Poetry has a strong showing at this year’s Bridport Literary Festival, with seven events on the programme.
Poet and tutor Gill Barr will be running a poetry workshop aimed at both aspiring and experienced poets at the Bull Hotel on Wednesday 6 November from 6-8pm.
Gill, whose collection, A Wide River Divides Us, will be published by Cinnamon Press in 2025, will guide creative writers through a series of tasks to open the imagination to the ever-changing world, explore new perspectives and enhance the poet’s unique use of metaphor.
Themes will be wide ranging and Gill is happy to critique a poem of no more than 40 lines by each participant prior to the evening. She is looking forward to a lively debate on writing poetry.
Cider With Jessie at Sladers Yard, West Bay, on Sunday 3 November at midday sees The Ciderhouse Rebellion duo of Adam Summerhayes and Murray Grainger joined by Adam’s daughter, the poet Jessie Summerhayes. Together, they will create an immersive and expansive collection of folk-poems, woven between and around improvised music.
Their latest work, Tales of Colonsay, is inspired by stunning landscapes and awe-inspiring seascape. It is a new journey in spoken word, deeply connected to the land.
The event is followed by the option of lunch from the Sladers kitchen.
Celebrated poet Lavinia Greenlaw is in conversation with Caroline Montagu at Sladers Yard on Thursday 7 November at 6.30pm, talking about The Vast Extent: On Seeing and Not Seeing Further, a beautiful and ingenious consolidation of a 30-year body of work.
In a series of essays, she presents a record of how thought builds and ideas emerge – aligning art and scientific scrutiny and exploring subjects as broad as early photography, boredom, seasickness, wonder, mountains and mice.
Lavinia will also read from her Selected Poems which have established her as one of the most perceptive and original poets of her generation.
Award winning Channel 4 News international editor Lindsey Hilsum reveals an poetic side with I Brought the War With Me: Stories and Poetry from the Front Line on Friday 8 November at Bridport Electric Palace at 4pm.
She has compiled a unique and remarkable collection of memories of 40 years of reporting from war zones, together with poems she has set aside from all over the world.
In nearly four decades as a journalist covering conflict from Palestine to Kosovo to Rwanda, Lindsey has always carried a book of poetry with her. It helps her make sense of the senseless as the world around her rages and remember those she has met in the darkest of times.
The multi-talented Angie Porter, who runs the monthly She Speaks women’s only poetry group at Waterstones in East Street, Bridport, is inviting women of all ages to read a poem or piece of writing of their own, or to just join in and listen on Monday 4 November at 7pm. The event is free, but places are limited.
Children and young people are also part of the poetry strand of BridLit again this year.
Following the incredible success of last year’s event, The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares are back for another performance of Resonate, an evening of readings, performance and poetry on Sunday 3 November at Bridport Arts Centre at 7pm. This year they are working with the poet Anthony Anaxagorou and 12 young writers from around West Dorset to present a performance of spoken word pieces.
This is a chance to hear all the creativity and salient issues from the young local talent surrounding us, a focus for this year’s Town of Culture.
Joseph Coelho, Children’s Laureate 2022-24 and winner of the Carnegie Medal for Children’s Literature for his novel in verse, The Boy Lost in the Maze, will be talking about the processes of writing. Children will join him in creating a range of different poems from silly similes to super sonnets.
This is a special event for local school children but extra audience members, especially home schoolers, are invited.
It takes place at The Sir John Colfox Academy on Thursday 7 November at 10am.
In another event for schools, Briony May Smith will be at Bridport Library on Friday 8 November at 10am for a stimulating hour of stories, drawing and sharing.
Briony is a writer and illustrator of children’s picture books including Margaret’s Unicorn and A Practical Present for Philippa Pheasant. She lives in Devon where she takes inspiration from her rural surroundings. Year 2 from St Mary’s Primary School, Bridport, are invited but others are welcome to join in – especially home-schoolers and visitors.
The event is free but must be booked in advance.
For more information on all the BridLit events, visit the website – bridlit.com
Tickets are available online or by calling in at Bridport Tourist Information Centre on 01308 434901.
Leave A Comment