Read This News
16/08/2008: Festival Fever is gripping Edinburgh, and Read This' editors are caught up in the frenzy! If you've noticed a distinct lack of copies of RT9 around the place, then you're not going mad... RT9 still hasn't happened. In the absence of Ed-in-Chief Claire (who decided to swan off on holiday for a month), and after the madness of June (RT8 events, graduations, house moves and visa applications aplenty among the eds), RT9 unfortunately had to be pushed back a month. However, fear not -- the issue should be on all the usual shelves (and winging its way to you if you're one of the talented contributors!) in the next few days.
Right here, though, we have the August/September web features for you to enjoy. There's saucy prose from Paul Heatley, and for the first time we have some drama on the RT website, courtesy of Gary Beck (check it out in the poetry section -- a drama section is now being lined up for the site!). Naturally, we also have heaps of great poetry... Anna Jacob chases the Muse, and Beatesque hipster Joseph Grant adds RT to his many writing credits. We're also featuring a poem by our very own poetry ed Hayley Shields, who was recently selected to read at Blackwells' 'Best of Scottish Writing' event alongside poets Anna Dickie and Esther Woolfson. She gave a brilliant first-ever reading, so congrats Hayley!
THE LONDON POETRY FESTIVAL 2008
Read This went 'on tour' this summer, first appearing at the Ocean Island Lounge in Victoria, Canada, and then hot-footing it to the 4th annual London Poetry Festival, which ran from 8th - 11th August. Our Ed-in-Chief, Claire, was Poet in Residence and a co-organiser, and she not only had a great time and read three cracking sets -- she also shifted dozens of back-issues of Read This to our adoring fans.
There were brilliant readings on two of the four nights from Catherine Brogan and Joshua Seigal (whose pieces for children were particularly good), both of whom brought a strong performance element to the Festival. Reading for three nights was the lovely Sharon Harriott, who read some strong, gritty, urban pieces really well despite the nerves; and present for all four nights of the Festival was Bloodaxe poet Sarah Wardle, reading from her excellent forthcoming collection A Knowable World. Sarah's work is truly great, and we're happy to say it will feature in Read This 9!
Mentions must also go to Helen Long, who only read for one evening but whose smart and whimsical work was a real highlight. Tall-lighthouse poet Graham Buchan read a variety of work from his two books and CD, Radio Pussycat. Richard Deakin made his mark on Saturday night with a brilliant and biting 9/11-inspired poem, and Edinburgh-based (and RT-featured!) poet Lauren Elizabeth Pope read from her pamphlet Test Landings and also presented her funny and tragic play Medusa's Snakes, currently running in the Edinburgh Festival. There were also strong readings on Saturday and Sunday night from '07 Poet-In-Residence Tricia Peak, Bryan Oliver (who read poetry and a dramatic monologue) and Laura Bartholomew, with a particularly engaging set from Anna Lindup, who shuttled between touching humour and shocking tragedy in her beautifully-crafted poems. There were some great open mic readers too, including the nervous but impressive Claude Romero, and the truly, truly brilliant John Clarke, whose Beat-and-jazz inspired pieces (many from his CD, The Way I Like My Jazz) were a joy to hear.
Claire read on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and also helped to organise the event, with a little help from her sister (one-time Read This artist) Helen Askew, and Poets' Letter artist, the lovely Siobhan Lennon. However, credit for the whole event goes to the brilliant and inspiring Munayem Mayenin, who organised the Festival from start to finish, and whose poetry appears on the site this month. The London Poetry Festival will undoubtedly be back next year, so make sure you keep an eye on the site and put the dates in your diary!