The Sky Is Cracked by Sarah L Dixon
Home
Quiet Compere home nights
‘Worcester Love’ in Contour magazine
I will share the poem in a month when people have visited site to read the other poems too 🙂
https://issuu.com/ninalewis3/docs/contour_wpl_poetry_magazine_2017_is
The sky is cracked – poetry pamphlet out now!!!
Hello All! My first ever poetry pamphlet is now available.
Themes include: break-up, music, pubs, friendship, longing, love, connection, adventures and moving on.
Cost is £6 in person. Or £7.25 (incl UK P&P) either by cheque in advance, through PayPal or directly to my bank account.
Dates I will be places
5th-8th October 2017 Poetry Swindon Festival Richard Jeffries Museum
21st October 2017 Sunderland Libraries Literature Festival
24th November 2017 Pamphlet Launch ‘The Sky is Cracked’
Word Club, The Chemic Tavern, Leeds
27th January 2018 Story Walk for Imbolc Marsden
4th February 2018 Pub Poets – guest spot – Blackpool
9th February 2018 Half Moon Books – support for Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists – Leeds
19th February 2018 Queenies – Huddersfield
25th February 2018 -Sunday Sessions – Slawit Gallery, Slaithwaite, Huddersfield
7th March 2017 Verse Matters – guest spot – Sheffield
11th April 2018 Speaker’s Corner – guest spot – York
20th April 2018 Manky Poets – guest spot – Chorlton Library
11th June 2018 WordPlay – guest spot – Square Chapel, Halifax
12th July 2018 Albert Poets – guest spot – Huddersfield Library
More dates TBC
Sarah Dixon writes so knowingly and with unerring lightness of touch. She knows about breaking and aching and treads nimbly between mythic, modern, and the sweet specificity of the mundane. She knows too of resilience and fragility and conjures with honesty and humour the strangeness and intensity of loss, and the wonder of finding. Best of all is when she touches upon longing, and so lightly, but, oh my, has it been touched – as we have, unforgettably.
Matt Harvey
Themes include: break-up, music, pubs, friendship, longing, love, connection, adventures and moving on.
Cost is £6 in person. Or £7.25 (incl UK P&P) either by cheque in advance, through PayPal or directly to my bank account.
Dates I will be places
5th-8th October 2017 Poetry Swindon Festival Richard Jeffries Museum
21st October 2017 Sunderland Libraries Literature Festival
24th November 2017 Pamphlet Launch ‘The Sky is Cracked’
Word Club, The Chemic Tavern, Leeds
27th January 2018 Story Walk for Imbolc Marsden
4th February 2018 Pub Poets – guest spot – Blackpool
9th February 2018 Half Moon Books – support for Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists – Leeds
19th February 2018 Queenies – Huddersfield
25th February 2018 -Sunday Sessions – Slawit Gallery, Slaithwaite, Huddersfield
7th March 2017 Verse Matters – guest spot – Sheffield
11th April 2018 Speaker’s Corner – guest spot – York
20th April 2018 Manky Poets – guest spot – Chorlton Library
11th June 2018 WordPlay – guest spot – Square Chapel, Halifax
12th July 2018 Albert Poets – guest spot – Huddersfield Library
More dates TBC
Sarah Dixon writes so knowingly and with unerring lightness of touch. She knows about breaking and aching and treads nimbly between mythic, modern, and the sweet specificity of the mundane. She knows too of resilience and fragility and conjures with honesty and humour the strangeness and intensity of loss, and the wonder of finding. Best of all is when she touches upon longing, and so lightly, but, oh my, has it been touched – as we have, unforgettably.
Matt Harvey
These are beautifully crafted poems which will speak to everyone. Telling the story of the loss of love – and a return to life – “The Sky is Cracked” is as beautiful as it is sad, as delicate as it is plainspoken. Sarah Dixon’s poetry holds the reader close, and then offers up its rich layers of meaning. Like good whisky, I could taste this short collection long after I’d read it – and I wanted more.
Clare Shaw
This is poetry that “shimmies along the dado rail” to speak memorably of “the grumble of gravel under trainers.” Rich in imagery and with a wealth of truths, we’d be poorer without these poems.
Tony Walsh
The Quiet Compere and Sunderland Libraries Festival 2017
2-4pm Saturday 21st October 2017. £3 entrance.
Full Festival outline here:
http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=19273&p=0&fsize=2Mb&ftype=Sunderland%20Libraries%20Literature%20Festival%20Programme.PDF/
Sundered
(For The Quiet Compere Sunderland leg)
We champions of Pallion,
we builders of ships,
we pipework wranglers.
We sons of Hendon
and Roker daughters
caught by the nets
of a slaughter trawler
who stripped our streets,
shutdown our shops,
took food from the mouths
of the bairns of the town.
We stand sundered
but unbowed,
made from the stuff
the south cannot dream of.
The tide is ours
and it is due in.
by Harry Gallagher
Harry Gallagher has been published by The Interpreter’s House, Poets Republic, Ofipress, Rebel Poetry and many others. He performs nationwide and his new book, “Northern Lights” is out in September, from Stairwell Books.
Photo by Kev Howard
Bob Beagrie lives in Middlesbrough and is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Teesside University as well as being a co-director of Ek Zuban Press & Literature Development. He has published eight collections of poetry to date and his work has been translated into French, Estonian, Spanish, Finnish, Dutch, Danish and Urdu.
Pippa Little is Scots but settled in Northumberland. She is currently a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newcastle University. Her second full collection Twist came out in March this year from Arc.
Mandy Maxwell is a poet from Northumberland. In 2009 Mandy completed an MA in Creative Writing at Newcastle Uni. Mandy has performed in venues across the UK and has been published in pamphlets, zines, anthologies and online. In 2015 Mandy began running The Stanza poetry and spoken word events to bring new and established writers with their words and voices to the stage in the North East.
Judi Sutherland is a poet who lives in Barnard Castle, County Durham. Her work has appeared in a number of magazines and in a chapbook which she shares with Lancashire poet, Jim Burns; ‘Dark Matter VI’ from Black Light Engine Room Press. She is the proprietor of The Stare’s Nest poetry webzine and she is working on her first pamphlet for publication early in 2018.
The Quiet Compere
Sarah L Dixon runs regular events in Manchester/Huddersfield. She hosted a medical-themed poetry event at Cheltenham Poetry Festival in 2014. Sarah has toured as The Quiet Compere since 2014 and received Arts Council funding for 24 events in 2014 and 2015. Quiet Compere events enlist established poets and emerging voices.
The Quiet Compere introduces them with little fanfare, so the poems (and not the poet’s track record) tell you all you need to know.
New spoken word night at The Sair with Linfit ales (Linthwaite), Huddersfield
Join us for a new spoken word event at the legendary Sair Inn, Linthwaite, HD7 5SG. Perform your own creative writing, a favourite piece of published work, or come along simply to enjoy. Performance slots will be a maximum of 4 minutes. This is a free event, but we do ask that you buy a drink from the bar – a selection of fine cask ales, soft drinks and coffee will be available.
If you would like to book a performance slot in advance, please contact Deira.
Ira Lightman and Angela Topping Book Launch at Nexus Art Cafe, Manchester – Friday 9th December 2016
Ira Lightman
Ira has made public art throughout the North East and also in the West Midlands and the South West. He made a documentary on Ezra Pound for Radio 4 last year, still on iPlayer. He is a regular on Radio 3’s The Verb and has been profiled on Channel 4. A mathematician by training, he is very interested in pattern and form, making poetry visually and with pure sound; he believes anyone can make poetry, as long as they stop worrying that it has to be *written*. He is a professional storyteller. He proofreads for academic journals for a living, and has had many residencies in schools. He won the Journal Arts Council Award for “innovative new ways of making art in communities” for his project., The Spennymoor Letters. He has lived in the North East since 2000. His new chapbook is called “Goose”. He has been described by George Szirtes as “Harpo Marx meets Rilke” (https://www.facebook.com/
Angela Topping
Angela Topping has published six solo poetry collections, Dandelions for Mothers’ Day (1988, 1989), The Fiddle (1999), The Way We Came (2007), The New Generation (Salt 2010), I Sing of Bricks (Salt 2011) and Paper Patterns (Lapwing 2012).Topping was born in Widnes, Cheshire, to working class parents and educated in Liverpool at Broughton Hall Grammar School for Girls. After graduating from the University of Liverpool with a degree in English and Classical Civilization she went on to study for a postgraduate degree in Victorian Studies. Although writing from a young age (she first published poetry at the age of nineteen in Arts Alive Merseyside) Topping married and raised two daughters while writing her first two collections and editing two poetry anthologies, the first a collection of Christians writing and the second a festschrift for the Liverpool-based poet Matt Simpson, featuring works by U.A. Fanthorpe, Anne Stevenson, Roger McGough and Kenneth Muir. The friendship of Matt Simpson was a formative influence on Topping’s work and continued until his death in 2009.After working in education for twenty years, most notably at Upton Hall School FCJ, Topping now concentrates full-time on writing and has been the author of several critical works for Greenwich Exchange.In 2010, Topping teamed up with textile artist Maria Walker. Together they produced a joint exhibition of work based on The Lightfoot Letters, which were family epistles from 1923, which bizarrely had been written by Angela’s father’s family and purchased by Maria from an antique shop several years before she met Angela. The exhibition was first staged at The Brindley in 2011 and there are plans to hold further exhibitions in 2012 and 2013.Topping has also been in a number of notable anthologies, such as Split Screen, edited by Andy Jackson and published by Red Squirrel (2012) and Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh (Salt 2009) edited by Rupert Loydell. One of her poems appeared on National Poetry Day poem cards in 2012. Her children’s poems have been included in over 50 anthologies and in 2011, she was the only poet to be highly commended in the Cheshire High Sherriff’s Prize for Children’s Literature. Her poems have been set for A level study. https://
Angela launches THE FIVE PETALS OF ELDERFLOWER (Red Squirrel Press).
Sarah L Dixon
Photo: by Mark Farley
Sarah L Dixon tours as The Quiet Compere and has obtained Arts Council funding for this project. The 2016 project was crowd-funded, partly through poemathons which involved writing 100 poems in 25 hours.
Sarah has been published in Ink, Sweat and Tears, The Interpreter’s House, The Lake and Obsessed with Pipework among others. She recently had a poem printed ona beermat by Otley Word Feast press. Sarah’s inspiration comes from being by water and adventures with her six-year-old, Frank. She is still attempting to write better poetry than Frank did aged 4!
http://
Venue: Nexus Art Cafe, 2 Dale Street, Manchester
Tickets £3 here: http://
Open mic section available.
Books for sale.
Ira has made public art throughout the North East and also in the West Midlands and the South West. He made a documentary on Ezra Pound for Radio 4 last year, still on iPlayer. He is a regular on Radio 3’s The Verb and has been profiled on Channel 4. A mathematician by training, he is very interested in pattern and form, making poetry visually and with pure sound; he believes anyone can make poetry, as long as they stop worrying that it has to be *written*. He is a professional storyteller. He proofreads for academic journals for a living, and has had many residencies in schools. He won the Journal Arts Council Award for “innovative new ways of making art in communities” for his project., The Spennymoor Letters. He has lived in the North East since 2000. His new chapbook is called “Goose”. He has been described by George Szirtes as “Harpo Marx meets Rilke” (https://www.facebook.com/
Angela Topping
Angela Topping has published six solo poetry collections, Dandelions for Mothers’ Day (1988, 1989), The Fiddle (1999), The Way We Came (2007), The New Generation (Salt 2010), I Sing of Bricks (Salt 2011) and Paper Patterns (Lapwing 2012).Topping was born in Widnes, Cheshire, to working class parents and educated in Liverpool at Broughton Hall Grammar School for Girls. After graduating from the University of Liverpool with a degree in English and Classical Civilization she went on to study for a postgraduate degree in Victorian Studies. Although writing from a young age (she first published poetry at the age of nineteen in Arts Alive Merseyside) Topping married and raised two daughters while writing her first two collections and editing two poetry anthologies, the first a collection of Christians writing and the second a festschrift for the Liverpool-based poet Matt Simpson, featuring works by U.A. Fanthorpe, Anne Stevenson, Roger McGough and Kenneth Muir. The friendship of Matt Simpson was a formative influence on Topping’s work and continued until his death in 2009.After working in education for twenty years, most notably at Upton Hall School FCJ, Topping now concentrates full-time on writing and has been the author of several critical works for Greenwich Exchange.In 2010, Topping teamed up with textile artist Maria Walker. Together they produced a joint exhibition of work based on The Lightfoot Letters, which were family epistles from 1923, which bizarrely had been written by Angela’s father’s family and purchased by Maria from an antique shop several years before she met Angela. The exhibition was first staged at The Brindley in 2011 and there are plans to hold further exhibitions in 2012 and 2013.Topping has also been in a number of notable anthologies, such as Split Screen, edited by Andy Jackson and published by Red Squirrel (2012) and Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh (Salt 2009) edited by Rupert Loydell. One of her poems appeared on National Poetry Day poem cards in 2012. Her children’s poems have been included in over 50 anthologies and in 2011, she was the only poet to be highly commended in the Cheshire High Sherriff’s Prize for Children’s Literature. Her poems have been set for A level study. https://
Angela launches THE FIVE PETALS OF ELDERFLOWER (Red Squirrel Press).
Sarah L Dixon
Photo: by Mark Farley
Sarah L Dixon tours as The Quiet Compere and has obtained Arts Council funding for this project. The 2016 project was crowd-funded, partly through poemathons which involved writing 100 poems in 25 hours.
Sarah has been published in Ink, Sweat and Tears, The Interpreter’s House, The Lake and Obsessed with Pipework among others. She recently had a poem printed ona beermat by Otley Word Feast press. Sarah’s inspiration comes from being by water and adventures with her six-year-old, Frank. She is still attempting to write better poetry than Frank did aged 4!
http://
Venue: Nexus Art Cafe, 2 Dale Street, Manchester
Tickets £3 here: http://
Open mic section available.
Books for sale.
Quiet quiet LOUD! with Julia Webb and Steve Stroud – Tues 8th November 2016
Julia Webb:
Julia Webb is a graduate of The University of East Anglia’s poetry MA. She has had work in various journals and anthologies including “The Forward Book of Poetry 2017. In 2011 she won The Poetry Society’s Stanza competition. She was recently Writer in residence at Norwich Market. She is a poetry editor for Lighthouse. Her first collection Bird Sisters was published in 2016 by Nine Arches Press.
(photo by Jill Reidy)Steven Stroud:
Steve Stroud is a Blackpool based slam-winning poet. Originally from Malvern in Worcestershire, he moved north to pursue his passion for writing, graduating from Lancaster University in 2007. Steve has since moved on to performance poetry to facilitate his love of pubs and will be publishing his first anthology, Inkclot, in 2017.
Support Poets: Colin Davies.
Support Poets pay half price on the door.
£3 on the door is split three ways between both the guests and myself as host/promoter and to cover printing costs.
Venue: The Lloyds Hotel, 617 Wilbraham Road, Chortlon, Manchester, M21 9AN
Access to venue is by a double flight of stairs and no lift is available. Apologies to anyone with accessibility issues, but thought I should let you know in advance. I used to have an accessible venue, but moved from there due to them cancelling on the night (twice).
Quiet quiet LOUD! with Ciaran Hodgers and Anne Caldwell – Sept 13th 2016
Ciarán Hodgers:
Ciarán is described as “Thoughtful and punchy” and “One of the most exciting faces to appear in the North West circuit in a long time”
Ciarán Hodgers is an award-winning poet, performer and creative mentor. Performed and published around the UK and Ireland he was part of the inaugural Team Manchester at the National UK Poetry Slam, finalist of the Poetry Rival Slam with Burning Eye books and three time finalist of Manchester’s own Word War slams.
Anne Caldwell:
Anne Caldwell grew up in the north-west of England and has been a keen reader all her life. Her poetry has been published in a range of anthologies – Poet’s Cheshire (Headland) and The Nerve (Virago) and three books by Cinnamon Press who also published her first full length collection. Her work has appeared in many British magazines including Writing Women, The North, Poetry Wales and Quattrocento. Anne finished an MA in writing poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2007 and performs all over the UK. She won an award to attend the Wired Writing Programme at The Banff Centre in Canada in 2008 and published a pamphlet with Happenstance. Until recently, she also ran a company called Sources that specialised in using text and visual art together with digital artist Jack Lockhart. More recently, Anne was a Lecturer in creative writing at The University of Bolton and also worked for NAWE, The National Association for Writers in Education. (www.nawe.co.uk) as their Deputy Director. She is currently undertaking a PhD. Her new book of poetry is called ‘Painting the Spiral Staircase’. (Cinnamon, Spring 2016). She currently works as Literature Programme Manager in the North of England for the British Council.
Support Poets: Steph Portersmith, and 5 TBC – 6 minute spots available through messaging me.
Support Poets pay half price on the door.
£3 on the door is split three ways between both the guests and myself as host/promoter and to cover printing costs.
Access to venue is by a double flight of stairs and no lift is available. Apologies to anyone with accessibility issues, but thought I should let you know in advance. I used to have an accesible venue, but moved from there due to them cancelling on the night (twice)
Ciarán is described as “Thoughtful and punchy” and “One of the most exciting faces to appear in the North West circuit in a long time”
Ciarán Hodgers is an award-winning poet, performer and creative mentor. Performed and published around the UK and Ireland he was part of the inaugural Team Manchester at the National UK Poetry Slam, finalist of the Poetry Rival Slam with Burning Eye books and three time finalist of Manchester’s own Word War slams.
Anne Caldwell:
Anne Caldwell grew up in the north-west of England and has been a keen reader all her life. Her poetry has been published in a range of anthologies – Poet’s Cheshire (Headland) and The Nerve (Virago) and three books by Cinnamon Press who also published her first full length collection. Her work has appeared in many British magazines including Writing Women, The North, Poetry Wales and Quattrocento. Anne finished an MA in writing poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2007 and performs all over the UK. She won an award to attend the Wired Writing Programme at The Banff Centre in Canada in 2008 and published a pamphlet with Happenstance. Until recently, she also ran a company called Sources that specialised in using text and visual art together with digital artist Jack Lockhart. More recently, Anne was a Lecturer in creative writing at The University of Bolton and also worked for NAWE, The National Association for Writers in Education. (www.nawe.co.uk) as their Deputy Director. She is currently undertaking a PhD. Her new book of poetry is called ‘Painting the Spiral Staircase’. (Cinnamon, Spring 2016). She currently works as Literature Programme Manager in the North of England for the British Council.
Support Poets: Steph Portersmith, and 5 TBC – 6 minute spots available through messaging me.
Support Poets pay half price on the door.
£3 on the door is split three ways between both the guests and myself as host/promoter and to cover printing costs.
Access to venue is by a double flight of stairs and no lift is available. Apologies to anyone with accessibility issues, but thought I should let you know in advance. I used to have an accesible venue, but moved from there due to them cancelling on the night (twice)
Quiet quiet LOUD! with Emma McGordon and John Calvert
Tuesday 12th July 2016 at The Lloyds, Chorlton, Manchester. £3 on the door.
Emma McGordon is published by Tall Light House and Black suede Boot Press. She is a Penned in the Margins Generation TXt poet and has performed internationally. She is also a former Northern Young Writer of the Year. She is currently working on her first spoken word theatre show with support from Arts Council England.
John Calvert more info soon
Emma McGordon is published by Tall Light House and Black suede Boot Press. She is a Penned in the Margins Generation TXt poet and has performed internationally. She is also a former Northern Young Writer of the Year. She is currently working on her first spoken word theatre show with support from Arts Council England.
John Calvert more info soon
Quiet quiet LOUD! at Chorlton Arts Festival with Steve Nash and Midnight Shelley May 24th 2016
Steve Nash is a writer, lecturer and terrible musician based in Yorkshire. He won the Saboteur award for Performer of the Year in 2014 and his first collection, ‘Taking the Long Way Home’, is available now from Stairwell Books. His next book ‘The Calder Valley Codex’ will be published later this year by Calder Valley Poetry, and he strongly suspects his Guniea pigs are plotting against him.
Midnight Shelley has an infectious passion, irrepressible love and rarely stays still. She pulls you into stories and you are compelled to go along.
6 minute support spots available. £4 in advance or on the door to cover promotion, printing and transport and refreshments for the guests.
https://www.fatsoma.com/chorlton-arts-festival/h65cgwgv/the-quiet-compere-quiet-quiet-loud/