Featuring abeer Ameer, rhian edwards, Rosalind Hudis & katrina naomi
Date: Sunday 31st July
Time: 15:00
Venue: Theatre
Price: £5.00 / £3.00
This event will include BSL interpretation
What was it like to be published during the pandemic?
Daily showcase of poets and collections that were published during the pandemic, whose book launches were reduced to Zoom readings, audiences on mute, silent applause and bedroom backgrounds. Published During the Pandemic is the daily event that seeks to give these poets the book launches they lost, with the inimitable atmosphere and energy of a live theatre audience and stage.
Inhale/Exile (Seren 2021) is the debut poetry collection by Abeer Ameer, a rising poet of Iraqi heritage, who lives in Cardiff, Wales. Inspired by the many stories she heard as a child and visiting family in Iraq as an adult, Ameer has written a book that celebrates the resilience of her forebears and extended family in Baghdad and around the world.
Restorations (Seren 2021) is Ros Hudis journey into what it means to preserve – a monument, a moment, a life-story, a poppy. It’s about the hunger to possess and the need to let go.
The Estate Agent’s Daughter (Seren 2020) is s Rhian Edwards’ eagerly awaited follow-up to her multi-prizewinning debut Clueless Dogs. Her voice is both powerfully personal, local to her Bridgend birthplace, and performative, born to be read aloud. In the title poem, the protagonist has become a surrealist house, which foreshadows both the heartbreak (a shattered first marriage) and joy (the birth of a daughter), that feature in the work that follows.
Wild Persistence (Seren 2020) is Katrina Naomi’s second Seren collection, which is a confident and persuasive collection of poems. The first poem ‘Anti-Ambient’ warns us to be on guard for the off-guard, to suspend our expectations of pure realism and to stay awake for what comes next.
This event is kindly sponsored by:
Authors
Abeer Ameer is a poet of Iraqi heritage who lives in Cardiff, Wales. She trained as a dentist in London developing an interest in the treatment of anxious patients and mindfulness. Her poems are often inspired by stories of Iraq and include a range of personal and political themes. They have appeared widely online and in-print publications including: Acumen, Poetry Wales, Magma, Under the Radar, Planet, New Welsh Reader, The Rialto and The Poetry Review. Her debut poetry collection, Inhale/ Exile, was published by Seren in February 2021.
Rhian Edwards is a multi-award winning poet and the newly appointed poetry editor of Seren. Her first collection Clueless Dogs (Seren 2012) won Wales Book of the Year 2013, the Roland Mathias Prize for Poetry 2013 and the People’s Choice 2013. It was also shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2012. Rhian’s second collection The Estate Agent’s Daughter (Seren 2020) was a National Poetry Day Recommended Read for 2020.
Rosalind Hudis is an award winning poet and writing tutor from West Wales. She gives writing workshops at events and festivals, mentors privately, and also teaches in higher education. She is a two times holder of a Literature Wales Writers Bursary (2013 and 2018) and a twice Hawthornden Fellow (2017 and 2022). She is also a former editor on the literary journal The Lampeter Review. Her poetry has won a number of prizes, including in the National Poetry Competition. Her most recent collection is Restorations (Seren 2021) which was a Poetry Book Society spring choice. Photo credit: Hayley Madden.
Katrina Naomi is the winner of the 2021 Keats-Shelley Prize. Katrina’s most recent collection, Wild Persistence, (Seren, 2020), received an Authors’ Foundation award from the Society of Authors. Same But Different, with Helen Mort, (Hazel Press, 2021) won the 2022 Saboteur Award for Best Collaboration. The Way the Crocodile Taught Me (Seren, 2016) was a #FoylesFiveForPoetry and received an Arts Council award. Katrina’s poetry has appeared on Poems on the Underground, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, and in The TLS, The Poetry Review and Modern Poetry in Translation. She has a PhD in creative writing (Goldsmiths), and teaches for Arvon and the Poetry School. Katrina lives in Cornwall www.katrinanaomi.co.uk. Photo credit: Tim Ridley.
This event is kindly sponsored by:
Books
