T.S. Eliot prizewinner Jen Hadfield, Jingling Geordie Keith Armstrong, and John Mackie's Infinite Equation #2
Tuesday 26 May 2008
6.30pm – 8.30pm
Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen [Venue 12]
Admission £5 (concessions free)
A showcase triple-bill of poets who have travelled for their writing and written from their travels. Shetland poet Jen Hadfield won the 2008 T. S. Eliot Prize for a collection that came out of her Canadian explorations. Poet and raconteur Keith Armstrong comes to us from Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, but his cultural pilgrimages have taken him from Bulgaria to Iceland, from Cuba to Kenya. Infinite Equation #2 is a two-piece ensemble combining John Mackie's lyric and narrative poetry from forty five years of travelling and writing with the virtuoso guitar playing of Michael Moar.
When Jen Hadfield was awarded an Eric Gregory Award in 2003, for her first manuscript, Almanacs, published by Bloodaxe in 2005, she used it to explore her Canadian citizenship, travelling from Nova Scotia to the West Coast, and up into the Arctic Circle on an epic roadtrip, a journey that launched her on her second collection about geographic and emotional badlands Nigh-No-Place. She returned to Shetland to live in 2006. Shetland landscape and language continue to influence Jen's poetry and visual art, and the Shetland community to support her emotionally, socially, professionally.
Nigh-No-Place was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in 2007 and won the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry in 2008.
Keith Armstrong was born and bred in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has worked as a community development worker, poet, librarian and publisher. He was Year of the Artist 2000 Poet-in-Residence at Hexham Races.
He has recently compiled and edited books on the Durham Miners Gala and on the former mining communities of County Durham and the market town of Hexham.
In his youth he travelled to Paris to seek out the grave of poet Charles Baudelaire and he has been making cultural pilgrimages abroad ever since. His poetry has been translated into Dutch, German, Russian, Italian, Icelandic and Czech.
John Mackie has written for, amongst others, David Bowie, Brian Auger, R. J. Bunn of Roxy Music, the jazz-funk legend Brian Auger, Jim Mullen, and the award winning composers Howard Skempton and Dave Smith, and has been publishing poetry and song lyrics since 1965.
A consummate musician, Michael Moar is a master of many genres. His first love is classical guitar, and he has played in a variety of rock and country bands in North-East Scotland for many years. Currently studying for a degree in music at the University of Aberdeen, he is fine tuning his compositional skills.
Promoted by
Spring Tides Poetry Group
Wordfringe
Supported by
Peacock Visual Arts
Scottish Book Trust
Aberdeen City Council
