John Greening has published more than a dozen collections (notably To the War Poets, Carcanet, 2013), and several studies of poetry and poets. His edition of Edmund Blunden’s Undertones of War (OUP) appeared in 2015, along with a classical music anthology, Accompanied Voices. His latest publications are Nebamun’s Tomb (Rack Press) and the collaboration with Penelope Shuttle, Heath (Nine Arches). His memoir of two years spent in Upper Egypt, Threading a Dream, appears in 2017, as does his new edition of the poems of Geoffrey Grigson. TLS reviewer and Eric Gregory judge, his awards include the Bridport Prize and a Cholmondeley. He is RLF Writing Fellow at Newnham College. www.johngreening.co.uk
Photo by Dave Gutteridge
Martin Figura‘s collection and show Whistle was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and won the 2013 Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show. He won the Poetry Society’s 2010 Hamish Canham Prize. A new edition of Whistle has just been published by Cinnamon Press. His most recent publications are Shed (Gatehouse Press) and Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine (Cinnamon Press) both published in 2016. He is currently touring his spoken word show Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine, showcased in 2016, and began touring in 2017.
He’ll be reading from his Gatehouse Press publication Shed, of which DA Prince wrote ….buy this, and read it. Treasure it. And, for the third time, it is all beautiful.
A medic by training, Richard Ball has lived in Norfolk since 1989, working as a pathologist at the N&N. Several years ago, one of his trainees, Dr Phuoc-Tan Diep, a poet, inspired him to try his hand at creative writing. Richard is still very much a beginner and enjoys the challenge of using words to produce images and new meaning for effect. He is grateful for the support and encouragement he receives from those who encourage him and are trying to instill good practices in him; they still have work to do. He is a regular Open Mic performer at Cafe Writers and his works have been chosen several times as ‘Poem of the Month.’