Welcome to Stuff. The Poetry Trust's latest news, events, podcasts and publications.

The Big Questions

‘What’s happening with The Poetry Trust?’ and ‘Will there be another Aldeburgh Poetry Festival?’ are the two questions we’ve been fielding for much of the past year. We really appreciate your interest and not being able to supply definitive answers hasn’t been easy. But clarity is in sight as we await the decision on our Grants for the Arts application, due by the end of April. Despite not awarding us National Portfolio Organisation core-funded status last March, Arts Council England has continued to stress how much it values Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. ACE officers were closely involved in the drafting of our GftA bid and, without counting any chickens, we’re confident of a positive result. We’re also unequivocally excited about our plans to develop the Festival and can hardly wait to share them with you.

Since submitting our GftA at the end of January, we’ve been busy making applications to other trusts and foundations to secure the future of the Festival – and everyone we’ve spoken to has been enthusiastic about what we’re envisioning. Last week we were thrilled to receive the thumbs up from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation – substantial three-year support for the Festival, subject to securing GftA funding in full. Another good reason why ACE surely has to approve the grant…

What we can reveal now is that for 2012-2015, we plan to focus on the development of Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and its satellite events – the Poetry Prom, First Collection Prize, Poetry Paper, Poetry Channel and the Young Poets Competition. We’re also hoping that our Advanced Seminar – an intensively tutored residential ‘retreat’ for poets approaching first or second collections – will be re-launched in 2013, to take place each November around the time of the Festival. (There won’t be a Seminar in 2012.)

Whatever the GftA decision, we’ll be making an announcement about the future of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and The Poetry Trust at the beginning of May. You will be the first to know.

 

Wanted – New Poetry Trust People!

Once we know about GftA funding (and providing, of course, that the news is good), our first task will be to recruit vital new members to The Poetry Trust team. We’ll be looking for two brilliant freelancers – skilled in Marketing & Communications and Fundraising (to develop the Friends scheme and ‘individual giving’) – to help grow the Festival and ensure its sustainability. We’ll be offering two contracts for 40-50 days’ work spread across the year and we’re keen to line up the right people to start as soon as possible. We’ll also be seeking a part-time Office Administrator (12 hours per week, PAYE) to keep operations at The Poetry Trust running smoothly. We need someone unflappable, forward-thinking, IT-confident, literate, numerate and possessed of an exceptional passion for order.

Being based in rural Suffolk with the North Sea occupying two thirds of the catchment area can make recruitment quite a challenge. But we’re sure there are some outstanding and well-qualified professionals out there. We’re two minutes’ walk from Halesworth station (rail links to Lowestoft, Ipswich and London) and the town has a decent bus service to Norwich. If you could be interested or know someone who might be, then we’d love to hear from you. Just email or give us a call on 01986 835950.

 

New Podcasts On The Poetry Channel

We signed off the last edition of STUFF in December 2011 with a Kay Ryan quote and there’s a good reason why we opened this year’s first edition with more of her decisive words. Kay’s UK debut at Aldeburgh last year was a smash hit and her dazzling contributions are still reverberating wonderfully. Given she’s returning to the UK for readings this summer, we thought it’d be great to share the best of her refreshing Aldeburgh Q&A. It’s available now at The Poetry Channel, along with six Festival 2011 podcasts: Robert Seatter’s conversations with Fleur Adcock, Jane Draycott, Maurice Riordan and Chris Wallace-Crabbe, plus new Poem Shows. Here’s some more details in case you need an extra incentive to go listen.

Kay Ryan Q & A
Naomi Jaffa asks the questions as recent US Laureate Kay Ryan discusses the uselessness of poetry, the strange way she discovered Emily Dickinson, her love of the edges of poems – ‘If you only like crusts you get rid of the middle of the sandwich’ – and the introduction of a phrase new to most of us: ‘the stink of the lamp’.

Poem Show 12 – Memory & Preservation
Three memorable poems demonstrating the preservative powers of poetry. Maurice Riordan explores how and what we remember in his nostalgic and rueful list poem ‘Gone With The Wind’; followed by Leontia Flynn’s tender and candid ‘My Father’s Language’; and to finish, Christian Campbell passionately memorialising history, wit and friendship in ‘Oregon Elegy’.

Poem Show 13 – Human Relationships
Three inter-generational poems from Aldeburgh 2011 about human relationships. In ‘The Lovers’, 90-year old Fergus Allen shows age is no barrier to recalling the pleasures of the flesh; Emily Berry’s ‘Our Love Could Spoil Dinner’ fuses deadpan tonal control with wonderfully left-field intimacies; and Robert Hass’s ‘Privilege of Being’ beautifully captures the absurdity and the ecstasy of love.

 

Aldeburgh First Collection Prize Judges For 2012

We’re delighted to announce the judges of this year’s Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. Robert Seatter, whose third collection Writing King Kong (Seren) was recently published, will Chair – joined by Esther Morgan whose third collection Grace (Bloodaxe) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and Alicia Stubbersfield whose fourth collection The Yellow Table (Pindrop Press) will be published later this year.

In addition to the cash award (£1,000), the Aldeburgh prize carries two incalculable benefits for the winner: a fee-paying invitation to read at the following year’s Festival, plus a unique week’s paid protected writing time on the inspirational East Suffolk coast. No other poetry prize makes such a tangible investment in new talent. Entry details are here

Winner of last year’s prize, Nancy Gaffield, who’ll be taking her place in the line-up at the 24th Aldeburgh Poetry Festival (2–4 November 2012), was astonished at her win last autumn. “For me, Tokaido Road was a book that just had to be written: how it would be received was a complete unknown. I never imagined that it would achieve such recognition. Aldeburgh attracts support from so many distinguished poets and commands so much respect, that I could not have wished for a better reception for my work.”

 

Ink Sweat and Tears Launches New Website

We’re always glad to reciprocate support and this is a particularly welcome opportunity. The webzine Ink Sweat and Tears has been a generous Aldeburgh Poetry Festival sponsor since 2007, the year in which Salt author Charles Christian founded this ground-breaking platform for new poetry, short prose and experimental work in digital media. Charles ran the site single-handedly, publishing new work every day until 2010 when poet and artist Helen Ivory came on board as Deputy Editor. In April 2011 Helen took over as sole editor, supported by Kate Birch as the webzine’s patron and ministering angel. IS&T is fast becoming a recognised platform for poetry, prose, reviews,  word & image pieces and everything in between. There is no subscription fee, just exciting and eclectic work every day. So – visit, bookmark the page, submit new work and enjoy this terrific new website!

 

Other STUFF you might like

10th Cambridge Wordfest – 13/14/15 April
Poetry highlights galore include Matthew Hollis on Edward Thomas and Fiona Shaw on love poetry. Plus readings by Esther Morgan, Emma Jones and David Harsent.  Not to mention poetry workshops.
Full programme details are here
Box office is here or telephone 01223 300085

Printed in Norfolk: Coracle Publications 1989 to 2012
This beautiful free Norwich exhibition showcases twenty years of Coracle publications and focuses on the period during which directors, Simon Cutts (poet, artist and editor) and Erica Van Horn (artist and writer) were making books with Norfolk printers Crome and Akers in Kings Lynn, and binder, Stuart Settle in Fakenham. The Gallery at NUCA has been transformed into a veritable book-space, inviting visitors to settle in and browse artists books, poetry, ephemera and anthologies in their own time.
More details here
Tuesday 20 March to Saturday 21 April, Tuesday to Saturday, 12pm to 5pm
The Gallery at NUCA, St Georges Street, Norwich, NR3 1BB

Humble the Poet at Southbank Centre
Catch the latest in international, Hip Hop brilliance at the Southbank Centre’s Alchemy Festival on Saturday 14 April when Toronto-bred MC Humble The Poet (aka Kanwer Singh) will be performing and joined onstage by young, London-based spoken word artists.
Full details and online booking here

Life Writing – Life Matters
A residential weekend on the rural Norfolk/Suffolk border: 13-15 April at Mendham Mill (near Harleston) with Lynne Rees – poet, novelist, narrative non-fiction writer and award winning creative writing tutor. How do we reflect the emotional patterns of our lives in our writing? What deserves to be a poem? What should be written as prose? £130 for non-residents from Friday to Sunday, includes tuition, all food and drink.
Full course details here or email

Gaelic Poetry Writing Course
The Scottish Island poets were one of the great successes of Aldeburgh 2012, so you might be interested in a writing week with two of those poets – Meg Bateman and Rody Gorman – at Moniack Mhor Writers’ Centre (near Inverness) from April 23–28. The cost is just £100 for accommodation, food & tuition and there’ll be a maximum of 12 students.
To book a place on this unique course, email or telephone 01463 741675

Ware Poets Open Poetry Competition 2012
Judge: Dean Parkin, closing date 30 April 2012. For poems of up to 50 lines with prizes of £500, £200, £100.  Entry Fee: £3 each, £10 for 4, £2.50 thereafter in the same submission (cheques payable to ’Ware Poets Competition’).
Entry Address: The Competition Secretary, Ware Poets Competition 2012, Clothall End House, California, Baldock, SG7 6NU

Suffolk Poetry Society Workshop with Kate Foley
An all-day creative writing workshop prize-winning poet Kate Foley in Eye, Suffolk focusing on growth and time: ‘Tree-Ring Time Clock-Time’. Saturday May 26th from 11.00am to 4.00pm. Cost: £35 (£32 for SPS members) including lunch.
Contact Anne Boileau, telephone 01376 563714 or email