The Nature of Poetry
with Tim Dee & Briony Bax
Wells Maltings, Staithe Street, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk Friday 16 June, 6pm John Keats wrote that to watch a sparrow was to take part in existence. How we exist – and co-exist – with the natural world will be the preoccupation of this thrilling evening of nature writing and poetry. Tim Dee is one of our leading writers on the landscape and skyscape of birds; he will be discussing Greenery, a pursuit of seasonal change, with Matthew Hollis, an award-winning poet, who will be launching Earth House, a collection of poems that celebrate the terrain of his native Anglia. The event is chaired by Briony Bax.
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The Waste Landwith Jon Cook
Wells Maltings, Staithe Street, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk Saturday 17 June, 6.30pm In the century since its publication, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land has come to be regarded at the finest of modern poems, but does it deserve its reputation? Matthew Hollis is the author of the critically acclaimed The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem; Jon Cook is Professor of Literature at the University of East Anglia: join them as they investigate the life and times of Eliot’s ‘masterpiece’ to explore how the poem was made and what it should mean to us today.
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Earth Housewith Kris Johnson & Carola Luther
Stage 2, Northern Stage, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RN This afternoon’s readings present rich meditations on Nature, wildness and the idea of home. Carola Luther was born and brought up in rural South Africa and now lives in West Yorkshire. Her third collection, On the Way to the Jerusalem Farm, was published by Carcanet in 2021 and shortlisted for the 2022 Derek Walcott prize for poetry. Kris Johnson moved from Washington State to the UK in 2007. Ghost River, her first collection, is published by Bloodaxe in 2023. Matthew Hollis is a prizewinning biographer and editor and the author of The Waste Land: A Biography, published by Faber 2022. His second poetry collection, Earth House, is published by Bloodaxe this year.
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Earth House
with Harry Clifton & Maura Dooley
Palmerston Room, St John's College, Cambridge Launch reading with Harry Clifton, Maura Dooley and Matthew Hollis celebrating the publication of their new poetry collections.
The poets read live and discussed their new collections with each other and with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Matthew read last in each set. This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available to watch via this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/7Zl2Sy9rzLk . |
The Waste Landwith Alex Clark
Palmerston Room, St John's College, Cambridge Award-winning biographer and poet Matthew Hollis returns to Cambridge with his riveting account of the making of T. S. Eliot’s celebrated poem The Waste Land on the centenary of its first publication. In a remarkable feat of biography, Matthew reconstructs the intellectual creation of the poem and brings its charged times vividly to life. Presenting a mosaic of historical fragments, diaries, dynamic literary criticism and illuminating new research, he reveals the cultural and personal trauma that forged The Waste Land through the lives of its protagonists: of Ezra Pound, who edited it; of Vivien Eliot, who sustained it; and of T. S. Eliot himself, whose private torment is woven into the seams of the work. We are delighted to have Matthew sharing with us this unforgettable story of lives passing in opposing directions and the astounding literary legacy they would leave behind. Join Matthew, who will be, in conversation with Alex Clark.
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