Ian Duhig Opens T S Eliot Prize 2013

As part of his role as a judge of this year’s T S Eliot Prize, poet Ian Duhig, will be opening the T S Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings event at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall at 7pm on Sunday 12th January 2014 by reading a poem by TS Eliot. 

The evening is one of the biggest, and best attended, poetry events in the UK, and will be hosted by Ian McMillan. 

The judges have chosen the shortlist from 113 books submitted by publishers:
Helen Mort – Division Street (Chatto & Windus)
Robin Robertson – Hill of Doors (Picador)
Sinéad Morrissey – Parallax (Carcanet)
Maurice Riordan – The Water Stealer (Faber)
Daljit Nagra – Ramayana: A Retelling (Faber)
Dannie Abse – Speak, Old Parrot (Hutchinson)
Michael Symmons Roberts – Drysalter (Jonathan Cape)
George Szirtes – Bad Machine (Bloodaxe)
Anne Carson – Red Doc  (Jonathan Cape)
Moniza Alvi – At the Time of Partition (Bloodaxe)

All shortlisted poets will be reading from their work with the exception of Anne Carson. Poet and critic Ruth Padel will read in her place.

The Prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best new poetry collection published in the UK or Ireland. It is unique as it is always judged by a panel of established poets and it has been described by Sir Andrew Motion as 'the Prize most poets want to win'.

 

To book, go to  www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/ts-eliot-prize-readings-2014-79223 or call 0844 875 0073.

London Literature Festival Event - Sylvia Plath's 'Ariel' - Sunday 26th May 2013, Southbank Centre

Sylvia Plath died 50 years ago leaving a black binder of poems that was to become her final, posthumously published collection, Ariel.

Now 40 leading female poets and performers read one poem each from the restored edition of the final unedited manuscript in an evening introduced by Plath's daughter, Frieda Hughes.

The readers are - Maureen Beattie, Emily Berry, Lily Bevan, Samantha Bond, Emily Bruni, Kirsty Bushell, Anna Chancellor, Gillian Clarke, Julia Copus, Claire-Louise Cordwell, Imtiaz Dharker, Amanda Drew, Noma Dumezweni, Ruth Fainlight, Kate Fahy, Vicki Feaver, Deborah Findlay, Stella Gonet, Haydn Gwynne, Victoria Hamilton, Anastasia Hille, Joan Iyiola, Phyllis Logan, Amy McAllister, Lizzy McInnerny, Pamela Miles, Amy Morgan, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Siobhan Redmond, Miranda Richardson, Jo Shapcott, Jean Sprackland, Gerda Stevenson, Juliet Stevenson, Harriet Walter, and Susan Wooldridge.

'In these poems… Sylvia Plath becomes herself, becomes something imaginary, newly, wildly and subtly created.' (Robert Lowell)

You can book your tickets here.

Wanted - London Poets and UK Artists!

A new project for 2013. 

Jaybird Live Literature and Southbank Centre are planning a large scale poetry commissioning project for Summer and Autumn 2013.

They are going to find one poet connected to each of London's 33 boroughs* and ask them to create a new poem inspired or provoked by that borough.

They will then introduce each poet to an artist (visual, theatrical or digital) who will interpret the new poem and send it out into the world: launching it from a relevant borough location, from a space in Southbank Centre as part of the 2013 Neighbourhood Festival, and from the web.

They need poets, one of them connected to every London borough. Poets can be well established or just starting out, they can write in English or other languages, they can be native or adopted Londoners, they can be page or performance poets - but they must be able to respond to a specific commission creatively and professionally. It is unlikely that we will select poets who are still unpublished beyond magazine level, or who have as yet only given a couple of performances. A poet's connection with a borough may be that s/he lives /d there, was born there, works/ed there or experienced some genuinely significant life event there. (What's my borough? Check here.)

They need artists who can work imaginatively with text, whether visually, theatrically or digitally. They must be UK based, but they do not need to be London based. Artists can be individuals, partners or collectives, they can be well established or just starting out - but they must be able respond to a specific commission creatively and professionally and create an interpretation of an existing poem which is sympathetic to the qualities of that poem, and which is conceptually and / or physically robust. We are unlikely to select artists with no track record of delivering similar work.

If you can project a giant poem in light up the side of a wall, if you can make a poem grow in moss graffiti, if you can send a poem in morse code to search for extra terrestrial life (or similar!) we'd like to hear from you. We are looking for performances, happenings, large and small-scale installations, takeaways ... whatever delights us. Please bear in mind that while some interpretations will have a budget of £1,000s, most will have budget of £100s. We need your ideas and skills to carry our newly commissioned poems into the hearts of Londoners throughout 2013.

This new project will be managed by Julia Bird of Jaybird Live Literature; and Bea Colley, Participation Producer at Southbank Centre and one of the organisers of Poetry Parnassus in 2012.

How to Recommend ...
Poets and poet recommenders: please email Julia and Bea at 33boroughspoetry@gmail.com with your / the poet's name, your / their borough if you know it, and a link to your / their website or online presence. We do not need detailed CVs or suggestions at this stage, just enough information to be able to follow up if we choose. Please title your email 'Poet Recommendation'.

Artists and artist recommenders: please email Julia and Bea at 33boroughspoetry@gmail.com with your / the artist's or collective's name and a link to your / their website or online presence. We do not need detailed CVs or suggestions at this stage, just enough information to be able to follow up if we choose. Please title your email 'Artist Recommendation'.

A more detailed brief will be provided for poets and artists who are selected to take part.

All recommendations must be received by 18th February 2013.

The delivery of this project will take place in three stages over Summer and Autumn 2013 and the poets and artists we select will be notified within plenty of notice of any commissioning deadline. Because of the expected volume of recommendations, we will probably not be able to respond individually to the poets and artists we don't select. Details of the selected poets and artists will be announced on this website.

Please note 1: Organisers are expecting to receive many more recommendations than there are opportunities. Between them, Jaybird and Southbank Centre manage many poetry-related projects so all individuals will be borne in mind for possible future projects even if they are not selected to take part in this one.

Please note 2: This project depends in part on a successful Arts Council England funding bid. The poets' and artists' commissions will be paid opportunities, but no-one will be officially commissioned until the funding is in place.

* 32 boroughs, plus the City of London

Source: The Poetry Library

Sunday 13th January 2013 TS ELIOT PRIZE READINGS

Hear the poets shortlisted for the 2012 TS Eliot Prize read from their collections, in what has become one of the most loved and spell-binding events of the literary calendar. The poets are Simon Armitage, Sean Borodale, Gillian Clarke, Julia Copus, Paul Farley, Jorie Graham, Kathleen Jamie, Sharon Olds, Jacob Polley and Deryn Rees-Jones.

Royal Festival Hall, 7pm £15, £12
10% discount if you book before 30th November 2012

Contact the Southbank Centre

National Shake the Dust Weekend

Thursday 5th – Saturday 7th July | Southbank Centre

Three unmissable days of spoken word, featuring some of the most celebrated spoken word artists performing today, including Saul Williams, Kate Tempest, Lemn Sissay, Dizraeli and the Small Gods and many more. Plus films, music, FREE events and the UK‘s biggest ever youth poetry slam! The Shake the Dust Champions, young poets from across the UK, will join forces with Southbank’s London Literature Festival to share a stage with top spoken word artists. shakethedust.co.uk