Poets published by Templar Poetry are reading and appearing at numerous poetry festivals, events and venues across the UK and Ireland in March, including the Poetry Now International Poetry Festival in Ireland, The Seamus Heaney Centre in Belfast, the Stanza Poetry Festival in Scotland and anthology launch events in Dublin and Cardiff . Details and links appear below, and as some are coming up in the next few days, so please scroll down by author.

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Maggie O’Dwyer is one of four  poets in the shortlist for the prestigious Rupert and Eithne Strong Awards for best first collection by an Irish poet in 2009.  A winner in the 2008 Templar Poetry Pamphlet & Collection Prizes with her pamphlet Yes, I’d love to Dance,  her first collection, Laughter heard from the Road, was launched at the Derwent Poetry Festival in Derbyshire,  November 2009. She will read at the DLR Poetry Now Festival Awards event on Sunday 28th March, where the winner will be announced.

Click here for a link to Maggie O’Dwyer’s work.

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Jane Weir is the  guest poet reading at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at  Queens University, Belfast on Thursday 11th March, from Walking the Block,  her pioneering and innovative poetic biography of the modernist textile designers Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher, and from her current and previous work.

Jane Weir will also be reading at The White House, Limerick on  17th March.

Click here for a link to Jane Weir’s work.

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Paul Maddern , one of the winners in the 2009 Templar Poetry Pamphlet Prizes is reading tomorrow, Friday, March 5th,  at a Lunchbox Event at  The Seamus Heaney Centre where John Thompson, the retiring Head of the School of English at Queen’s University Belfast, is presenting a selection of his favourite texts. The event will include readings by Ciaran Carson, Sinead Morrissey, Leontia Flynn, Glenn Patterson, Ian Sansom and Paul Maddern (Kelpdings, Templar Poetry, 2009).

Friday, March 5th @1.00pm.

53-61 Institute of Governance,

University Road,

Queen’s University

Belfast.

Paul Maddern will also be reading the next day, at  the Dublin launch of Landing Places, a new anthology of immigrant poetry in Ireland. Saturday @ 4.30pm, March 6th, Dublin City Hall, Dame St.

Click here for a link to Paul Maddern’s work.

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Pat Winslow,  Judge for the 2010 Templar Poetry Pamphlet & Collection Prizes, is reading in Oxford on 12^th March with R V Bailey, Kate Foley, Joy Howard and  Christine Webb,  Friday 12^th March 2010,6.30 – 8pm at:

The Jam Factory,

27 Park End St,

Oxford,

OX1 1HU

(Entrance through restaurant on Hollybush Row) Tel:01865 244613    http://www.patwinslow.uk/

Click here for a link to Pat Winslow’s work.

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Katrina Naomi, currently the first writer-in-residence at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire, has several readings coming up which can also be viewed on Katrina’s website.

Fri 5 March - reading at Ware Poets, Ware Arts Centre, Kibes Lane, Ware, Herts SG12, plus open mic – 8 pm £4/£2.50

Sat 6 March – reading poems based on modern day fairy tales at Book Club Boutique, Blacks, Dean Street, London W1 with Dzifa Benson and others – 3.30-6.30 pm

Sat 27 March – Poetry in the Crypt – reading with Joanna Boulter and Phil Kirby, St Mary’s Crypt, Upper St, Islington, London N1- 7 pm £4/£3 – includes cake! All proceeds to Hospice Care Kenya.

Click here for a link to Katrina Naomi’s work.

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Dawn Wood , whose first collection, Quarry, was shortlisted in the 2009 Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, has a response to one of the poems from the collection, ‘The Silver Stag’, represented in a site specific installation featured in ‘Turn the corner – art in unexpected places’ exhibition at the Stanza Poetry Festival in St Andrews, 17th -21st March.

Click here for a link to Dawn Wood’s work.

Fanny Lam Christie’s work explores the complex relationship between the natural environment and human interventions in nature, and this scultpure installation questions where the balance of this complex relationship should be

http://www.fannychristie.com

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Simone Mansell Broome is very busy with several events in Wales, including the launch of a new anthology The Voice of Women in Wales on Wednesday 10th March 6 – 8pm. Booking details are available from suzy-barrett@wwnc.org.uk and full details of workshops hosted by Simone at Ceridwen, Drefach Felindre, Carmarthenshire, SA44 5XE over the weekend commencing 12^th March are posted on  http://simonemb.com/

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Cliff Forshaw is  pleased to announce his new website, and also suggests a few others which may be of interest:

http://versepalace.wordpress.com/

Hull University’s Larkin Centre for Poetry and Creative Writing,

http://www.hull.ac.uk/fass/department_of_english/the_larkin_centre.aspx

Flarestack Poets: http://www.flarestackpoets.co.uk/

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Sarah James is reading March 6, Droitwich Arts 4 All, Norbury Theatre, Droitwich, Worcs, at 2.35 along with a combined photography and poetry display, and offering a preview of her collection ‘Into the Yell’ to be published by Circaidy Gregory Press http://www.circaidygregory.co.uk in July.

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Helen Moore is reading at The Parlour, 97-99, Clerkenwell Rd, London, on Saturday 6th March sometime between 4-6pm, more information on http://welcometotheparlour.com/schedule.php and at the Garden Cafe, in Frome, Somerset, at 8pm on Monday March 8th as part of an International Women’s Day fundraising event.
Helen Moore – ecopoet, children’s author, community artist, Forest Schools practitioner
www.natures-words.co.uk/
www.bathforestschool.com/

Maggie O’Dwyer’s first collection, Laughter Heard from the Road, has been shortlisted in the Rupert and Eithne Strong Awards for best first poetry collection written by an Irish author. The full shortlist can be viewed on http://poetrynow.ie/brochure10.pdf

She will read from her collection at The Strong Reading and Award for Best First Collection on Sunday 28^th March, along with the three other poets on the shortlist, where the winner will be announced.

The 2010 dlr Poetry Now International Festival is one of the premier poetry festivals in these islands and  features a selection of internationally renowned poets. The full programme and booking information can be viewed on the link above.

Maggie O’Dwyer was a previous winner of the Templar Poetry Pamphlet & Collection Prizes (2008) with her pamphlet Yes, I’d Love to Dance. She is the second poet in the last few months to be shortlisted in a first collection prize. Dawn Wood’s Quarry was shortlisted in the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize in November 2009.

Full details of the Templar Poetry list and the 2010 Templar Poetry Pamphlet & Collection Prizes can be viewed on http://templarpoetry.co.uk

More than a hundred souls braved the snowy wastes of London a couple of weeks back (11.1.10) to bring in the new poetry decade and the first poetry of the year at The Troubadour Coffee House Poetry sessions. Among the poets reading were two recent winners of the Templar Poetry Pamphlet Prizes, Katrina Naomi and Paul Maddern. Alex McMillen, Managing Editor at Templar talked to Malachi O’Doherty during the interval about poetry pamphlets.

You can listen to the interview at http://modoherty.net/WORDPRESS/?p=469

…which will also take you to Malachi’s ongoing news on the arts in Belfast and Northern Ireland…

More information on the regular Coffee House Poetry sessions at The Troubadour will be found at

http://coffeehousepoetry.org/

Templar Poetry in association with The Irish Writers’ Centre

invite you to the launch of Maggie O’Dwyer’s First Collection,

Laughter Heard from the Road, introduced by Paula Meehan.

THURSDAY 28th JANUARY AT 7.00PM

@

THE IRISH WRITERS’ CENTRE

19 PARNELL SQUARE
DUBLIN 1

http://www.templarpoetry.co.uk/maggieodwyer

The Third Derwent Poetry Festival will take place over the weekend of 20th – 22nd November. The festival launches nine new titles from Templar, including the four new pamphlets from the 2009 Pamphlet and Collection Competition which was judged by Tim Liardet.

The winners were Paul Maddern, David Morley, Nuala Ni Choncuir and Dawn Wood. Many of the shortlisted poets will also be reading from the competition anthology.

There are three new collections, from Nigel McLouglin, Maggie O’Dywer and Katrina Naomi along with a new pamphlet from Jane Weir.

You can view the full festival programme on the Festival page of the website

The 2009 shortlist for the 2009 Aldeburgh First Collection Prize – one of the most important and established poetry prizes in the UK – signals the arrival of five authentic and distinctive poets and a flourishing small press industry.

Judge David Constantine says “contemporary poetry in the UK is thriving” with 2009 seeing a record 92 entries.

Sian Hughes             The Missing (Salt Publishing)

J O Morgan              Natural Mechanical (C B Editions)

Andrew Philip           The Ambulance Box (Salt Publishing)

Philip Rush               Big Purple Garden Paintings (Yew Tree Press)

Dawn Wood             Quarry (Templar Poetry)

Judge, Mimi Khalvati says “There was a great deal of consensus among the judges: all the books in our final shortlist are either intellectually or emotionally compelling”.

Michael Laskey, Chair of the judging panel says “This is a strong shortlist – five absorbing and very different books that demonstrate the range and relevance of the best contemporary poetry.”

The Aldeburgh First Collection Prize is valuable not just for its cash prize of £3,000, but also for the emphasis on identifying and developing talent. The winner receives a week of ‘protected’ writing time on the inspirational Suffolk coast and – most crucially – a fee-paying invitation to read and participate in the 2010 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.

The Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, established in 1989 was the first award designed to recognise and benefit a poet at first book stage. Supported from 2003-2008 by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation (as the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize), it is one of the UK’s oldest and most influential prizes for contemporary poetry.

The three-poet judging panel was chaired by Michael Laskey with David Constantine and Mimi Khalvati.The winner of The Aldeburgh Fist Collection Prize will be announced on Saturday 7 November during the 21^st Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, 6-8 November 2009. The annual Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, this year celebrating its 21^st birthday, (6-8 November 2009) is the Trust’s core and most high profile activity. www.thepoetrytrust.org

Previous Aldeburgh First Collection Prize winners include Robin Robertson (1997), Colette Bryce (2000), Henry Shukman (2002) and Nick Laird (2005).

Walking the Block by Jane Weir has been shortlisted in the Literature category of the British Book Design and Production Awards 2009 ( www.britishbookawards.org ). Conceived, written and designed by Jane Weir, who worked with the archives of the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham and the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester,  the book is an innovative and experimental poetic biography of the modernist handblock printers and textile designers, Phyllis Barron and Dorothy, whose work was championed by the art critic Roger Fry and commissioned by numerous clients, including Coco Chanel, Girton College, Cambridge, Winchester Cathedral and the Duke of Westminster. Phyllis and Dorothy upheld the Arts and Crafts tradition of using natural dyes, long after many others had abandoned these for the fast and cheaper chemical dyes. They were particularly interested in indigo, and their work was always hand printed using their own carved wooden and lino blocks. One of their apprentices, Enid Marx, went on to design the upholstery for London Underground carriages among many other public commissions.

The book is experimental in literary terms because very little of their lives is recorded through letters or other documents and Jane Weir has focused on the extensive and meticulously collected sample books and archive collections of their textiles as the primary source in preparing and writing the biography. The sample books held at the Crafts Study Centre were assembled by Phyllis Barron in collaboration with the educationist Roger Tanner and his wife Heather, and they tell the story of their creative lives. There is also an extensive archive of their hand printed textiles held at the Whitworth Art gallery in Manchester.

Barron and Larcher, trained painters, met after the first war at the Brook Street Gallery, London and spent most of their working lives together in Painswick, Gloucestershire, converting the outbuildings of Hambutts House into a studio for the production of their textiles. They worked with a team of local women and apprentices printing lengths of cloth and maintained indigo and other dying vats alongside the large printing tables in an extensive and self contained arts and crafts enterprise.

Jane Weir worked for three years on the book which was also designed  by her and printed with vegetable inks on paper manufactured from sustainable forests.

Two other books are shortlisted in the Literature Category: Weeds and Wildflowers (Faber) by Alice Oswald and The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (Atlantic). The results will be announced at the Awards event in London on 29th October.

The 2009 Derwent Poetry Festival will take place in the Arkwright Suite at Masson Mills, Matlock Bath over the weekend of 20th – 22nd November and will launch four prize winning  pamphlets and the competition anthology. Alongside the poetry from the annual Pamphlet and Collection Prizes there are first collections from Maggie O’Dwyer’s Laughter Heard from the Road and Katrina Naomi’s The Girl with the Cactus Handshake. Nigel McLouglin, the new Iota Poetry Editor launches Chora, New and Selected Poems and Jane Weir will launch her new pamphlet Signs of Early Man. Three issues of the new Iota magazine will be available and the Templar Poetry Bookshop will be open throughout the festival. The  new pamphlet and anthology authors are:

Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car,

David Morley, The Rose of the Moon,

Dawn Wood, Connoisseur

Paul Maddern, Kelpdings

The competition anthology, Stripe, publishes poetry from:

Josephine Abbott, Yuko Minamikawa Adams, John Arnold, Ann Atkinson, Miles Cain, Liz Cashdan,

Matt Clegg, Katherine Crocker, Josh Ekroy, Cliff Forshaw, Naomi Foyle, Linda France, Charlotte Gann, Mike Horwood,

Sarah James, Vivien Jones, Simone Mansell Broome, Matt Merritt, Pat Murgatroyd, Christopher North,

Jeremy Page, Pauline Rowe, Anne Stewart, Pauline Suett Barbieri, Kay Syrad, Susan Taylor, Jen Wainwright,

Lou Wilford, Gina Wilson, Pam Zinnemann Hope.