Partnership is poetry in motion

A trio of poetry readings are taking place at Teesside University to launch the start of a partnership to bring poetry to the heart of the community.

The University has teamed up with Middlesbrough’s Smokestack Books, an independent publisher of radical and unconventional poetry, to host the readings which will be the start of a regular series of poetry readings and events.

The readings are free to attend and will feature some of the biggest names in contemporary poetry. They are open to the University community and members of the public.

Opening the series on Tuesday 20 January is Ian Duhig. Ian has won the Forward Prize and the National Poetry Competition and has been shortlisted three times for the TS Eliot Prize. His books include The Bradford Count, The Lammas Hireling, The Speed of Dark and Pandorama’. His latest collection, Digressions, marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Tristram Shandy author Laurence Sterne.

His reading takes place at 6.00pm in the University’s Athena Building, A2.01.

Following on Tuesday 24 February is Jo Colley, a well-known figure on the Teesside poetry scene. Jo’s books include As If, Punchdrunk and Weeping for the Lovely Phantoms. Her new collection Bones of Birds is about flying and falling, about the earth and the sky, a celebration of all those who achieve the miracle of flight, and of those who struggle to accept our earthbound lives.

Her reading also takes place at 6.00pm in the University’s Athena Building, A2.01.

Visual Journalist and award-winning cartoonist Martin Rowson, who contributes cartoons to The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Mirror, will be exhibiting his work in the University’s Constantine Gallery from 9 to 20 March. He will also be giving a poetry reading on Tuesday 17 March.

Martin’s books include graphic adaptations of The Waste Land, Tristram Shandy and Gulliver’s Travels. Between 2006 and 2013, he regularly made a fool of himself in The Independent on Sunday by reducing the work of some of the world’s best-loved writers to a series of puerile and filthy limericks.

His reading takes place at 6.00pm in the University’s Centuria Building, H0.01.

All readings are free to attend. For further information, email arts@tees.ac.uk.

Professor Gerda Roper, Dean of the School of Arts & Media at Teesside University, said: 'We are delighted to be working in partnership with Smokestack Books to bring together the first series of intuitive and informative poetry readings.

'The University will be welcoming some of the biggest names in contemporary poetry and I am certain that this is just the beginning of a long and successful collaboration that will provide a major cultural initiative for the area.'

Smokestack Editor, Middlesbrough-based poet Andy Croft added: 'Following the success of the recent T-junction international poetry festival in Middlesbrough, Smokestack is delighted to be working again with Teesside University to bring some of the most interesting contemporary poets to the region.'

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