For the first time since the pandemic, I'm looking at a stretch of at least monthly readings and workshops I'm participating in from March through July. It all kicks off tomorrow with the launch of After Sylvia (Nine Arches, 2022) at Book Haus in Bristol. Funnily enough, I'm not in the anthology--would that I had seen the call for submissions!, but have been invited to join in, so I'll be reading a poem I've written that responds to Plath's 'The Rival' using the same title and theme but quite a different piece of work, as well as some other poems I've written that I feel address elements I admire in Plath's poetry.
Next month, I'll have another reading in Bristol as part of the Lyra Poetry Festival, 'Nature and the City: An Ecopoetry Reading and Open Mic,' at the Arnolfini on 30 April (more details on my Readings and Events page), with fellow readers Caleb Parkin, Pey Oh, and Samantha Walton, all poet-friends whose work I admire. I'm looking forward to seeing what work emerges in the open mic, too.
In May, I have two events on the Bath Festival: I'll read in a local poets' night with Pey and Ruth Sharman, with an open mic, and I'll be running a workshop on writing odes. In June, I'll do a workshop and reading for the Devizes Arts Festival, and in July, it's the wonderful annual Flash Fiction Festival in Bristol.
I love participating in readings for many reasons: feeling that there's an audience for my writing, being stimulated and inspired by others' writing, socialising with others who also value poetry and writing as a part of everyday life. Hurrah!