This coming Tuesday 24 March, we’re greeting spring with an evening of poetry in West Greenwich library from 7 for 7.30pm GMT, thanks to marvellous Irena Hill of In-Words. I’m enormously honoured to be reading (from Safe Ground, Mica Press, launched there in April last year) alongside NJ Hynes and Susannah Hart, with music by harpist Lucia Foti. We’ll be focussed on home and where we find it, with wine, Irena’s home-made cakes and the best of company.
With summer properly under way now on this marvellous north Kent coast, I’m looking forward to two poetry events this month. On Wednesday 9 July, 2025, 5.30 – 7.30pm, I’ll be reading (from Safe Ground and earlier books), alongside published poets Nancy Charley, Setareh Ebrahimi and Melinda Walker at the SECRET GARDEN CENTRE IN QUEX, BIRCHINGTON, KENT. The Secret Garden centre is one of the great delights of this area and poetry is coming to it for the first time, with music by the Jive Bros. If you’d like to bring a poem to celebrate gardens, nature and the zest of life generally – your own or a beloved classic – there’s an open mic too. Book your place in advance by contacting the centre’s shop. Tickets are £5 each to include refreshments. Please come if you can 🙂
On Tuesday 29 July, 2025, 7 – 9pm, I will be featured poet at Graeme Bosley’s Summer ‘Spoken by the Sea’ event in THE LITTLE GREEN BOOKSHOP, 38 HIGH STREET, HERNE BAY CT6 5LH. These evenings are really popular and you are welcome to join in their excellent open mic. Many thanks, Graeme, for the invitation to read.
Our poetry event at West Greenwich Library in south east London last week has left such a lovely glow. Everything was beautifully organised and hosted by Irena Hill of in-words.co.uk – her 59th event in a series of exquisite poetic experiences – and I am deeply grateful to have been asked to read. Huge thanks to everybody who was there. A few photos, starting with Irena and In-Words
Our poets above are Jane McLaughlin, Alex Josephy, Mick Delap and myself (with Irena in the middle)
Below with NJ Hynes and Gillie Robic
Irena’s next event is on NOVEMBER 26th at West Greenwich Library – an evening with poets who write in English while English is not their native language, she says – with Natan Barreto, Isabel Bermudez and Kostya Tsolakis (and more). Please come if you can.
This Thursday is World Poetry Day and I look forward to reading in Ashford library in Kent, from 6.30pm, alongside these excellent poets:
Maggie Harris was born in Guyana and has lived in Kent since 1972. A poet, prose writer and memoirist, awards include Kent’s Outstanding Adult Learner, The Guyana Prize, Commonwealth Short Story Prize and The Wales Poetry Award. Her poem ‘Canterbury’ is displayed in the city’s Westgate Garden, and the BBC-commissioned her poem for Kent, ‘Lit by Fire’, about the North Foreland Lighthouse.
Christopher Horton was a prize winner in the National Poetry Competition and the Bridport Prize and won first prize in the South Downs Poetry Festival Competition in 202. His pamphlet, Perfect Timing, was released by Tall-Lighthouse Press in 2021.
Jessica Taggart Rose is a writer and editor fascinated by human nature, the nature of time and our interactions with the natural world. She has poems published in the Letters to the Earth, Storm Chasers and ‘New Contexts’ anthologies, Confluence Magazine, Full House and Three Drops from a Cauldron. A founding member of Poets for the Planet, she lives in Margate where she helps to run the Margate Bookie Lit Festival and Margate Poetry Stanza.
This is going to be a really exciting evening. Many thanks to Christopher and the library for organising it. You can book your tickets at £2.50 each here.
On Tuesday 5 March, 2024 at 7pm, I am honoured to be one of the Live Canon poets reading at In-Words’ Shakespeare event in West Greenwich Library, London SE10. Organiser Irena Hill says:
‘Local writer and scholar Neville Grant will talk about some aspects of his recently published book Shakespeare in an Age of Anxiety (Greenwich Exchange, 2023) – his motivation and process of writing, and a very 21st century perspective (our own age of anxiety).
Neville’s talk will be followed by readings from 154 (Live Canon 2016), an amazing project where each of 154 poets responds to one of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. Lorraine Mariner, Gillie Robic, Rosie Johnston, NJ Hynes, Doreen Hinchliffe and Nick Elsen form the outstanding line-up.
With many thanks to James Hodgson of Greenwich Exchange and Helen Eastman of Live Canon.’
Details of everyone’s CVs are on Irena’s website here. She omits to mention that wine and her fabulous home-made cakes will on offer too. Please join us if you can for this unique evening.
WORDS ON WAVES at HARBOUR BOOKS, WHITSTABLE has been warming our literary souls this winter and our next fabulous event is this coming THURSDAY, 7 MARCH 2019 from 6.45pm.
On the eve of International Women’s Day, we are proud to bring you The Rockhoppers (Maggie Harris, Mel Perry & Jackie Biggs) along with songwriter Jacqui Selby, Luigi Marchini, Sally Turner and Roger Tooth. A fascinating mix as ever, with me as your host.
Words On Waves is a series of monthly spoken word evenings showcasing a variety of writing talent and has a tendency to sell out fast. Writers of all genres have ten minutes each to amuse and amaze you, with a break at half time to refresh glasses. Tickets at only £3 each include wine.
Please book your seat by phoning 01227264011 or calling into the shop.
Rosie Johnston 