Robin Houghton, Peter Kenny, Sarah Barnsley, Tamar Yoseloff & Sue Rose
We had a great time at the Poetry Cafe last night. These things are never without drama! Firstly, Tamar Yoseloff wasn’t at all well, so it was touch and go whether she could be there – so we were mighty relieved and grateful to see her.
Then there had clearly been some mix-up at the Poetry Cafe, as a number of the audience clearly weren’t expecting our event. It was actually standing room only in the end, and although we sweltered a bit no-one really minded. One person who turned up expecting an open mic was disappointed, but a number of others did stay and one person made a point of saying she was glad she did.
Our guest readers gave wonderful readings – Sue’s included some of the poems from her sonnet sequence Heart Archives, a combination of fourteen sonnets inspired by love and loved ones, and her own photos. It’s a really beautiful book, lovely production values, from Hercules Editions. And Tamar read from (and gave some background to) her new book Nowheres, a collaboration with artist David Harker, whose exhibition Drawing the Line is on display at the Poetry Cafe until June 27th. You can read John Field’s review of Nowheres here.
We were very proud to introduce Sarah Barnsley in her first reading for Telltale, a preview of some of the poems from her forthcoming pamphlet The Fire Station.
The audience included two visiting professors from the State University of New York at Oswego, Laura Donnelly and Adrienne McCormick, and a number of their students, which was great fun. And we couldn’t NOT invite Laura to read a couple of her own poems while in London!