International Poetry Symposium: IN/OUT PLACE
THURSDAY 9th MAY
THURSDAY 9TH MAY
2.30-3.30pm | MAKING A PLACE FOR POETRY | £8/£6/£3
This panel gathers leading literary organisations for a timely discussion on the next steps in inclusive programming, sustainability and tips on how one can establish a career in the creative industries. Molly Rosenberg is Director of the Royal Society of Literature. She works closely with the RSL’s governing Council to deliver programmes supporting readers and writers across the UK, championing literature for everyone. Aki Schilz is the Director of The Literary Consultancy, the UK’s longest-running consultancy for writers. In 2018, Aki set up the Rebecca Swift Foundation (RSF), a charity that advances the craft, creativity and wellbeing of women poets. Ryan Van Winkle is an award-winning author, artist and producer based in Edinburgh. He is currently the Artistic Director of StAnza: Scotland’s International Poetry Festival. Chaired by Festival Director Theresa Muñoz.
10.30-11.30AM | MOUNTAIN POETS SUMMIT | £8/£6
The Symposium reconvenes for a Mountain Poets Summit. Mountaineer and T.S. Eliot prize shortlisted poet Helen Mort (A line Above the Sky: On Mountains and Motherhood) unites mountain poets from across the world for a soaring discussion, mapping ideas of home and considering how place shapes poetry. We’ll journey across the Alps with Swiss poet Rolf Hermann (Cartography of Snow) to the Himalayas, with a virtual appearance from Bhutanese poet Sonam Pem Tshoki, and the Canadian Rockies with Alycia Pirmohamed (Another Way to Split Water). Pack your Kendal Mint Cake and prepare to be transported!
The award-winning American poet Carolyn Forché, editor of Against Forgetting: Twentieth-century Poetry of Witness, hosts this vital discussion with leading diaspora poets on exile and refuge. The British-Ukrainian poet Charlotte Shevchenko Knight shares her searing debut Food for the Dead about the current conflict, Marjorie Lotfi explores her childhood flight from the Iranian Revolution in The Wrong Person to Ask (PBS Recommendation) and Yousif M. Qasmiyeh creates poetry from his experiences of the Baddawi refugee camp in Lebanon (Writing the Camp). How can we find refuge in poetry and bear witness to global crises?
