Coming Event

�Welcome to Poetry Can. We believe that poetry has a unique power to explore and express the experiences of life: poetry affects everyone. Poetry Can sees its role as enabling and encouraging as many people as possible across communities to get involved in poetry activity, raising awareness and enjoyment of this powerful art form.

NEWS:��

Confirmed so far for Bristol Poetry Festival 2006

BRENDEN KENNELLY,� GERMAINE GREER, CAROL ANN DUFFY, U A FANTHORPE GABEBA BADEROON, YAN LIAN, W N HERBERT, POLLY CLARK, HELEN FARISH, DAVID HARSENT, ROBIN ROBERTSON, CAITRIONA O�REILLY, JANE YEH, FIONA HAMILTON, LINDA LAMUS, PARALALIA (David C Johnson and Peter Hunter) BRISTOL POETRY FESTIVAL POETRY SLAM (Glenn Carmichael and Claire Williamson), APPLES & SNAKES EXPOSED TOUR featuring: Claire Williamson, David J., David �Stickman� Higgins, PolarBear, Yusra Warsama � Artistic Director: Lucy English��

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I can�t wait

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I can�t remember when I�ve looked forward to a poetry festival with such ardour as Bristol Poetry Festival 2006. The internationally renowned poet Brendan Kennelly closes the festival like fireworks on Sunday the 17^th of September and anyone who�s ever seen Brendan Kennelly will invariably tell you about the experience with a right infectious warm enthusiasm, their eyes shining as bright as the dancing light in the eyes of Nancy Spain herself as they do. And something else� Brendan Kennelly is reading, on this night not to be missed, with Gabeba Baderoon, of whom more than one thoroughly smitten person of either sex has smiled and said she draws audiences to her like fireflies are drawn to the light, such a dazzling being stepping out of a fairy tale and casting her poems like spells of enchantment in silken tones and changing the nature of the night� Come to this event only if you want to leave as a better person because I promise you, you will.

And this is a Festival that also includes Germaine Greer, Carol Ann Duffy, U A Fanthorpe,� Yan Lian, W M Herbert, Polly Clark, Helen Farish, David Harsent, Robin Robertson, Caitriona O�Reilly, Jane Yeh, Val Bloom, and also the ever popular Bristol Poetry Festival Poetry Slam, the Apples & Snakes Exposed Tour, Open Floors and - I can�t wait�

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Poetry Can Poetry Competition 2006

�Poetry Can is pleased to announce the launch of

The Poetry Can Competition 2006

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1st� prize:� The winner will be invited to complete a new collection of poems to be published by Poetry Can and will receive 500 copies of their collection

�Closing date: 30 June 2006�

Shortlist will be judged by JEAN SPRACKLAND�

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�Entry fee: �15. Please submit 10 poems.

Entries to Poetry Can Competition, Poetry Can, Unit 11, 20-22 Hepburn Rd, Bristol BS2 8UD ( Postmarked no later than June 30 2006)

Further details & competition rules from Poetry Can:� (0117) 942 6976 [email protected]�� www.poetrycan.co.uk

Competition Rules

YOUR 10 POEMS

• You must submit 10 poems

• Each poem may be in any style, of any length, on any theme. Sequenced poems will be judged as individual poems.

• Each poem should be typed on one side of A4 paper � please use as many sheets as you need

• Do not write your name on the same sheet as your poems. All poems are judged anonymously. REMEMBER TO Enclose a separate sheet with your name, address, telephone number, email address, plus the titles of your poems.

• The entry fee of �15 allows you to enter the required10 poems. You may submit only one entry of 10 poems. Cheques should be made payable to Poetry Can.

• Poetry Can cannot return your poems. If you require a receipt please enclose a SAE.

• No changes can be made to a poem once it has been submitted

• Entrants must be resident in UK.

• Poems should be in English and should not have been published or accepted for publication elsewhere

• All poems must be the entrants own work

• No poem should be a translation of another poet�s work

�Who can enter

• Anyone resident in the UK may enter this competition
• The competition is open to poets of�all ages

• Poetry Can Employees or Board members may not enter

• The winner will be contacted by post at the beginning of August 2006 and publicly announced�during Bristol Poetry Festival�2006��

• The winning poet will complete their collection by April 30 2007

• The winning poet�s collection will be published in August 2007 and launched at the Bristol Poetry Festival 2007

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Entires to Poetry Competition, Poetry Can, Unit 11, 20-22 Hepburn Road, Bristol BS2 8UD

Further inf 0117 942 6976 � [email protected]� www.poetrycan.co.uk

� is a tutor for the Arvon Foundation. training and consultancy for�organizations including the Poetry Society and the Poetry Archive.

JEAN SPRACKLAND�competition judge

Her first poetry collection was Tattoos for Mothers Day (1997), which was shortlisted for the 1998 Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection), and her second collection, Hard Water (2003), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, was shortlisted for the 2003 T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award.��She has held residencies in schools and universities, and is a tutor for the Arvon Foundation. She also works in education, training and consultancy for�organizations including the Poetry Society and the Poetry Archive.

In 2004 Jean Sprackland was named by the Poetry Book Society as one of the �Next Generation� poets and�was one of the judges of the Arvon International Poetry Competition.

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Newsletter

Poetry Can regularly send out newsletter and updates, use the link below to subscribe to this service.

Subscribe to the Poetry Can Newsletter

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Barbican Education launches

education site.

TO INSPIRE PUPILS� CREATIVE WRITING �

www.canihaveaword.org.uk �

�wow! I think the site is utterly and truly wonderful��� Michael Rosen

Can I Have A Word? Grew out of Barbican Education�s passion to make a difference to children�s skill in creative writing. We have now launched an interactive website which captures the spirit of the live project and makes it available across the UK. The challenge now is to bring the site to the attention of primary teachers nationally. �

In response to feedback from head teachers, the project was developed in close collaboration with the UK�s leading poets and local primary school teachers. �

The site offers teachers: �

• New ideas to stimulate creative thinking in pupils inspired by the Barbican arts programme�

• Newly commissioned poems and top writing tips from a range of leading poets from Valerie Bloom to Michael Rosen�

• Exciting new animated stimuli on classroom projects�

• Downloadable work sheets with specific curriculum links developed by the National Literacy Trust

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Please visit www.canihaveaword.org.uk

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You could win a poet!�

You could be a poet!

The poetry Archive has opened it's mouth!

www.poetryarchive.org

The Poetry Archive is the world's premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work.

You can enjoy listening here, free of charge, to the voices of contemporary English-language poets and of poets from the past. The Archive is growing all the time. Please come back regularly to enjoy our latest recordings.

You can explore the Archive in many different ways. You can look for poets you know, you can let us take you to poets whose work you may not know, you can chose poems on a particular theme, or you can ask our guides to show you the recordings they especially like. As the Archive grows, more guides will be added to the Archive. Some guides will be poets and some will be prominent people from other walks of life. All are poetry lovers who are keen to share with you the recordings they especially enjoy.

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Special Announcement

Spoken/Written Bulletin SouthWest

A�new free e-mail bulletin serving live literature in the South West and beyond!
/bigger>/bigger>/fontfamily>Spoken/Written Bulletin South West

/bigger>/bigger>/bigger>/bigger>/bigger>/bigger>/fontfamily>will be a networking newsletter issued monthly, (excepting Dec. & Aug.) connecting poets, storytellers, and live words artists of all kinds with promoters, venues, festivals & commissioners of every variety. It serves arts groups, councils, theatres, literature & arts organizations, universities, poets, storytellers, writers, playwrights, word artists, etc., focussing on the S.West, but looking nationwide.
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Need poets, storytellers, etc.? Have an event with open mike to advertise? The bulletin aims to carry the widest range of different opportunities to the broadest range of professional, semi-professional and emerging live words artists & writers.
If you have information to share, posts/commissions/slots/evenings/slams/festivals/platforms/showcases/conferences etc, with places for artists, to advertise, websites or magazines taking submissions, etc., please e-mail the address below for entry guidelines (plain text in body of e-mail please).

Performance poet, storyteller, text artist, etc.? Looking for information sources of festivals, slams, open mikes etc.? Interested in opportunities from opening public art to text performance to script workshopping? - Spoken/Written Bulletin will be a useful resource.

To join the list, please e-mail [email protected]/color> with �Subscribe� in the title of the message.

Spoken/Written Bulletin gratefully acknowledges the support of Arts Council England South West.�

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Funded by: Arts Council England.� Bristol City Council. �Bath and North East Somerset Council.��South Gloucestershire Council.� Poetry Can