Event in Birmingham 11the February
Love Poetry with Emma Wright of Emma Press, featuring Richard O’Brien and Liz Berry.
I found out about this special Waterstone’s event whilst at the MAC at the end January for the 52 Book Launch, it clashed with the final SpeakEasy MC-ed by Maggie Doyle & Fergus McGonigal – but you know me, any chance of something a little bit different, besides who would turn down the opportunity to hear Liz read twice in a month?
Emma requested one LOVE (of any sort) poem to be emailed and from these she confirmed the open mic spots. I was delighted to find confirmation and positive praise. My poem was one of three written in January for submission of Romantic poems, all of which (3) were published in New Ulster February Issue.
It has become this year’s favourite poem of mine, other people seem to like it too.
Event Description
The evening will be hosted by Emma Wright from the Emma Press, which is newly based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter.
Emma is curating the open-mic section, and is looking forward to meeting local writers.
It was a great night with a host of open mic-ers all taking to the stage for one poem each. Poets in the first half;
Jenna Clake – Imaginary boyfriend
Steve Harrison – Love comes in many hues
Nina Lewis – Meticulous Thought
Anna Baker – Composting
Natalie Burdett – Gravity
Then Richard O’Brien read from his pamphlets (all 3 if I remember correctly), great to hear a full set from him.
Poets in the second half;
Robert Harper – Your Eyes
JJ Evendon – I’ll be
Harpreet Kaur – The Linguist
David Grullon – You are
Carol Witherow – Allihies Flowers
Then Liz Berry closed the evening with some of my favourite poems from her collection. Plenty of time to mingle and chat (and buy books of course), a relaxed atmosphere and great company. I could have stayed all night – in fact – we (a bunch of 5 poets heading for trains) offered this to the guy who unlocked the store and let us out. Unfortunately Health & Safety and the likelihood of finding some well rifled paperbacks by morning, wouldn’t allow us to stay and we all headed home.
I even managed to get Mr G’s valentine present and have warm and rich conversations with most of the poets/audience in the room.
I had worked all day (on a fortnight full time placement) and only just got into the city in time to buy some notebooks and head halfway up the 6 floor Waterstone’s – Birmingham mourns the loss of the historical Waterstone’s 
geography.org.uk
where I first met Angela France in 2013, but we also love this massive book shop the other end of the same street and both are/were close to the station.
It was a fabulous event and I am delighted the Emma Press are now closer to home and that Waterstone’s are able to promote move events like this… I feel a publication party in the planning! I was lucky enough to meet Emma Wright and Richard O’Brien a few years ago on the Mildly Erotic Poetry Tour and now they are Midlands based they, like I, pop up everywhere. I look forward to seeing them again soon.
awritersfountain 
That’s great Nina 😊
It was a great event. Concentrating on writing as my main focus this year but hoping to sprinkle in nights like this one along the way. 🙂
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