Reading at Star Anise Arts Cafe

Contact: Philip@yewtreecottages.fsnet.co.uk 01453750697

Astrid Alben, Jeff Cloves, Anne-Marie Fyfe and Philip Rush.

Astrid Alben read English Literature and Philosophy at Edinburgh University. Her poems, articles and reviews have been published in magazines such as The Wolf, Poetry Review, Drunken Boat, Times Literary Supplement, Stand and Shearsman. Ai! Ai! Pianissimo is her first collection and is published by Arc Publications. To hear the poems of Astrid Alben visit astridalben.com.

Jeff Cloves is known to many visitors to Star Anise Café. He has been writing for many years and his poetry achieves a fine blend of accessibility and challenge. He has produced of late a number of short-run and elegantly designed pamphlets, often in collaboration with other local photographers and poets, and confidently claims that though he may not be the best of poets, he is the cheapest. He writes regularly for Peace News and was a leading light in the running of the 2011 Lorca in England festival.

Anne-Marie Fyfe, poet, creative-writing teacher, arts-organiser & former Chair of the Poetry Society, (2006-2009), was born in Cushendall in the Glens of Antrim and now lives in West London. Anne-Marie has published four volumes of poetry, including Understudies: New and Selected Poems (Seren Books, 2010). She won the Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition with her poem Curaçao Dusk. In 1997, she established Coffee-House Poetry at the Troubadour in Earls Court.

Philip Rush is an English teacher. His poetry often focues on a sense of place and recent work includes a sequence from Rome. Philip will also read from recent pamphlets out from Yew Tree Press, Amsterdam and Santander Oviedo. January 2012 saw the publication of a pamphlet from Michael Laskey's Garlic Press and Philip has been short-listed in the past for the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and been published by Carcanet in New Poetries IV.

Music will be by Between the Acts who play a mix of Irish dance music - jigs and reels - and tunes from Northern Spain. They have a new CD out, The Hours, which uses such music to trace the pattern of the monastic hours through the day. It comes, for just £10, with a booklet of poems and photographs about the Camino de Santiago and will be available on the night. The CD is a perfect Xmas present for people who like CDs of Irish and Spanish music as well as poems and photographs from the Camino de Santiago.

Entry: Free

Time: 7:30pm