Poetry

Sundays; 7.30pm; £6/5 according to pocket

There have been poetry readings on Sunday nights at Torriano Meeting House since 1982. As well as the evening’s main readers invited from a broad range of literary practice, there are usually a number of  ‘poets from the floor’, who may include full-time poets and also beginners presenting a piece in public for the first time. The range has spanned Stephen Spender and John Heath-Stubbs to Labi Siffre and John Hegley.

The publishers Hearing Eye was born from the Sunday readings and has its base at Torriano.

Torriano Poetry readings 2023

LIVE

Sundays 7.30pm. £6/£5 according to pocket, cash on door. Poets from the floor welcome.

22 January: In the Company of Poets. Dan Kennedy hosts an evening of poets from the floor, come to read or listen. 

29 January 7.30pm: Jacqueline Saphra and Sue Johns

5 February Poets from the floor hosted by Dan Kennedy

12 February Poets from the floor hosted by Dan Kennedy

19 February Poets from the floor hosted by Dan Kennedy

26 February Poets from the floor hosted by Dan Kennedy

5 March Poets from the floor hosted by Dan Kennedy

12 March – Julian Bishop and Viv Fogel introduced by Cheryl Moskowitz
Julian Bishop’s first collection of eco poems called We Saw It All Happen was published earlier this year by Fly On The Wall Press. The book asks whether bearing witness to the climate emergency is enough or whether it’s an excuse for disclaiming responsibility. A former environment journalist turned poet. He’s worked for many years as both reporter and producer with the BBC and also on ITV’s News At Ten. Many of his poems are based on news stories.

19 March  Louise Warren & Alan Price with pictures by Charlotte Harker & Herve Constant
Louise Warren’s latest collection is ‘Sometime, in a Churchyard’ a collaboration with artist Charlotte Harker . Inspired by visits to St Pancras Old Churchyard and published by Paekakariki Press. There will be an exhibition of drawings and prints from the book on display at Torriano during March, and a chance to meet the artist after the reading.

Alan Price has collaborated with the Moroccan born abstract artist Herve Constant in ‘Bewilderment’ (The Martello Press 2022. His interest in the visual arts is also on show in ‘The Cinephile Poems ‘(The High Window Press 2023) a book of prose poems illustrated with B & W film images.

26th March Dominic Fisher and Kathy Pimlott intro by Pauline Sewards
For many years Dominic Fisher was an English language teacher before turning his full attention to poetry. He is a co-editor of Raceme magazine, and a member of poetry performance group the IsamBards. His poems have won competitions, been widely published, and sometimes broadcast. He lives in Bristol near the allotment he shares with sparrows and foxes, and his second collection, A Customised Selection of Fireworks, was published by Shoestring Press last May.

Kathy Pimlott’s collection, the small manoeuvres, was published by Verve Poetry Press in spring 2022. She has two pamphlets with the Emma Press, Elastic Glue​, (2019) and Goose Fair Night (2016). Her poems have been published widely in magazines, including Magma, Mslexia, Rialto, The North, Poem, Finished Creatures and Under the Radar and in many anthologies Kathy lives in Seven Dials, Covent Garden, home of the broadsheet and the ballad.www.kathypimlott.co.uk

ONLINE
Every Sunday at 6.30pm Joan Michelson is hosting an online Poetry in Cyberspace. All welcome to read or listen. Free.
Join us there:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3940991487?pwd=VXN0djNHU0F5M2pDK0dscXdRTkJwZz09
Meeting ID: 394 099 1487
Passcode: 8dFNdWq

 

ONLINE
Every Sunday at 6.30pm Joan Michelson is hosting an online Poetry in Cyberspace. All welcome to read or listen. Free.
Bring poems to read or just listen. Join us there:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3940991487?pwd=VXN0djNHU0F5M2pDK0dscXdRTkJwZz09
Meeting ID: 394 099 1487
Passcode: 8dFNdWq