Poetry Nights at Ponty Arts
Come and enjoy an evening of poetry. Featuring guests, open mic and occasional workshops. Share your own poetry and enjoy the work of others. Everyone is welcome to read or listen and a friendly atmosphere is guaranteed! for more info email Glyn Roberts glynroberts@hotmail.com This is a free event but voluntary contributions are always welcome.
September 12th – John Freeman (supported by Henry Lyman) – John Freeman was born in Essex, grew up in South London and studied English at Cambridge. He lived in Yorkshire before moving to Wales where he teaches at Cardiff University. He has published two collections with Worple Press, A Suite For Summer (2007) and What Possessed Me (2016), his tenth collection of poems. Other collections include The Light Is Of Love, I Think: New and Selected Poems (Stride), and Landscape With Portraits (Redbeck). Stride also published a book of essays, The Less Received: Neglected Modern Poets. The essay ‘We Must Talk Now’ appeared in Cusp: recollections of poetry in transition, edited by Geraldine Monk (Shearsman, 2012). In 2013 John Freeman won third prize in the National Poetry Competition.
October 10 – Sam Smith – Sam has had several poetry collections and novels published. Poetry collections include To Be Like John Clare (University of Salzburg Press), Skin&Bones (Odyssey Poets), Dialogues (Silver Gull Publishing), John the Explorer (Gecko Press), pieces (K.T. Publications), the complete pieces (BeWrite e-book), Rooms (Oasis broadsheet), apostrophe combe (boho press), Problems & Polemics (boho press), Rooms & Dialogues (boho press), Canoe (erbacce press), and An Atheist’s Alphabetical Approach to Death (erbacce press).
Nov 14 – Martin Locock – Martin has been writing poetry for many years, developing a characteristic style of precise observation, clearly expressed. His previous collections are Carefully Chosen Words, Removals and The Thought of Fresh Rain. He also edited the anthology Poetry from Strata Florida, arising from his work on the monastic landscape of the Cistercian Abbey.
He has published two collections of haiku, Travels with a Notebookand Bright Silence: A month in haiku, and has taught managers to use the form as a reflective practice (The Flow of Thought).
He is a member of Lampeter Writers and the Red Heron performance group and has performed at PENFro Festival, Cellar Bards, Carmarthen Old Town Festival, Verses in Vino, Penned at the Bont, Poems and Pints at the Queens and Mad As Birds.
He runs the Spoken Word Wales website and records interviews with performers and writers for the Spoken Word Wales podcast.