Brighton Festival – 5 New Poets

he five new poets were Seni Seneviratne, Shazea Quraishi, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Rowyda Amin and Denise Saul. Each poet read a selection of their poems, some from books they have published and some from the Bloodaxe anthology, TEN. All five of the new poets had a couple of similarities: they had all been through a two year mentoring scheme, working closely with poets who had inspired them, and who had also guided them with their work; and they were all poets from a diverse range of backgrounds. But that is where the similarities indeed stopped, as the poets explained the inspiration behind their poems; varying from real life experience, and reactions and opinions to stories, myths or history that had influenced them. The afternoon ended with a question and answer session, where audience members could ask questions about the mentoring scheme, and how it felt to work closely with another poet. An interesting afternoon.

Pavilion Theatre, Brighton Dome, 22 May

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