Category Archives: Poetry panel

Lydia Towsey

 Lydia Towsey

LydiaT
Image © Ambrose Musiyiwa

ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

Lydia Towsey is the chair of the rethinkyourmind poetry assesor panel. She is a poet and performer with a Masters in Creative Writing.

 

Her previous commissions include: Poet in the City’s, Spoken Word All Stars Tour; Beyond Words —  U.K. tour of four South African poets (Apples and Snakes) and Sole2Soul (University of Leicester.)

 

In 2012 she was shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize. In 2013 she performed at London’s 100 Club and was featured by The London Magazine.

 

In 2014 she UK toured ‘Three the Hard Way’ alongside Jean Binta Breeze and Alison Dunne.

 

She is forthcoming in Bloodaxe Books’, Raving Beauties anthology & Candlestick Press’  ‘10 Poems about Knitting’. Her full length collection, ‘The Venus Papers’ will be published by Burning Eye Books in 2015.

 

Lydia is Arts in Health Coordinator at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust; Chair/Compere of WORD! – the longest running poetry night in the Midlands (www.wordpoetry.eu) and Chair of Brightsparks (www.brightsparks.wordpress.com).

 

www.secretagentartist.wordpress.com

 

 Lydia Towsey web

Image © Anthony Benjamin

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Jean Binta Breeze

Jean Binta Breeze

 

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

Jean Breese stage name Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze was born in Jamaica and came to England in the 1980s.  She is an internationally renowned poet and playwright and has shaped a voice that demands attention and response.  

 

She writes in many forms and is highly acclaimed for her artistry with the Jamaican ‘Dub’ artform.

 

Her words carry resonant political and personal messages and audiences around the world relate to and are inspired by her work. She is the author of six books; the latest Third World Girl was published in the UK in 2011, followed by a national tour. 

 

Her first book of poetry, Ryddim Ravings, was published in 1988; she went on to write the screenplay for Hallelujah Anyhow, a co-production of the British Film Institute and BBC 2. She has recorded with Dennis Bovell’s Dub Band.
 

She has been the recipient of a National Endowment of Science and the Arts (NESTA) Award for her poetry and in 2011, she became an Honorary Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester. 

 

She suffers from schizophrenia and has written poetry about what she herself calls “madness.” In 2006, on the BBC Radio program “The Interview,” Breeze gave her perspective on mental illness and advocated increased attention to the needs of schizophrenics.

 

For more information visit

 

www.renaissanceone.co.uk

 

 

 

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Adam Horovitz

Adam Horovitz

 

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

Adam Horovitz was born in London in 1971, and moved to Slad, Gloucestershire the same year.

 

Active as a poet and performer since the early 1990s, he released his first pamphlet, Next Year in Jerusalem, in 2004 and a second, The Great Unlearning, in 2009.

 

He was the poet in residence for Glastonbury Festival’s official website in 2009 and was voted onto the Hospital Club 100 in 2010 as an ‘emerging talent’. His debut collection, Turning, was released by Headland in 2011.

 

He was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2012 and his most recent book, A Thousand Laurie Lees (a poetry-fuelled memoir about growing up in Cider with Rosie country), was published by the History Press in 2014.

 

He was a judge for the 2014 Manchester Poetry Prize and the 2014 Bare Fiction poetry competition.

 

www.adamhorovitz.co.uk/blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Helen Ivory

Helen Ivory

 

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

Helen Ivory is a poet and assemblage artist.  Her fourth Bloodaxe Books collection is  the semi-autobiographical Waiting for Bluebeard (May 2013).

 

She has co-edited with George Szirtes In Their Own Words: Contemporary Poets on their Poetry Salt 2012. 

 

She teaches for the Arvon Foundation, The Poetry School and mentors for the Poetry Society.

 

She edits the webzine Ink Sweat and Tears and is tutor and Course Director for the new UEA/Writers Centre Norwich online creative writing programme which launches in 2015. 

 

She is married to the poet Martin Figura and they live in Norwich where they run the live-literature organization Café Writers.

 

www.helenivory.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Moniza Alvi

Moniza Alvi

 

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire.

 

After working for many years as a secondary school teacher in London, she is now a freelance writer and tutor, and lives in Wymondham, Norfolk with her husband and daughter.

 

Her first two collections were published by Oxford University Press: The Country at My Shoulder (1993), shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot and Whitbread poetry prizes and selected for the New Generation poetry promotion, and A Bowl of Warm Air (1996).

 

Her later poetry titles have all been published by Bloodaxe and include Split World: Poems 1990-2005 (2008) and Europa (2008) and At the Time of Partition (2013). Both these last two books were Poetry Book Society Choices shortlisted for T.S. Eliot Prize.

 

In 2002-04 she was a trainee at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation studying counselling and group analysis.

 

www.moniza.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Russell Thompson

Russell Thompson

 

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

For the last decade, Russell Thompson has worked for Apples and Snakes, England’s leading organisation devoted specifically to the advancement of live poetry.

 

As such, he has devised tours, theatre shows and artist-development initiatives. He is now the organisation’s archivist.

 

Russell is a seasoned performing artist himself, appearing both as Rachel Pantechnicon and as one half of the pop-and-poetry duo Project Adorno.

 

In these guises, he has featured on BBC Radios 1, 3 and 4, and has appeared on the bill of events as diverse as WOMAD and the StAnza Poetry Festival.

 

www.applesandsnakes.org

www.projectadorno.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Russell Thompson

 

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Poetry

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SISO have joined forces with Citizens Eye and HowRU? to bring you an opportunity to be involved in an exciting new venture to raise awareness of Mental Health.

 

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Join the creative experience on world mental health day 2012. Will your work feature in the new book and CD? Enter to win.

 

book           cd
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meet the poetry assessors

LydiaT

Lydia Towsey – Poet/Performer
Lydia Towsey is the chair of the rethinkyourmind poetry assessor panel. She is a poet and performer with a Masters in Creative Writing.
More…

Monia web

Moniza Alvi – Poet/Performer

Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. After working for many years as a secondary school teacher in London, she is now a freelance writer and tutor, and lives in Wymondham, Norfolk with her husband and daughter.

More…

jean bb scarf

 

 

 

Jean Binta Breeze – Poet/Performer

Jean Breese stage name Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze was born in Jamaica and came to England in the 1980s.  She is an internationally renowned poet and playwright and has shaped a voice that demands attention and response.

More…

Adamhorovitz

Adam Horovitz – Poet/Performer

Adam Horovitz was born in London in 1971, and moved to Slad, Gloucestershire the same year. His debut collection, Turning, was released by Headland in 2011 and his most recent book, A Thousand Laurie Lees, was published by the History Press in 2014.

More…

Helen Ivory web 

Helen Ivory – Poet/Performer

Helen Ivory is a poet and assemblage artist. Her fourth Bloodaxe Books collection is the semi-autobiographical Waiting for Bluebeard (May 2013). She has co-edited with George Szirtes In Their Own Words: Contemporary Poets on their Poetry Salt 2012.

More…

Russell Thompson1 

 

 

Russell Thompson-Poet/Performer

For the last decade, Russell Thompson has worked for Apples and Snakes, England’s leading organisation devoted specifically to the advancement of live poetry.

More…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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