Frogmore celebrates its 30th year on National Poetry Day at Needlemakers in Lewes

Frogmore will celebrate National Poetry Day on October 4th, 2012, at the Needlemakers in Lewes with readings by Joe Sheerin, Kay Syrad, Julia O’Brien, Robin Houghton, Marek Urbanowicz and Patrick Bond. 

This event will also celebrate the thirtieth year of The Frogmore Press and publication of Poems From The Old Hill: A Lewes Anthology and the 80^th number of The Frogmore Papers. 

The former includes contributions from twenty poets who are resident in Lewes, including John Agard, Judith Kazantzis, Grace Nichols and Catherine Smith, while the latter features a history of the Press and poems from every year of The Frogmore Papers alongside new work from the likes of Sarah Jackson and Sarah Salway. Poems shortlisted for this year’s Frogmore Poetry Prize, including the winning entry by Emily Wills, are also published in this issue.

Readings and events with Frogmore writers in September

September sees a number of events and readings by Frogmore writers in the Lewes area.  On Saturday 8 September Miriam Darlington launches her new book Otter Country (Granta Books), a prose account of her search for otters in Britain,  at the Linklater Pavilion on the railway land in Lewes.  6.00 – 8.00.

On Wednesday 12 September Rachel Playforth is a reader in ‘Poems from the Crypt’ at the Crypt Gallery in Seaford.

On Wednesday 19 September Judith Kazantzis and Jackie Wills join Clare Best and friends for a reading at the Needlemakers in Lewes.  7.45 (doors 7.00), entry £5.00.

And on Monday 24 September Jeremy Page will be reading at the Quick Fictions event at the Brighton Digital Festival. The Latest Music Bar (6.30 – 8.30). Free entry.

Poems from the Old Hill: a Lewes anthology

Which town has the strongest claim to be the poetry capital of the United Kingdom?  

Cover art by Neil Gower

If the number of poets per head of population is anything to go by, then the answer must surely be tiny Lewes (population approximately 16,000) in East Sussex.

Poems From The Old Hill, an anthology to be published by the Frogmore Press on 28 September, includes contributions from no fewer than three Cholmondeley Award winners, a Commonwealth Poetry Prize winner, a Paul Hamlyn Award winner, nominees for the Forward Prize, Seamus Heaney Centre Prize 2012 and Michael Marks Award 2012 and a Next Generation poet. 

The anthology is edited by Jeremy Page and published as part of the Press’s thirtieth year celebrations and features the poetry of Anna Adams, John Agard, Judith Kazantzis, Grace Nichols, Catherine Smith and fifteen other widely published poets who are resident in the town’s precincts, and will be launched at the Needlemakers in Lewes on National Poetry Day (4 October).  

Copies will be available at £5.00 (post free) from the Frogmore Press or through good bookshops.

Stephanie Norgate to adjudicate Frogmore Poetry Prize in 2013

Stephanie Norgate will adjudicate next year’s Frogmore Poetry Prize.  Stephanie is a playwright and poet. She lives in Sussex and runs the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. Her plays have been produced on the London Fringe and her radio plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Fireclay, a Poetry Business prize-winning pamphlet appeared in 1998, followed by a selection of poems in Oxford Poets 2000. Her two collections with Bloodaxe are Hidden River (2008), which was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, and The Blue Den (2012). She is currently editing a book of international essays on poetry and voice.

Previous winners of the Prize include Tobias Hill and Mario Petrucci.  This year’s (26^th) Prize was adjudicated by Janet Sutherland and awarded to Emily Wills.

Number 5 of morphrog, Frogmore’s online journal, now live

Number 5 of morphrog, Frogmore’s online journal, went live on 1 July.  As ever, morphrog promises ‘poetry in the extreme’ – where experiment and tradition meet.  

http://morphrog.com/

Contributors to the issue are:

Simon Harker worked as a psychotherapist in North London for many years.  Now semi-retired, he lives in a hut on the banks of the River Ouse.

Pete Howells was born in the North East of England. He attended Bretton Hall College where he studied Art and Drama. His first degree was from Leeds University, his MA from Brighton. Pete has taught English, Art and Drama to a variety of students. He spent four years as a singer songwriter touring with various bands before returning to teaching.

Miles Salter  is a writer, songwriter and storyteller based in York.   His novel for teenagers, A Song For Nicky Moon, was shortlisted for The Times/Chicken House children’s novel competition. He won the Slipstream Poetry Prize in 2008, the Sentinel Poetry Prize in 2009, and was shortlisted for the Templar Poetry Prize in 2009.

Marek Urbanowicz qualified as an acupuncturist in 1979 and is a former Chair of Brighton Poets.  He was selected to be on the first ‘Becoming a Poet’ programme with the Faber Academy in 2009.  His poems have appeared in Agenda, The Frogmore Papers and other magazines, and a first collection is due to be published next year.

Submissions are invited for morphrog 6, which will go live on 1 January 2013.  Send one Word file to: morphrog@gmail.com

Frogmore Poetry Prize 2012 results

Part-time Gloucestershire GP Emily Wills has been awarded this year’s Frogmore Poetry Prize (the 27^th) by adjudicator Janet Sutherland for her poem ‘Island’. Emily is the author of two collections of poems Diverting The Sea (The Rialto, 2000) and Developing The Negative (The Rialto, 2008).  She won the Lisa Thomas Poetry Prize in 2010.  See www.emilywills.co.uk

Emily Wills, winner of the Frogmore Poetry Prize 2012

First runner-up is singer/songwriter and poet Virginia Astley for her poem ‘The Curative Harp’.  Virginia has a very impressive track record as a singer/songwriter and founded the legendary Ravishing Beauties, who toured with The Teardrop Explodes in the 1980s.  A remastered version of her debut album From Gardens Where We Feel Secure was released in 2003.  See www.virginiaastley.com

Second runner-up is Melinda Lovell for her poem ‘Yellow Yolks’.  Melinda lives in a small hamlet in the Auvergne, South West France, where she co-founded poetry chapbook publishing house Inchivala Press in 2003.  See www.inchivalapress.com

Other poets shortlisted for the two-hundred guinea prize were Jo Bell, Dorothy Fryd, Abegail Morley, Derek Sellen, John Whitworth and Howard Wright.  All shortlisted poems will be published in the celebratory 80^th number of The Frogmore Papers in September.  Available post-free from The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes BN7 1PJ for £5.00.

Deadline for Frogmore Poetry Prize entries is 31 May

The deadline for submissions to this year’s (26^th) Frogmore Poetry Prize is fast approaching.  Janet Sutherland will be adjudicating throughout June, with results announced in July and all shortlisted poems published in the special 80^th edition of The Frogmore Papers in September.  Last year’s winner was Sharon Black, whose collection To Know Bedrock was subsequently published by Pindrop Press. 

For full details of how to enter go to: www.frogmorepress.co.uk 

Deadline for entries is 31 May.