Countdown to Ledbury Poetry Festival & Reviews

Summer is here, if only someone had told the weather. The sunshine is bright at V. Press regardless of the state of the sky outside, as we celebrate more reviews and start the countdown to Ledbury Poetry Festival!!!

REVIEWS

On Kathy Gee's Checkout:

"Nona’s story is a constant; we find out more with each new customer and grow increasingly attached. It’s a brief but beautifully poignant read and one that I’d love to hear performed."

Lisa Williams, Everybody's Reviewing, full review here.

'Miss Armstrong: Invisible woman' from Checkout was also featured as poem of the week at Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre - it can be read here.

For more info about this pamphlet, a sample poem or to buy a copy, click here.


LEDBURY POETRY FESTIVAL - Sunday, 14 July 

This year's Ledbury Poetry Festival includes three V. Press poets, Margaret Adkins, John Lawrence and Brenda Read-Brown, giving FREE 20-minute readings on Sunday, July 14.

Photo by Leah Adkins

20 Minutes with… Margaret Adkins
12:20 pm - 12:40 pm

Margaret Adkins will read from her debut pamphlet, Mingled Space. It won the inaugural V. Press Poetry Prize in association with the University of Worcester, and was launched in May. These poems inhabit real and imagined everyday spaces. Other work features in recent issues of Under the Radar and Prole magazines.

20 Minutes with… John Lawrence
3:20 pm - 3:40 pm

John Lawrence will read from his V. Press debut collection The boy who couldn't say his name. His poems are packed with heart, humour, and a unique slant on everyday life. The Poetry Book Society Spring Bulletin reviewed The boy who couldn't say his name as ‘… a thoroughly enjoyable debut collection. Running the full gamut of the comic and the tragic...’

Photo by Andy Smith

20 Minutes with… Brenda Read-Brown
5:20 pm - 5:40 pm

A look at the sharper edges of life, love and laughter, performance poet Brenda Read-Brown has turned to the page with her new collection, Like love (V Press). “The poems in Like love are uncluttered. They are simple, profound, and immensely touching...” Brian Patten. "These poems remind me of the tingles. I’m so happy to feel them. This collection makes me want to run outside, kiss, fall in leaves and then write.” Hollie McNish

Romalyn Ante is also a Nine Arches/Poetry School Primers:Volume Three poet reading on Saturday, July 13. (You can find details of her V. Press pamphlet Rice & Rain which won the Saboteur Awards 2018 Best Poetry Pamphlet here.)


(Thanks to Herefordshire Libraries who are supporting these readings.) The festival runs from Friday, July 5 to Sunday, July 14 and you can check out the full festival programme here.

P.S. V. Press editor, Sarah Leavesley, will be camped out at the festival at various points, as well as at the V. Press readings. So please do come across and say hello or ask questions about V. Press, our author, the submission process or poetry and publishing in general!