The Birkbeck Contemporary Poetics Research Centre is a forum for student writers and poets interested in innovative kinds of poetry and poetics across all periods – as well as those interested in the field wanting to discuss and hear more – we run seminars and host readings by internationally known poets throughout the year, sponsor Veer Books, and have a long history of experiment in the form of online journals, festivals and other ventures. We’d like to encourage you to come along to events, and would be happy to put you on our email circulation if you’d like to be notified too. Have a look at our website on http://www.bbk.ac.uk/cprc/ for a sense of what we do – we are currently migrating and refreshing the site. In the meantime we have a public page here on facebook which will carry all news including a reading by renowned US poet Robert Grenier on the 20 October: just search for CPRC and join.
More specifically – and imminently – we are also involved in an outstanding annual collaboration with the Guildhall School of Music: VOICEWORKS. A small group of selected Birkbeck poets work closely with composing students and classically trained singers to write songs, which will be performed at the prestigious Wigmore Hall in May. This collaboration has been the beginning of ongoing projects, publications and commissions for many of those involved, and you can see how it works on our website: http://www.voiceworks.org.uk/ Voiceworks is now entering its tenth anniversary year.
To take part you will need to have Tuesday evenings 6-8 available for a number of weeks in the autumn term from 3 November when the early input is most structured (including workshops and seminars with staff), plus some timetabled meetings to share work in the Spring, but can increasingly pace your work to suit the needs of your project and your time – the final song is performed in May. You need to be committed to exploring what collaborative work might bring.
If you’d like to be considered for this, we would need a portfolio of poems or prose poems/writings with a brief note about your interest – up to ten poems, no fewer than four – to be emailed to me on c.watts@bbk.ac.uk.
The final deadline for submissions is 22 October – but we’d like them as soon as possible… we’ll let you know quickly if you have a place for this year. The first meeting takes place at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Silk St, near the Barbican, on Tuesday 3 November.
Voiceworks is an exceptional programme, and the opportunities leading from it have proved exciting for those collaborating. It is selective, so the number following the programme will be small, and comprised of doctoral students and a small group of MAs, no more than 8 poets in total. MAs can take the programme for credit as an option, or for pleasure.
Hope to see you at Poetics Centre events over the year – we will keep you posted.
Carol Watts
. . Category: Archived Events, Archived Reading Groups, Hill Valley Telegraph . Tags: Birkbeck Contemporary Poetics Research Centre, Guildhall School of Music, Voiceworks