INSPIRE POEtRy FEStIvAL 201 9 monday 23 - satURday 28 septembeR PERFORMANCE S READINGS WO RKSHOPS FILM POEtRy tAKEOvER delivered by Inspire presents a wide variety of brilliant cultural and community activities throughout the year with something for everyone to enjoy! Find out what’s happening on your doorstep and right across the county: www.inspireculture.org.uk/whats-on SSttAAyy CCOONNNNEECCttEEDD ssttaayy iinnssppiirreedd SIGN UP, tAG inspireculture.org.uk/emails @inspireculturenotts @nottslibraries /nottslibraries INSPIRECULTURE.ORG.UK/POETRY-FESTIvAL WELCoME To inSPiRE PoETRY FESTiVAL 2019 BRINGING POETRY TO BEESTON, MANSFIELD CENTRAL, SOUTHWELL, WEST BRIDGFORD AND WORKSOP LIBRARIES, AND THE OLD LIBRARY, MANSFIELD Featuring celebrated poetry stars, regional favourites Booking and cutting-edge newcomers, and with styles ranging from the formal lyric to freestyle spoken word, this year’s festival promises a plethora of poetry delights at venues Tickets for events can be booked: around the county. online: www.inspireculture.org.uk/ We’re hugely excited to welcome the much-garlanded poetry-festival Patience Agbabi, Colette Bryce and Jacob Polley for By phone via Ask inspire: the first time, alongside multiple prize-winning young 01623 677 200 poets Raymond Antrobus and Birmingham-based or in person at any of the nafeesa Hamid. Festival libraries. Wendy Cope returns for Afternoon Tea, george Szirtes Tickets are non-refundable except headlines Word!, John Harvey celebrates turning 80 where an event is cancelled. and Notts-based Andrew graves is back by popular Programme is subject to change. demand! Alongside readings and performances, we have Access information workshops to develop your writing skills with Deborah All our festival venues are accessible to Tyler-Bennett, a poetry masterclass with Colette Bryce, wheelchair users, and full access details on and special sessions to enhance your poetry reading all venues is available on request from Ask enjoyment with Jenny Swann. Inspire. Please notify us on booking if you require a wheelchair space or have any There’s also a touring exhibition of heartfelt poems and specific access needs. beautiful photographs, a film about Keats, opportunities Email: [email protected] for open mic performers, community events at Phone: 01623 677 200 Southwell Library and a free Poetry Takeover day for everyone to enjoy. A large print version of this brochure is available on request. Whether you’re already a poetry reader, writer, student or teacher, or a complete newcomer, join us this September to enjoy a week of wonderful words in the nottslibraries #inspirepofest welcoming surroundings of your libraries. inspireculture.org.uk Thank you! Thanks to our booksellers; Five Leaves and The Bookcase, Lowdham, and to LeftLion for their continued support of the festival. Front cover: John Harvey, Nafeesa Hamid, Patience Agbabi, Andrew Graves, Raymond Antrobus, Jacob Polley, Colette Bryce, Wendy Cope 03 tHURsday 5 - sUnday 29 septembeR Poet, playwright and performer Ben Norris worked with four very different groups across Nottinghamshire to develop a body of poems that express their emotions, experiences and stories. These included elderly people living with . t h t g o i i r e r l dementia, adults with learning disabilities, a d H o o n refugees, and people living with, or affected by, e W B t a y s b i mental health issues. r o r t o o N h P n . e e B m d The sessions, and individuals involved, were o n H a t e r e photographed by lens-based artist Ben Harriott, a k c C a l n P a and the resulting works were curated into this i t s i s i v r a h inspiring exhibition. C M eXHibition With very special thanks to the groups involved: Woodleigh Christian Care Home, Mansfield; VoiCes at inspiRe Building Bridges, West Bridgford; Bassetlaw Day Service, Worksop and Nottingham and poetRy FestiVaL Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum, Youth Project. mansFieLd CentRaL LibRaRy thursday 5 - sunday 29 september A printed anthology of the poems and Free photographs featured in the exhibition will be distributed to all Inspire libraries during Inspire Voices presents a thought-provoking collection Poetry Festival. of poetry created by and with people whose voices, for health, social or age-related reasons, Voices is touring Inspire Libraries until April 2020. may rarely be heard, combined with For details visit inspireculture.org.uk/voices photographs of those involved. LaUnCH eVent VoiCes: antHoLogy LaUnCH mansFieLd CentRaL LibRaRy saturday 28 september, 11am Free | booking advised Join us to celebrate the launch of Voices – the anthology based on the project and exhibition. Gain an insight into this inspiring project and enjoy readings from poet Ben Norris. Voices was a community poetry project led and facilitated by writer and performer Ben Norris, with photographs by lens-based artist Ben Harriott, in collaboration with Inspire: Culture, Learning & Libraries. It was supported with funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England. 04 monday 23 septembeR s i D a n n a N : o t o h P HeadLine peRFoRmanCe “His insights into the asLant bUt minds and hearts of stiLL standing… others – there is a tenderness here that JoHn HaRVey at 80 many British poets do beeston LibRaRy 7pm not risk.” £8 John Burnside on Bluer Than This booking advised adults (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult) "One of our most Novelist, poet, dramatist and sometime publisher, John Harvey has accomplished writers... been a professional writer for some forty years. The first of his Charlie Resnick series, Lonely Hearts , was named by The Times as in any genre." one of the 100 most notable crime novels of the last century, and in Daily Telegraph 2007 he was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for Sustained Excellence in Crime Writing. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the Universities of both Nottingham and Hertfordshire. His latest poetry collection, Aslant, is published by Shoestring Press. BOOK ONLINE inspiReCULtURe.oRg.Uk Join him to hear a reading of his ‘new and selected’ poems, along with the odd anecdote, in celebration of his life in writing. /poetRy-FestiVaL 05 tUesday 24 septembeR t t e n n s e i B D n a y n t r n a a M N : : o o t t o o h h P P WRiting WoRksHop FiLm HeadLine peRFoRmanCe CReating bRigHt staR (pg) poetRy CaFÉ inspiRed images mansFieLd CentRaL LibRaRy WitH JoHn 3pm WitH deboRaH £2 HaRVey tyLeR-bennett booking available at 80: a soUtHWeLL LibRaRy Written and directed by CeLebRation 11am – 1pm Oscar-winner Jane Campion WoRksop LibRaRy £5 (The Piano ), Bright Star tells the 6.30pm booking essential story of the three-year romance £6 adults between 19th-century Romantic booking advised poet John Keats and Fanny adults (under 18s to be A workshop using pictorial Brawne, near the end of his life. accompanied images with a local flavour, which by an adult) Nottinghamshire-born poet and Together they rode a wave of fiction writer Deborah romantic obsession that Author of the celebrated Tyler-Bennett will provide. The deepened as their troubles Notts-based Charlie Resnick workshop exercises will help you mounted. series of crime novels, John explore ideas of tone, rhythm, Harvey’s latest poetry collection detail and narrative voice. Come Aslant is published by Shoestring along, be inspired, and have a go Press. at creating a piece of work from scratch. Join him to hear about his life in writing, including how a crime novelist approaches poetry, and CommUnity Hexameter is a group of six poets put your own questions to John peRFoRmanCe from Leicester, Lincoln, over drinks and refreshments HeXameteR Nottinghamshire and Sheffield during this relaxed Poetry Café whose work has been published in session. FOLLOWED national and international journals BY OPEN MIC such as Acumen, Dream Catcher, “. .a uniquely readable soUtHWeLL LibRaRy Magma and The North. Join them to enjoy a selection of poetry from 7.30pm poet of great integrity.” contemporary voices. To perform at £3 Andy Brown on Bluer Than This the open mic please apply in booking advised person at Southwell library. Places limited. 06 INSPIRECULTURE.ORG.UK/POETRY-FESTIvAL HeadLine peRFoRmanCe WoRd! poetRy FestiVaL speCiaL WitH geoRge sziRtes beeston LibRaRy 7pm £7 / £5 booking advised adults (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult) Join WORD! - one of the longest running poetry nights in the UK and former Saboteur Award Nominee - for this very special Beeston Library, Inspire Poetry Festival edition, with poet and compere Lydia Towsey, special y guests - and the multi-award winning George Szirtes. l a z r o g o P george szirtes was born in Hungary in 1948. His first a n e z r book of poems The Slant Door won the Geoffrey Faber a M : o t Memorial Prize in 1979 and Reel was awarded the T.S. o h Eliot Prize in 2004 - a prize for which he has since been P shortlisted twice. g n i d l A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, George is the i W a recipient of an Honorary Fellowship from Goldsmiths n i g r College and an Honorary Doctorate from the University o e of East Anglia. He has won numerous international prizes G for his poetry, and the Man Booker International Prize for his translations of novels by László Krasznahorkai. His latest work The Photographer at Sixteen (Maclehose Press, 2019) has attracted unanimous praise from across both the media and the literary community. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to see him in Beeston and be part of what’s sure to be a truly outstanding evening. praise for The Photographer at Sixteen by george szirtes: “A courageous and remarkable achievement.