Meet your laureate! - Poetry in Chesterfield

Come and say hello - I usually
look a bit like this....

If you're wondering who the heck the new Derbyshire Poet Laureate is and you'd like to say hello, an easy way to do so is at Spire Writes poetry, held on the first Wednesday of the month upstairs at The White Swan in Chesterfield, from 7.45pm.

I started Spire Writes when I first moved back to Chesterfield as a way of bringing live literature to the famous town of the Crooked Spire and giving local writers a chance to perform alongside poets from further afield and more established names. Since we started, we've played host to writers like Brendan Cleary, Tony Walsh, Helen Ivory, Martin Figura, Liz Berry and Chesterfield's very own, very talented Matt McAteer.

Each night also features open mic slots where you can come and read your own work, whether you're a seasoned performer or you've never read your work in public before.

This Wednesday (6th November) we're featuring local writers Sally Goldsmith and Cora Greenhill. Sally was born in Oxfordshire but feels like a Sheffielder having lived in and around the city for nearly 35 years. Her pamphlet 'Singer' was a winner in the Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition judged by Michael Longley. Her first full collection, 'Are We There Yet?' Was published by Smith/Doorstop earlier this year.

Cora Greenhill's new collection, The Point of Waking (Oversteps Books) comes out in October, and this will be it's first outing! Cora has lived in Grindleford for over 25 years, and her poems reflects her life in Derbyshire as well as longterm working relationship with Crete. She has recently had work in The North, The Sheffield Anthology, The Best of Manchester Poets, The New Writer, MsLexia and other publications.

If you've got a poet in mind who you'd really love to see perform locally, please get in touch and let me know and I'll see what I can do!