Liz Berry and Jonathan Edwards talk about winning prizes
What would it be like to win a big poetry prize? All poets in their idle or wilder moments must wonder that. At Wenlock poetry festival on Saturday two recent prizewinners were on hand to tell us. Liz Berry, winner of last year’s Forward prize for best first collection, said she exclaimed on hearing the news: “What a beautiful surprise!” Jonathan Edwards, winner of the Costa poetry prize, was acco...
4th May 2015
Kei Miller, and mapping out the truth behind appearances
The gentle, hypnotic voice of Forward prize winner Kei Miller received a rousing reception from a delighted audience at the opening of the 2015 Wenlock poetry festival on Friday night.
His prizewinning collection, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion – “a cartographer goes on a tour with a...
3rd May 2015
Let's hear it for the canal laureate: Jo Bell fans whoop it up
Jo Bell is “a force of nature”, we were told at the Wenlock poetry festival on Saturday. “She keeps a cool head in a crisis on a narrowboat in a tunnel,” said Jonathan Davidson, chief executive of Wri...
1st May 2015
Big names take their turns at busking, and how I ended up in an ambulance
ONE OF the many good ideas and nice touches at Wenlock poetry festival this year was The Poetry Busk – an open mic running for five hours from 12 to 5 on Saturday and Sunday – which featured not only ...
1st May 2015
Michael Rosen for adults: plenty of laughs, but few of them political
To be honest, I came away a tad disappointed after seeing Michael Rosen at Wenlock poetry festival on Saturday night. It wasn’t as if the man feted for his children’s poetry and applauded by some for ...
29th April 2015
