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| Carla Scarano |
There’s another great ‘April Poets’ event coming up at the Storey next month (Tuesday 10th November) with a fine mix of local talent treading the boards, plus music from Jo Gillot. Here’s the line-up.
Carla Scarano – “Musical Poetry of the Everyday”
Carla Scarano recently published A Winding Road, her first pamphlet of poetry collecting her poems about Italy and her migration from Rome to Lancaster. She has translated the works of Italian poet Eugino Montale and is currently studying for a Creative Writing MA at Lancaster University.
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| David Tait |
David Tait – “Celebrates Love’s Loose Ends”
David Tait’s pamphlet Love’s Loose Ends was a winner in The Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition for 2011. His poems have been published in a number of places including The Rialto, Magma, The Guardian and Stand, and he’s House Poet for the Carol Ann Duffy and Friends poetry series at Manchester Royal Exchange.
His particular interest lies in the literature produced by independent presses, many of which are under threat due to the recent arts cuts.
He runs LIPPFest, an annual festival based in Leeds which celebrates the diversity of independent presses and edits Cadvarine Magazine, which publishes the best new poetry, prose and non-fiction from under 30’s.
Sarah Fiske – “Poet, story-teller, deviser of plays…”
“I need to write. it feels integral to who I am”. Sarah’s own writing and her work with writing in the community has made her one of the pillars of the Lancaster writing scene. She produces poetry and stories and is published in many anthologies. She devises plays and tours and acts in them. She has run many creative writing projects and co-runs the famous Spotlight, Lancaster’s live literature cabaret club. In 2003 she won an ACE writer’s award.
Alan Dent – “Poet, translator, reviewer, unsung hero of the small press world”
Alan Dent’s commitment to poetry and literature in general is long-standing. As well as his own writing he has supported and encouraged lesser known writers through The Penniless Press, which he founded and edited for twenty eight issues as a hard copy before it became an on-line magazine. The hard copy version has transmogrified into Mistress Quickly’s Bed which he edits along with the poet Nancy Frost.
He has published five books of his own poetry, one on-line collection, and two books of translations from the French, the latest being Common Cause, a collection of more than two hundred poems by Francis Coombes. He has also published hundreds of reviews of contemporary poetry and fiction, a number of literary and cultural essays and a number of short stories under pseudonyms.
He was educated at Lancaster University in the early 1970s and helped in the production of Fireweed, the Lancaster based magazine edited by David Craig and Nigel Grey.
In the early 1980s he was one of the founders of the Black Horse Poets in Preston and several of his plays have been given rehearsed readings in the London Fringe.
Jennifer Copley – “Poet of the domestic Gothic”
“Copley gets into the dank and dripping hearts of her characters” (Mslexia). Jennifer lives in Barrow and frequently appears for readings on this side of the Bay. She will be launching her new pamphlet Living Daylights (published by Happenstance), the latest of five collections. These include Unsafe Monuments (Arrowhead 2006) and Beans in Snow (Smokestack 2009 ).
She has published widely and has been well placed in many competitions including national winner in the Faber/Ottakar Competition of 2005, second place in the Academi 2007 and third in the Bridport 2010. She has also been shortlisted for the Strokestown Prize. Individual poems have been published in The Rialto, The North, The Independent on Sunday and in the Forward Prize Anthology. In 2010 her work was included in GCSE Poetry unseen Revision papers.
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| Jo Gillot |
The night rounds off with music by Jo Gillot, described as “an astonishing new voice” by Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 2. A remarkably talented musician and lyricist, Jo has just released her latest CD The Lido.
• April Poets in November: 7.30 Thursday 10th November, The Storey Auditorium, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster