Jane Draycott, 9 November, Albion Beatnik

Back Room Poets present a reading with Jane Draycott and Back Room Poets Members as part of The Sounds of Surprise season at the Albion Beatnik Bookshop (Walton Street, Jericho) on Friday, 9 November, 7:30 pm.

JANE DRAYCOTT's latest collection Over was shortlisted for the 2009 T S Eliot Prize. Nominated three times for the Forward Prize for Poetry, her first two full collections, Prince Rupert's Drop and The Night Tree, were both Poetry Society Recommendations.


Names of members reading: Matt Bright, Gina Wilson, Jenyth Worsley.

For the full list of events of The Sounds of Surprise see: www.albionbeatnikpoetry.co.uk

Reading at Blackwell's, 30th October

Back Room Poets will present a reading at Blackwell's on Tuesday, 30 October, at 7 pm (doors open 6:45 pm).

The Back Room Poets members reading will be: Rip Bulkeley, Sarianne Durie, Tina Sederholm, Paul Surman, Judi Sutherland, and Deborah Mason, who will also be the MC.

Entry is free.

Venue: Blackwell's Bookshop, 48 – 51 Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BQ (http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/editorial/shops/SHOP52.jsp)

Book launch by BRP member

Poetry book launch: AYALA KINGSLEY, THE STARS INSIDE
with ‘Back Room Poets’ Rip Bulkeley,
David Burns, Paulette Mae, and Averil Stedeford,
plus guest reader Graham Topping,
and music from Bruno Guastalla

Venue: Pegasus Theatre Café, Magdalen Road, Oxford, OX4 1RE
Time: 24 October, 7.30 pm
Entry: £4 on the door

www.ayalakingsley.com
www.waterloopresshove.co.uk
www.pegasustheatre.org.uk

Reading with David Constantine on 26 July

Back Room Poets will present a reading with invited guest reader David Constantine on 26 July.

Members reading will be: Veronica Beedham, Louise Larchbourne, John Vickers and Mark Leech (MC).

Time: Thursday, 26 July, 7:30.

Admission: £4 (£2 BRP members)

Venue: Albion Beatnik Bookstore, 34 Walton Street, Oxford, OX2 6AA

BRP at Oxfringe: 9 June

Back Room Poets at Oxfringe:  Time & Space Continuum

From the offbeat and quirky to the serious, BACK ROOM POETS brings a sideways look at the world about us: this year we play with TIME.

Readers: Elizabeth Birchall, David Burridge, Ayala Kingsley, Jennifer McGowan, Averil Stedeford, Alan Wynne Davies, Jenyth Worsley, Josie von Zitzewitz

Venue: The Turrill Sculpture Garden (South Parade, behind Summertown Library)
Date: 9 June, 2pm
Entry: free

Reading with Rose Solari (10 May)

Back Room Poets and the Albion Beatnik Bookstore present a poetry reading featuring Rose Solari, winner of the Randall Jarrell Prize and the Columbia Book Award, and also BRP members Deborah Mason, David Simpson and Merryn Williams.

Date: Thursday 10th May; 7 for 7:30 pm

Venue: Albion Beatnik Bookstore, 34 Walton Street,  Oxford  OX2 6AA

Entry: £4 (£2.00 BRP Members)

Book Launch, Art Jericho, 10 February

Back Room Poets with Art Jericho

present a poetry reading launching recent publications by members:

Mark Leech : Chang'an Poems
Jennifer A. McGowan : Life in Captivity
David Olsen : New World Elegies

Also featuring: Pat Winslow and Paul Surman

And your chance to view the Art Jericho exhibition:
William Cotterill, A Tangle of Ghost & Matter

Friday, 10 February 2012
Free admission. 7 pm for 7:30 pm.

Art Jericho | 6 King Street | Oxford | OX2 6DF



Mark Leech : Chang'an Poems:

http://thesamsmith.webs.com/originalpluschapbooks.htm#820667998

"Mark Leech’s Chang-an Poems are winningly sentimental and full of blunt-nosed brilliance. Built on a tripod of surveillance, where the omnipresence of state censorship meets personal censorship and immingles (sometimes brutalizes) a deeply affecting love story, Chang-an is a survival fight and a haunting reflection of our precipiced world at large.... Without question, the longevity of this sequence confirms Leech as one of the most illuminative poets of my generation."

James Byrne

Jennifer A. McGowan : Life in Captivity:

http://www.finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?products_id=628

“Bright-eyed and unblinking, Jennifer McGowan engages with stories, events and situations that embody lasting truths about human passion and illusion, suffering and endurance – the adventures of Odysseus, the appalling English witch-hunts, the condition of loneliness. At the heart of this shapely, significant chapbook is the tension between the divine spark and complete and utter earthiness. In one of several memorable dramatic monologues, the concubine of a divine, but pimply, dead pharaoh stares at his ‘solar barque’ and

…can’t help wondering

if when they weigh my soul

he’ll be clear-skinned and waiting,

and if he still snores.

The female viewpoint; gritty thought; wit; striking candour – an unafraid recognition of life’s richness and desolation; memorable detail; all these are underpinned by Jennifer McGowan’s graceful, subtle, quite lovely way with language.”

Kevin Crossley-Holland

David Olsen : New World Elegies:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599247615/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

“David Olsen is a poet who never repeats himself. His landscapes range from the cold beaches of New England to the hot deserts of Iraq, and he is a master of several styles, from the elegy to the sestina. He also visits some of the most brutal scenes from the last century, always with an eye to the victims. It has been a pleasure to read several of these poems as they were being forged.”

Merryn Williams