Tuesday 28 August 2012

Competition! Win tickets to Poetry Now

We here a Emerging Writer Towers

are branching out. We are very excited to announce
that we have a competition for FREE tickets to Poetry Now.

We have two exciting events to choose from:

1. The Keynote Address by James Fenton. Thursday 6th September at 8:30pm at Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire.  See link
Hailed as a ‘modern master’ by Ian McEwan, former Oxford Professor of Poetry and winner of the Queen’s Gold Medal, James Fenton has written some of the most memorable lyric verse of the past decades. This year marks the publication of Yellow Tulips, Poems 1968-2011, a gathering from four decades of work by a writer described by the Observer as ‘the most talented poet of his generation’. Tonight, James Fenton will discuss The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin, a new edition which includes uncollected and unpublished poems and Larkin’s many comments on his work. It may, as John Banville wrote in The Guardian, ‘reveal Larkin as a poet of great and rich abundance’ and be ‘an almost fanatically painstaking piece of work’, but, asks James Fenton ‘is it a welcome experience?’

and

2. Khin Aung Ay and Louis de Paor. Saturday 8th September at 6.30pm at the Maritime Museum, See link
Khin Aung Aye was born in 1956 in Rangoon. He has published 11 collections of poetry, including most recently 54 Sentences Dictated by Free Thought. He is regarded as one of the great modern poets of Burmese poetry and lives in Bangkok. He will read with his translator, the poet James Byrne who has co-edited Bones Will Crow: 15 Contemporary Burmese Poets. ‘one of the major and necessary voices in international poetry today.’ -Todd Swift, EYWEAR
Louis de Paor’s poetry has won many awards including The Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award, the first poet writing in Irish to do so. He has published
several collections and this year marks the publication of his Rogha Dánta or Selected Poems. He is Director of the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway.
‘de Paor is a master of the elegy, the coldeyed,warm-hearted poem that catches you up when you least expect it.’ - Robert Verdon in Muse

Here are some links to poems by Khin aung Ay
Sampsonian Way
and
Scribd
Check them out.

So if you want to win a ticket, leave a comment with
  • your name
  • your chosen event
  • the answer to the following question
If you could invite ANY living poet to Poetry Now next year, from anywhere, who would you choose.  And WHY?
Who have you been dying to hear read? Who would shake up Dun Laoghaire? Who would draw crowds and light a few fuses?

I will announce the winner next Wednesday. Chosen by me and an impartial poet judge (my dad) (I have told him yet)

Any questions, let me know. Sorry, let us know.

9 comments:

Titus said...

I want Rachel Fox because she's cool and funny and has a northern accent. Or else Hugh McMillan, because he's cool and funny and has a Scottish accent.

Hang on, just checking the map for
Dun Laoghaire...

Emerging Writer said...

So Titus, a northern accent, eh? Which flavour?

Titus said...

Hey, nice lighthouse! Probably best not to enter me in the draw though.
That Kate Dempsey. She's good too.

Titus said...

Actually, as well as the above I'd really love to hear the US poet Brigit Pegeen Kelly as I find her work astonishing.

Anonymous said...

Would love to go and see Khin Aung Ay and Louis de Paor. I think Colm Keegan might cause a few ripples in Dun Laoighaire. Love his Dublin accent, also think he's a great poet too.

Emerging Writer said...

Thanks Tonya, Colm always gives good read!

Ranelagh wRiter said...

Tickets for Thursday night Keynote pleeease!

What about Tom Conaty the emerging Cavan poet who has a great first collection. That'd shake up Dun Laoghaire!

Or the fully-emerged Kate Dempsey and her dinky poems :)

Ranelagh wRiter said...

Tickets for Thursday Keynote pleeeaase!

What about Tom Conaty the emerging Cavan poet with a great first collection ... should shake up Dun Laoghaire!

Or the fully-emerged poet Kate Dempsey with her dinky poems :)

Emerging Writer said...

Winners posted! Nollaig and Tonya. Congrats. See most recent post