Well Versed: University of Gloucestershire poets in action this Wednesday
1st March 2014
Well Versed is a monthly spoken word and music event sponsored by the Cheltenham Poetry Festival. The events feature a cherry-picked line-up of local poets, plus nationally acclaimed headliners, and this month’s show is starring two poets with University of Gloucestershire connections.
Anna Saunders, a graduate of our MA in Creative and Critical Writing, is the author of two collections of poetry. Her first collection, Communion (Wild Conversations Press), was praised for its ‘lush imagery and music’ by Nigel McLoughlin and as ‘moving poems of flesh and spirit, from ears…finely tuned’, by Alison Brackenbury. Anna’s second collection, Struck (Pindrop Press) has been described as ‘a bold and beautiful collection’ by Flarestack author David Clarke and as full of ‘dazzling and intoxicating images’ by award winning poet James Knox Whittet.
Appearing alongside Anna will be final year BA student, Adam Magee. Adam’s work has recently received widespread praise and he was selected as the first beneficiary of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival mentoring scheme. He is a regular performer on the local poetry festival as well as an organiser of the UoG Creative Writing students’ Open Mic nights. Last year he performed with the university’s slam team and his poetry appears in the newly published Fire anthology. The Cheltenham Poetry Festival has described him as ‘Hugely talented…the lyricism of Dylan Thomas with the bite of Charles Bukowski.’
The event is at The Muffin Man, at 7pm, on Wednesday 5th March. Tickets are priced at £3 for concessions and it would be great to see as much UoG support as possible.
Meanwhile, the brilliant annual Cheltenham Poetry Festival is under a month away, so please check out the events listings here, and look out for information on the many performers with University of Gloucestershire connections.