I organise a Poetry Society Stanza which meets every month (first Saturday of each month, 2-4pm) at Drawing Projects UK, Bridge House, Trowbridge.  In 2019,  our first meeting will be on Saturday,  2 February, when there will be two fantastic guest readers, Pey Pey Oh and Tom Sastry, plus open-mic.  Everyone welcome.  Tickets £3 on the door.

Pey Pey Oh was born in Malaysia and spent some of her formative years residing in Michigan and New York. She has now lived in Bath longer than anywhere else!

Pey’s pamphlet Pictograph (Flarestack Press, 2018) serves as an excellent introduction to her emergent voice, and charts a loss of innocence during the time-frame of uncertainty of travelling in China during the events leading up to the tanks in Tiananmen Square.

“Pey Pey Oh’s writing moves with ease between continents and cultures, with an eye for the sharp detail that unfolds a situation. Whether writing from life or through an array of personas, her voice is clear, curious and confident, her viewpoint empathetic and alert to difference. Wherever her poetry leads in place or time, evoking a whole story or a vivid moment, it puts the reader in the heart of the experience.” – Philip Gross

Tom Sastry was chosen by Carol Ann Duffy as one the 2016 Laureate’s Choice poets. His resulting pamphlet, Complicity, was a Poetry School Book of the Year and a Poetry Book Society pamphlet choice. He is currently co-editing Everything that can happen: poems about the future with Suzannah Evans for publication by Emma Press in January 2019. His first full collection will be published by Nine Arches Press in Autumn 2019.

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On Saturday, December 1, we enjoyed a wonderful reading by  Bloodaxe poet Abigail Parry, whose book Jinx was shortlisted for this year’s Forward Prize for Best First Collection.  Abigail read from Jinx, and other work, and took part in a lively and fascinating Q & A about her writing life, answering questions about this year’s Forward Prize, commissions, her route to publication, her motivations for writing, and more.  Audience members listened attentively to Abigail’s poems, asked brilliant questions and read fantastic poems at the open-mic.  It was wonderful to receive many appreciative tweets and messages after the event!

 

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About Trowbridge Stanza

If you would like more information about joining this friendly group, please email me josephinecorcoran13@gmail.com.  You can also sign up for a monthly newsletter  https://tinyletter.com/JosephineCorcoran

We are a friendly group,  a mixture of published and unpublished poets.  We read and talk about contemporary poetry, read and comment on each other’s work in progress, organise open-mic events and guest readers, and we perform our work at different venues.