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Massive congratulations to our JOINT WINNERS David Braziel and Helen Hastings of our Belfast Book Festival Poetry Slam 2022. Well done also to fellow finalists Raquel McKee and David Mitchell, and indeed to all our poets who entered and graced us with their work. Big thanks to the hard working team at Crescent Arts Centre for helping make the night a success, and to guest judges Elizabeth McGeown (who presented the Brian Baily Memorial Cup to the winners) and Mark Cooper - what an great way to round off the first weekend of the festival!  Welcome to the second in our sporadic series of 24-hour chapbooks. The idea for this chapbook you’re now reading came from a simple thought: would it be possible to write, format and release a booklet within the space of just twenty-four hours? A callout for poets to take part when out of social media at the start of the week. They signed up, only knowing that a prompt would be received at some stage that week. On Sunday 1st Mat at 6.30pm, the prompt was sent: just one word, ‘Sea’, and a picture: Two Crabs (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh. The painting is a personal favourite, although only one crab is featured on the cover here – the crab on the left of the painting is displaying its underbelly, and not as visually pleasing, but the picture had already inspired two poems from myself previously, so it must be doing something right… What you read now is the combined efforts of all the poets; many thanks to all of them for agreeing to take part and sending in their work. Download for free via Rancid Idols Productions. 
 We're putting together a collaborative poem about life under lockdown, and we need YOUR help!
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and social lockdown, life is changing. With developments and headlines moving rapidly, loved ones shut off from each other, people working from homes and public amenitiies closed, we are having to get used to a life indoors, and for some, a life rapidly more online. Life insists, and persists. Poetry NI wants to capture people's responses to this crisis, and naturally, we feel the best way to do this is through poetry. We are asking people to send in a haiku, giving a snapshot of their life under lockdown. Together, these haiku will form a sequence, a haikai, detailing people's lives, which will be published in an e-pamphlet, available for free download from our website. This will be a one off Panning for Poems special edition. Just complete the online entry form to submit. All submissions must be in by Sunday, April 12th. In wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and developing Government guidelines, we feel that regrettably it would be best to put Purely Poetry on hold for the moment, until this uncertain period of social distancing passes.
As much as we love poetry and bringing people together, we feel unfortunately it just would be unsafe and irresponsible for the open mic night to continue right now. Obviously, we take this decision with a heavy heart. We fully support the Crescent Arts Centre and their own closure, and wish all staff there well. We will be back whenever it is safe to. In the meantime, stay safe and well, and thank you for your support.  Poetry NI presents an audio anthology of fifteen women poets, to celebrate International Women's Day 2020.
We invited a range of poets whose work we enjoy and admire to send in renditions of their own poems. The themes and issues are diverse and distinct, but all have one thing in common: simply great writing. The album is free to stream and download via Bandcamp. Just enter your email address, and a download link will be send to you. The album will download as a zip file, and you can choose which format to download in: MP3, WAV, FLAC, etc. Visit unwomen.org to find our more about International Women's Day and how you can get involved. |
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