Guest Poet: Martina Evans

Martina Evans is the author of eleven books poetry and prose. She grew up in County Cork and trained in Dublin as a radiographer before moving to London in 1988. She has won several awards including the Betty Trask and the Premio Ciampi International Prize for Poetry. Now We Can Talk Openly About Men was published by Carcanet in May 2018. She is a Royal Literary Fund Advisory Fellow and reviews for the Irish Times.

Guest Poet: Aoife Mannix

Aoife Mannix was born in Sweden of Irish parents. She grew up in Dublin, Ottawa and New York before moving to the UK. She read English and Sociology at Trinity College Dublin and has a PhD in creative writing from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is the author of four collections of poetry and a novel. She has been poet in residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live. She has performed throughout the UK and toured internationally with the British Council.

Guest Poet: Richard Douglas Pennant

Richard Douglas Pennant was born in north Wales in 1955.
Although he has written poetry since adolescence, it is only in the past few years that he has systematically applied himself to his creative passion. He draws much of his inspiration from his native Wales, from its tales and legends of the Celtic deities, as well as from the Hellenic history of ancient Greece and the richness of its myths and civilization. Human relationships, the power of love and friendship, all play a part in his writing.
He has read in festivals, poetry venues and clubs all over the UK, Europe, the Middle East and China.
His book Lines in the Sky is published by Cinnamon Press and is accompanied by a CD of the poems with improvised music by Huw Warren and Neil Yates.

Guest Poet: Stuart Silver

Stuart Silver is a critically acclaimed writer, performer and tutor, working across theatre and gallery venues, television, radio, public spaces and in experimental educational and mentoring contexts.
As a co-founder of the multimedia performance duo nobleandsilver he was awarded a Perrier Award and was nominated for a BAFTA.
He has performed on BBC Radio and for BBC TV and Channel 4 and in Festivals in Finland and Ireland and UK.
His acclaimed solo theatre piece You Look Like Ants played at the Soho Theatre, the London Word Festival and Battersea Arts Centre.

Guest Poet: Helen Moore

Helen Moore is an award-winning ecopoet and socially engaged artist based in NE Scotland. Her debut collection, Hedge Fund, And Other Living Margins (Shearsman Books, 2012), was described as being "in the great tradition of visionary politics in British poetry." Her second, ECOZOA (Permanent Publications, 2015), which responds to what scientists term the 'Anthropocene Era', has been acclaimed by the Australian poet, John Kinsella, as "a milestone in the journey of ecopoetics". A collaborative bilingual Italian-English work, INTATTO/INTACT, was published by La Vita Felice in 2017, and in 2018 she gave the INSPIRE lecture at the Hay Book Festival, based on her winning essay 'Is love the answer? Personal and planetary wellbeing through the lens of poetry.' Helen's third collection, The Mother Country, exploring British colonial history and personal, social and ecological disinheritance, will be published in Spring 2019.