A chance to hear from award winning author and poet

Much loved children’s author Michael Rosen will give a unique insight into his career during a special event at Teesside University.

Michael is famed for family favourites such as We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and Uncle Billy, Being Silly, but his poems for grown-ups are less well known.

He is visiting Teesside University on Wednesday 4 November to talk about his work and to read from Don’t Mention the Children, his first collection of poems in almost a decade.

Fans of Michael’s poetry enjoy the way his work combines the silly and the sinister to catch the serialism of everyday life.

Don’t Mention the Children is a remarkable series of poems about anti-Semitism, Fascism and War, connecting the contemporary world – UKIP, Marine le Pen, Palestine – to the lives of Michael’s parents and grandparents.

The title of the poetry collection refers to the refusal of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority to allow the names of the children that were killed during the shelling of Gaza in 2014 to be read out on air.

Michael Lavery, Executive Director (External Relations) at Teesside University, said: “We are delighted to welcome somebody of Michael Rosen’s stature to Teesside University. He is one of a number of inspiring artists we have had on campus and I’m sure the whole university community will be interested to hear him read from his latest work and learn more about his remarkable career.”

An Audience with Michael Rosen will take place on 4 November, from 5.00pm to 7.00pm, in The Curve building.

His appearance is part of an ongoing partnership between the University and Middlesbrough’s Smokestack Books to bring poetry to the heart of the community with a series of readings and events.

Syrian-born poet Amir Darwish, whose work has been published in the USA, Pakistan and Mexico, will be reading from his new collection, Don’t Forget the Couscous, on Wednesday 14 October, from 6.00pm, in The Curve building.

Amir came to the UK as an asylum seeker during the second Gulf war and he went on to obtain a history degree from Teesside University.

His latest book of poetry is about exile and home and is described as a love song to the Arab world.

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Find out more about the poetry events on campus and book a place