Teignmouth Poetry Festival Event Information page

Saturday 28th May      

 Despite Knowing

2 - 3pm                      FREE ticket required  

Veronica Aaronson introduces her important anthology of poems on the subject of addiction. Despite Knowing ranges through alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, computers, phones and shopping, looking at the problem of addiction from the perspectives of users, family members and professionals. Over 50 poets contributed: many will read their work at this event – and some will present their poems in the form of songs.

 Ticket Link

 Tom Sastry & Caleb Parkin, presented by Marc Woodward

3.30 – 4.30pm                                £5.00 Click here to book

Tom Sastry is a funny and engaging performer. His first collection,A Man's House Catches Fire (2019) was highly commended in the Forward Prize and shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize.  He will be showcasing his brand new collection You have no normal country to return to, a darkly comic exploration of national identity and the power of modern myths.

Caleb Parkin is Bristol City Poet 2020 – 22. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Rialto, Poetry Review, Magma and many other periodicals. Books include This Fruiting Body (Nine Arches Press) and Wasted Rainbow (tall-lighthouse). He came 2nd in the National Poetry Competition 2016 and 1st in the Winchester Poetry Prize 2017. Caleb tutors for the Poetry Society, Poetry School, Arvon and others, and has an MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes. Later this year there’ll be a new pamphlet from Broken Sleep and a collection of his ‘City Poet’ work.

Competition Prizegiving

5 – 6.30pm            FREE no ticket needed

The top 10 successful poets in each category of the  Teignmouth Poetry Festival Competitionwill read their poems and there’ll be adjudications from Open judge Katrina Naomi, and Rosie Jackson, judge for the inaugural Graham Burchell Award for Devon Poets.  Followed by prize presentations, and an opportunity to ‘Meet the Judges’.  Introduced by Virginia Griem and Ian Royce Chamberlain.

Katrina Naomi & Rosie Jackson, readings from our competition judges,presented by Jennie Osborne

8 – 9pm                                     £10.00 Click Here to Book

Katrina Naomi’s latest project, Same But Different, is a poetic collaboration with Helen Mort, published in Sept 2021 by Hazel Press. Her most recent collection, Wild Persistence, (Seren, 2020), received an Authors’ Foundation award from the Society of Authors. Her  poetry has appeared on Poems on the Underground and BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. Katrina lives in Cornwall. www.katrinanaomi.co.uk 

Rosie Jackson’s many competition successes include first prize in the Teignmouth Open, 2021. Her poetry publications include, most recently, Light Makes it Easy from Indigo Dreams. This followed two collaborations: Aloneness is a Many-Headed Bird (with Dawn Gorman, Hedgehog Press, 2020), and Two Girls and a Beehive (with the late Graham Burchell, Two Rivers Press, 2020).  www.rosiejackson.org.uk

 Sunday 29 May  Click Here To Book

Poetry Workshop with Katrina Naomi

10.30 - 1pm                                £15.00 Click Here To Book

'What Makes a Prize-Winning Poem?' Katrina knows about competition success – only last year she won the prestigious Keats-Shelley Competition.  But as a highly experienced judge she is also well-qualified to talk about the elusive art of making a judge sit up and take notice.  She will discuss how not to do it, but mostly she’ll encourage people to think about titles, first lines, last lines, verbs, even themes – and that crucial matter of injecting some flamboyance.

NOTE: ADVANCE BOOKING ESSENTIAL