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9th Festival of Suffolk Poetry – live! Saturday, 13 May evening

Description

Being back live at the John Peel Centre on Saturday, 13 May means that we can bring you special delights in the evening. The evening will begin with readings from two Suffolk Poetry Society poets, Sue Mobbs and Roger West.

We will then have a commemoration of Dr Ronald Blythe CBE, who was SPS's oldest member, being 100 when he died on 15 January 2023. This remarkable essayist and poet was best known for Akenfield, but had a much broader reach than that.

The evening will close with our invited guest poets Helen Ivory and Martin Figura, who will perform together.


Helen Ivory
Helen Ivory Photo: Dave Gutteridge

Helen Ivory is a poet and visual artist. Her fifth Bloodaxe collection is  The Anatomical Venus (2019). She edits the webzine Ink Sweat and Tears and teaches creative writing online for the UEA/NCW. A book of mixed media poems Hear What the Moon Told Me is published by KFS, and chapbook Maps of the Abandoned City by SurVision.  She also has had work translated into Polish, Ukrainian, Spanish and Croatian as part of the Versopolis project. Wunderkammer: New and Selected Poems (2023) is published in the US by MadHat Press. She is currently working on her next collection for Bloodaxe How to Construct a Witch which will appear in 2024.


Martin Figura’s collection and show Whistle were shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and won the 2013 Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show.  Shed (Gatehouse Press) and Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine (Cinnamon Press) were both published in 2016.  The Spoken Word Show Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine was shortlisted for the Saboteur Award.  The show of Shed was cancelled due to Covid and is to be revived for 2024.  In 2021, he was Salisbury NHS Writer in Residence, with a pamphlet My Name is Mercy from Fair Acre Press. A second pamphlet commissioned by care charities from Fair Acre Press Sixteen Sonnets for Care came out in October 2022. Land of Opportunity is due out with Cinnamon Press in 2024.

Martin Figura
Martin Figura Photo: Dave Gutteridge

Ticket discounts!

SPS Members can add an afternoon ticket for only £7.50, saving £5.00 on the two parts.
Non-Members can add the afternoon for £10.00, also saving £5.00.

Add it under 'Extra Service'.

It is helpful for the on-site Café Green to know if you will be eating with them beforehand, so please indicate in the box provided. Café Green is all vegetarian with vegan and gluten-free options.

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  • John Peel Centre
  • Church Walk
  • Stowmarket
  • Suffolk
  • UK

Event Schedule Details

  • 13 May 2023 6:45 pm   -   9:30 pm
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