITY FAIR THOMPSON 

The Lights of Leicester Square

"If you love the movies, you will relish this book over and over again.”  Michael Grade

"Not the confines of the film studio, but the magic and lights of the auditorium, the electricity of red-carpet premieres - a rare inside account of a golden decade of film presentation in the cathedrals of film, the Odeon cinemas in Leicester Square. Not to be missed!"                               Dominic Minghella

"A tantalising peek behind the velvet curtain at one of London's best loved cinemas - and never before heard stories about the famous - what's not to love?!"Daisy Coulham - creator of Deadwater Fell and Grantchester

 

The Kid On Slapton Beach

"This book is beautiful. You can't stop reading even though you don't want it to end. The writing is sparse yet full of feeling without a trace of sentimentality. I understood and cared about these people. In this imaginative tale about families who reacted to a true historical event, I wanted to know what happened next. A jewel! "                                                                 

Actress June Brown - Dot Cotton in East Enders

"The Kid on Slapton Beach is a captivating read. Work lay untouched, phones went unanswered, meals were late... I couldn't put it down!"Gill Kaye Ingenu/e magazine

 

 

Tues. 25th July, Noon, Ventnor Arts Club

Karen Shenfeld (Ontario, Canada, in-person)

"It's The poems in Karen Shenfeld’s fourth collection, To Measure the World, speak to the deep sources — ancient landscapes, searing interiors, biblical motives, laws of return.There are pledges, curses, betrayals, admonishments, unholy thoughts and acts; reckoning and measuring “what remains” — always with fealty to language and classic craft. These are poems for keeping the faith, for navigating beauty in worlds of“shifting shoals” and “fallen hearts.”"Elana Wolff, author of Swoon

 

"To measure the world is a large ambition, but Karen Shenfeld conveys with humility how the world also measures us, and how our caring relations play out against a larger scale. Vividly evoking travel or lovingly addressing the living and the dead, she speaks in a voice by turns bold and delicate, and sometimes both at once. There are memorable poems here, moved by strong feeling and moving in their eloquent form."Roger Greenwald, author of The Half-Life

 

“You wait / without expectation, tune out the Jeremiahs, / knowing we are still at the mercy of the weather.” Karen Shenfeld’s poetry is one of courage, intimacy, and acceptance. Her voice is profoundly musical, and her subjects are love, heartbreak, remembrance, decline, and endurance. Her craft is mature and her concerns universal."

Richard Greene, author of Dante's House

 

"Her lyrics are clear-sighted and yet full of tenderness for their subjects. The lines of her poems, spare and beautiful, create 'a procession of figures' that lingers and echoes afterward in the reader's memory."

Eric Ormsby

"My favorite poems of hers are the ones that resuscitate ancestors. They all return to us through the lifeline of Shenfeld's revelatory language." -- Kenneth Sherman

"She is a magician of sorts who makes ancient voices familiar while imbuing modern life with archaic resonance."

Ricardo Sternberg

 

 

2022

 

Blake Everitt The Shock of Silence: A Poetry Reading Tues. 26th July 5.30 -5.55pm

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS WORK BY BLAKE EVERITT

‘…he repeatedly addresses and celebrates “the finding of the sacred” in the ordinary…Blake Everitt’s poetry emanates from the soul of a wise 21st century hermit…’ – SEAMUS FINNEGAN

‘…a new collection of poetry with his focus on the spiritual nature of the south-eastern area of the Island.’ – DOMINIC KUREEN, IWCP

‘Inspired and mystical poetry that is often transcendent’ – Penny Gold, writer and dramaturge, former BBC producer

‘You have found a new style, fluent and luminous’ – Marian Goue, organist

‘I rejoice in these incarnate words of life and light, open to great darkness as well.’ – STANFORD SEARL, author of Quaker Poems: The Heart Opened and Homage to the Lady with the Dirty Feet and other Vermont Poems as well as Songs for Diana

 ‘Pastoral Magic’ – EYE FLASH POETRY

Below is an interview Blake did with Brevity about reading and writing poetry. 

https://brevityisland.home.blog/2022/07/09/qa-with-poet-blake-everitt/

 

Claire Booker and Caroline Vero  Bringing Poems to Life (actual) Sat.23rd July 5.30 -5.55pm

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS WORK BY CLAIRE BOOKER

"This is moving, memorable poetry, bursting with colour and life." Matthew Paul, reviewing in 'Sphinx'.

"Loves a metaphor, does Claire Booker, and man-o-man does she know how to wield them." Sam Smith reviewing in 'The Journal'.

"Luminous. I can recommend 'The Bone That Sang' to anyone looking for original, inspiring poetry." Rosemary Muncie, reviewing in 'South'.

"Here is poetry that challenges head and heart, leaving an astonishing array of ideas and imagery playing in the mind." Jane Maker, reviewing in Ink, Sweat & Tears.

"You will return to these poems again and again, and each time they will reveal something new and unexpected." Louise Warren, reviewing for London Grip.

 

Felicity Fair Thompson  People And Places

Fri 29th July 5.30 -5.55pm

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS WORK BY FELICITY FAIR THOMPSON 

The Lights of Leicester Square

"If you love the movies, you will relish this book over and over again.”  Michael Grade

"Not the confines of the film studio, but the magic and lights of the auditorium, the electricity of red-carpet premieres - a rare inside account of a golden decade of film presentation in the cathedrals of film, the Odeon cinemas in Leicester Square. Not to be missed!"                               Dominic Minghella

"A tantalising peek behind the velvet curtain at one of London's best loved cinemas - and never before heard stories about the famous - what's not to love?!"Daisy Coulham - creator of Deadwater Fell and Grantchester

 

The Kid On Slapton Beach

"This book is beautiful. You can't stop reading even though you don't want it to end. The writing is sparse yet full of feeling without a trace of sentimentality. I understood and cared about these people. In this imaginative tale about families who reacted to a true historical event, I wanted to know what happened next. A jewel! "                                                                 

Actress June Brown - Dot Cotton in East Enders

"The Kid on Slapton Beach is a captivating read. Work lay untouched, phones went unanswered, meals were late... I couldn't put it down!"Gill Kaye Ingenu/e magazine

Kevin Marshall Chopson DADA-DADA-BRÜLLT-BRÜLLT / Une Variante

Sat 30th July 5.30 -5.55pm

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS WORK BY KEVIN MARSHALL CHOPSON

“Chopson’s unique performance art creation is an ode to a bygone era while also being a celebration of the present moment – and somehow a smartly disguised history lesson for those willing to listen. It challenges audiences to surrender to the flow and savor the small parts of life. Delightfully Dada through and through.” Daniel Jones / Producing Artistic Director / Kindling Arts Festival, Nashville, Tennessee

"DADA-DADA-BRÜLLT-BRÜLLT is an energizing, mesmerizing, jaunt into the cabaret of the mind. Everyone should make the time to experience this timeless, timely, amusing, and inspired performance. DADA is life!” Denice Hicks / Executive Artistic Director / The Nashville Shakespeare Festival, Nashville, Tennessee

 

Lydia Fulleylove and Robyn Bolam ‘Beyond the Grave’: Memoir into Poetry

Sat.23rd July 5pm – 5.25pm 

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS WORK BY ROBYN BOLAM

The Peepshow Girl

“Compelling and accomplished…a poet of unusual talent” Bernard O’Donoghue, The Times Literary Supplement

“Neither old-fashioned nor new-fangled, but abiding and spiritual.” Peter Porter, Observer

 Hyem

 'pure belta’  Carol Rumens            Guardian poem of the week

www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/jan/15/poem-of-the-week-moving-on-by-robyn-bolam

'scrupulously crafted and rooted in authentic experience'  David Cooke, The High Window

  

Maggie Sawkins The House Where Courage Lives – Reading and Discussion

Mon. 25th July 5.30 -5.55pm

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS WORK BY MAGGIE SAWKINS

'Maggie Sawkins invites us into the unsettling house of our inner selves. But hers is a house of delicately honed lines spun like musical threads, weaving the reader into uncluttered contemplation of the real and the surreal.'

John Agard (The House Where Courage Lives, Waterloo Press, 2022)

 

'Sawkins brings to life what Ted Hughes calls 'the goblin in the word'.

Mark McGuinness (Review of Charcot's Pet, Magma magazine)

 

'A distinctive and beguiling voice.' Vicki Feaver (The Zig Zag Woman, Two Ravens Press)

 

MARGENTO and Ovid with Reverb Various Wanted and more (film and performance)

Wed. 27th July 5.30 -5.55pm and 6pm to 8pm

PRAISE FOR VARIOUS WANTED

“mind-boggling translations… a master of rhythms and measures …

“assembled multi-storey lines and reticular stanzas that outline a complex inter ‑ language system, "so" precarious "and" on the brink of chaos "…An impressive deployment of forces… “ Felix Nicholai, http://www.uniuneascriitorilorarad.ro/pdf/arca_1_2022.pdf 

See also

https://www.amazon.com/Nomadosofia-Nomadosophy-Margento/dp/6069319184

 

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