I’m available for reading at Zoom poetry events; please message or email me if you’re looking for a guest poet … or if you are running an open mic. Happy to do a full 15-20 minute set, a swift 5-minute showcase, or simply to share a poem or two at an open mic.

Readings in 2020 (with other poets) have included:

• Since September 2020, readings of poems from my new collection, Dualities, from Hedgehog Poetry Press are having regular airings at Zoom events and via streaming:
• Thanks to fellow ‘Hoglet’, Damien Donnelly, I’ve shared three poems on one of his ‘Eat the Storms’ podcasts. These can be heard here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2rDglwxlGAGQFmAJ4elXr3?si=5BliT6fcSDOlyKCQS2k2gw

• Thanks to Mark Connors and Gill Lambert, I had a guest slot on one of their Friday Night Word Club events in September, and am looking forward to joining them again on 30 October … at the open mic, this time.
• David Ashbee has also invited me to be one of the nine guest poets at the Dempsey and Windle launch event for his magnificent collection ‘Poems from the Mind Shop’ on 28 October. I my 5-minute slot, and I read a poem from my Indigo Dreams Pamphlet ‘Interned at the Food Factory’ (2019) as well as a couple from ‘Dualities’. The other guest poets were:  Belinda Cooke, Dónall Dempsey, Penny Lamport, Patrick Osada, M E Muir, Belinda Singleton, Alicia Stubbersfield and Roger Turner.
• I read with a wonderfully large group of women at the launch of Bloody Amazing (published by Yaffle Dragons) in October. In fact, the launch was spread over two evenings over a weekend since there were so many contributors to this excellent anthology … and hence so many poets to read their work. Thanks to Gill Lambert and Rebecca Jane Bilkau for putting on these two great celebratory evenings for the wonderful book they curated and edited.
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• Launch of Poetry from Gloucestershire at Suffolk Anthology Bookshop, Cheltenham, with other contributors to the book.  24 March 2020.  TO BE RESCHEDULED

• Writers at The Goods Shed in Tetbury 8 April 2020  with Belinda Rimmer thanks to Phil Kirby  TO BE RESCHEDULED

• Words and pictures from the Poetry from Gloucestershire at Wotton Arts Festival, Wotton under Edge, 21 April at 8pm  TO BE RESCHEDULED

• Buzzwords, again with Belinda Rimmer, July 2020, thanks to Angela France. TO BE RESCHEDULED

• Reading for International Women’s Day, Sunday 8 March 1.30 – 4.00 at St Mary de Crypt Schoolroom, Gloucester hosted by Josephine Lay, with Angela Franc, Belinda Rimmer and others

• Piranha Poetry at The Ale House, Stroud, with Jonathan Muirhead  on Monday 9 March 2020

•  Burns Night 25 January 2020 at The Rising Sun, Cleeve Hill, near Cheltenham, with Jonathan Muirhead

Performances in 2019

• Gloucester Poetry Festival on Saturday 26 October 2019 with Sarah Leavesley, David Ashbee, Roger Turner and Derek Dohren thanks to Ziggy Dicks, and

• The Poetry Cafe in London with IDP stablemates Brett Evans, Holly Magilll and Marie Lightman, on 25 September 2019

  

• Fountain Poets in Wells thanks to Ama Bolton, July 2019

• Verbatim in Welshpool thanks to Pat Edwards, July 2019

* a joint launch event with Belinda Rimmer at Suffolk Anthology in Cheltenham thanks to Helen Hewett, June 2019

* a reading leading up to Evesham Festival of Words, thanks to Sue Johnson and Sue Ablett, April 2019

• Silver St in Bristol thanks to Deborah Harvey, 1 March 2019

• Corinium Radio, Cirencester thanks to Rona Laycock. Here’s a link to the programme which was recorded for The Writer’s Room, hosted by Rona, August 2019
 https://www.mixcloud.com/coriniumradio/the-writers-room-12-aug-2019/

• Regular participator in open mics, including Poetry Café – Refreshed (2015/2019)

1 December 2016  Reading poems Igam Ogam, Walk on St Dwynwen’s Day, Colours, Transhumance in a recording for Corinium Radio, being broadcast on 6 December 2016.

The Writers’ Room, Corinium Radio

21 October 2016  Reading my set Walking with Dylan at the Launch Party for the I Walk with Fire Festival, celebrating Dylan Thomas, in Cheltenham, with artist Anthea Millier – organised by Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

29 January 2016  A Crossing Counties poetry reading with Worcs and Glos poets at Pershore Library. With Sue Johnson, Bob Woodroofe, Joy Thomas, Roger Turner and me.  Sue, Bob and Joy’s “reciprocal reading” was at Poetry Cafe – Refreshed in Cheltenham on 10 February, the open mic including Roger and me.

             

20 November 2015  Took part in The Quiet Compère, reading a set on space themes.

• Prizewinner in the Gloucestershire Writers’ Network Competition 2007 with the poem First Class Anomaly published in prizewinners’ anthology.  Performed poem at Cheltenham Literature Festival that year.

• Reading poems including Expanding Universe and A Little Tangibility at Holst Museum, Cheltenham, 2010

• Reading poems including A year along the Isbourne and End of Season with University of Gloucestershire CCW MA graduands, at The Centaur, Cheltenham, Degree Ceremony November 2011

• Reading What Passes Between and other poems at Cheltenham Literature Festival Fringe events, High St and Brewery Centre, October 2010 and 2011

• Regular participator in open mics, including Poetry Café – Refreshed (2015/2016) and Buzzwords in Cheltenham. (2007 – 2013)

                                                                            Reading at Poetry Café Refreshed, Cheltenham

• Cheltenham Poetry Society readings

Out of the Depths at Highbury Congregational Church, St Mary’s Great Witcombe, St Margaret’s Alderton. Included poems Bond, Looking for Crumbs and House Guest. April 2012, Autumn 2013

Into the Heights and Winchcombe Arts Festival – with Winchcombe Poets, St Nicholas Church, Winchcombe. May 2013 and January 2014

Reading poetry of the First Workd War, and my long poem, The Chaplain (based on the WW1 service of Timothy Rees MC, later Bishop of Llandaff).  At St Margaret’s Church, Alderton, 2014

Crossing Counties reciprocal readings with Evesham Poets (in Cheltenham and Evesham). Included poems Igam Ogam, Carafán yn y Glaw, Don’t Believe Them, Transhumance, Meicrodon, Swan Lane Primary, An Education in Song, a Year along the Isbourne.  Autumn 2014/Spring 2015

Reading upstairs at The Strand, Cheltenham

Launch of Cheltenham Poetry Society anthology, Beyond the Well-mapped Provinces at Café Rouge, Promenade, Cheltenham. Included poems Fishing, Holiday Job, Clearing Out, Nightshade, Blackthorn. April 2012 

Black Night Dylan, headlining with Angela France and David Clarke, The Playhouse, Cheltenham, October 2014. Included  poems Canmol, Unequally Yoked Talacharn, Return to Cors Caron, Walk on St Dwynwen’s Day, A487, Transhumance.

Guest poet at Well Versed, Cheltenham with Michael Newman and David Ashbee. Included Scarcely Edible, Getting Rid, A Higher Education – the First Trimester, Mountain Climbing for Beginners, Autumn on the Isbourne, Skeins

Various readings during Cheltenham Poetry Festival (2011 – 2015), at Oxfam, The Strand, the Muffin Man, Smokey Joe’s as part of Poetry Factory and Cheltenham Poetry Society.

Reading with Poetry Factory at Oxfam, Cheltenham

                                                                                       Interview with Winchcombe Radio following Poetry Factory event, April, 2013

3 July 2013 – read in Bristol, at Charles Thompson’s Bristol Poetry Review at the Square Club in Bristol with David Clarke, Philip Rush, Anna Saunders, Avril Staple and Chaucer Cameron

Reading at Curator of Eccentricity Launch of Setdown pamphlet commemorating the Laurie Lee Centenary, with Philip Rush, Adam Horovitz, David Clarke and other Gloucestershire poets, at Stroud Museum in the Park, 12 September 2014.
Setdown: Laurie Lee Commemorative Anthology
Reading poems Bastard Rough and Quoining from the Apple Orchard project at the Big Apple Festival, Much Marcle, October 2014.  Event organized by Ledbury Poetry Festival, and led by Paul Henry, Herefordshire’s Poet in Residence, 2014.
                                                                                                   Reading at the Big Apple Festival, Much Marcle, October 2014.                                              Bastard Rough at The Big Apple

Reading poems Firewords, On the Up, Sully and Sear with Jubilate Chamber Choir, Cheltenham at the Chapel, University of Gloucestershire

.                                                                                      Reading at University of Gloucestershire Chapel

Reading poem Plough Sunday, St Peters, Hinton on the Green, January 2015

Reading in Waterstones Cheltenham, July 2012 with Ann Drysdale, Peter Wyton and Poetry Factory poets including David Clarke.Write Out Loud 1 August 2012

B.  Workshops led

Four years as Chair, Cheltenham Poetry Society Nov 2011 to Nov 2015.                                    Re-elected Chair of Cheltenham Poetry Society Nov 2016

• Regular writing workshops for all levels of expertise
• A writing group for experience poets
• A poetry reading group
• Three annual retreats at Dumbleton Hall (May 2014, 2015, 2016); devising and running the workshops

Other workshops:

• A workshop for Buzzwords, 2010
• Two workshops to encourage poets to enter GWN writing competitions 2012 and 2013

C. Lectures given and organised

• Gave lecture: The Musicality of Welsh Poetry – Cheltenham Poetry Society annual lecture, March 2015

• Organized Cheltenham Poetry Society annual lectures for several years, as follows:
• David Clarke to speak on German Poetry at Cheltenham Municipal Offices, March 2017
• Chris Haslam at Dean Close School on 1st World War Poets, March 2014
• Nigel McLoughlin on Cognitive Blending – Metaphor, Cheltenham Municipal Offices, March 2013
• Richard Cleaves on the Metaphysical Poets, at Cheltenham Municipal Offices, March
• Kate North on Getting Published, at Parmoor House, March 2011
• Sonia Hendy-Isaac on Post-modernism, at Parmoor House, March 2010

Forthcoming events