Poetry Now!
11:15am - 12:15pm
The boom in interest in poetry shows no sign of decline. From the emergence of ‘Instapoets’ with their millions of followers, to increased traditional book sales, sell-out readings, slams and spoken word events, poetry is clearly more and more accessible, necessary and relevant to our daily lives than ever before. So where are we now? Where is poetry publishing now? Where is poetry performance now? What are the key considerations, the options and opportunities for writers to take their poetry and spoken word works to new audiences? What’s driving this change? In this session, we are joined by two of the UK’s ground-breaking poets, Neu Reekie’s Michael Pedersen, and this year’s TS Eliot Prize-winning poet, Joelle Taylor.
Chair
Peter Urpeth
Writing and Publishing Sector Specialist, XpoNorth
Peter is XpoNorth Sector Specialist in Publishing and Writing. He is a writer and multi-media journalist with more than 35 years of experience, and has worked in developing the publishing sector in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland for 18 years. Peter is also a pianist and documentary film-maker working in jazz and related musics.
Speakers
Michael Pedersen
Michael Pedersen is a prize-winning Scottish poet, scribbler, stitcher. He's unfurled two acclaimed collections of poetry (Polygon Books) with a poetic prose debut, Boy Friends, out with Faber & Faber in July 2022. He won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, the John Mather's Trust Rising Star of Literature Award, and was a finalist for the 2018 ‘Writer of the Year’ at The Herald Scottish Culture Awards. With work anthologised by the likes of Pan MacMillan and Canongate Books, his writing has attracted plaudits from voices as luscious as: Irvine Welsh, Jackie Kay, Stephen Fry, Shirley Manson & Charlotte Church.
Joelle Taylor
Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems (Westbourne Press) won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize; and is the subject of a Radio 4 arts documentary Butch. She is co-curator and host of Out-Spoken Live, resident at the Southbank Centre, and the current editor of Out-Spoken Press. She has recently completed a book tour of Australia including Sydney Opera House (March 2022). C+NTO is being adapted for theatre. She is completing her memoirs for publication in 2023, as well as a novel of interconnecting stories, The Night Alphabet.
www.joelletaylor.co.uk
