Free reading at the Whitworth Art Gallery on Saturday 18 November at 2.30-4.00.
James Sheard
James Sheard was born in Cyprus in 1962, and spent his childhood abroad, mainly in Singapore and Germany. As an adult, he spent periods living in Hamburg and Helsinki. He is the author of two full collections of poetry: Scattering Eva (Jonathan Cape, 2005), shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Glenn Dimplex Award for Poetry, and Dammtor (Jonathan Cape, 2010), as well as a pamphlet of poems, Hotel Mastbosch (Mews Press, 2003), which was awarded the Ictus Prize. His third collection – The Abandoned Settlements – deals with the literal and metaphorical abandoned places of one’s life, and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. He currently lives in Powys and is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Keele University
Kayo Chingonyi
Kayo Chingonyi (pronounced kai-o chin-gone-yee) is a fellow of the Complete Works programme for diversity and quality in British Poetry and the author of two pamphlets, Some Bright Elegance (Salt, 2012) and The Colour of James Brown’s Scream (Akashic, 2016). His first full-length collection, Kumukanda, was published in June 2017 by Chatto & Windus. As well as being widely published in journals and anthologies, Kayo has been invited to read from his work at venues and events across the UK and internationally. In 2012 he represented Zambia at Poetry Parnassus, a festival of world poets staged by The Southbank Centre as part of the London 2012 Festival.
He was awarded the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and shortlisted for the inaugural Brunel University African Poetry Prize and has completed residencies with Kingston University, Cove Park, First Story, The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and Royal Holloway University of London in partnership with Counterpoints Arts. He was Associate Poet at the Institute of Contemporary Arts from Autumn 2015 to Spring 2016. He co-edited issue 62 of Magma Poetry and the Autumn 2016 edition of The Poetry Review.
Photo credit: Naomi Woddis
Rebecca Hurst
Rebecca Hurst is a doctoral student at the University of Manchester where she writes poetry and researches Soviet fairy tales. Her work has appeared in various magazines including Agenda, Aesthetica, The Clearing, and Magma Poetry. Her opera, After the Fall, written with composer Helgi Rafn Ingvarsson, premiered in May 2017. She is a member of the Voicings Collective; an ensemble that creates exploratory new music theatre.
Poets & Players 