Lochhead, Kay et al Headline POETRY IN THE PERSIAN TENT, Aug 22 - 26

Renowned poets Liz Lochhead, Jackie Kay, John Glenday, Vicki Fever, Aonghas MacNeacail and Stewart Conn will headline the Poetry in the Persian Tent reading series this August to raise funds for Liz Lochhead and Jim Carruth's Old MacDonald Had a Farm for Africa Project, in association with Oxfam. Organised by Stephanie Green and hosted by the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, the poetry readings will take place at 11am to 12pm each day from Wednesday the 22nd of August to Sunday the 26th of August, 2012 at Venue 127. Tickets are available through the Hub box office for £10 (£8 concessions) each.

Scotland's Makar Liz Lochhead said "Come every day - a fantastic line-up of poets for a fabulous cause."

Liz Lochhead will feature at two of the Poetry in the Persian Tent readings, while National Poetry Competition judges Jackie Kay, John Glenday and Vicki Feaver as well as former Edinburgh Makar, Stewart Conn and Gaelic poet Aonghas MacNeacail will each headline a reading in the series.

Also reading will be William Letford, who is shortly to be published by Carcanet, Jane McKie, winner of the Edwin Morgan Prize, 2011 and Helen Mort, former Poet in Residence at Grasmere’s Wordsworth Trust and Ryan Van Winkle, Poet in Residence at the Edinburgh City Libraries. Up and coming poets Eunice Buchanan, Jim Carruth, Niall Campbell, Stephanie Green and Mandy Haggith will complete the programme, along with a variety of musicians and singers.

Organiser Stephanie Green said "It is wonderful that so many fantastic poets are supporting our Old MacDonald Had a Farm For Africa Project and in particular that Liz Lochhead herself will be appearing at not one, but two of the events. These readings will be an absolute must for poetry lovers at the Festival."

Musical interludes will be provided by John Sampson, Carole Clarke, Patsy Seddon and Just Voices.

Liz Lochhead is the current Makar of Scotland. In 2001 she won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award for the play Medea. Her poetry collections include A Choosing (Polygon, 2003) and Dreaming Frankenstein & Collected Poems (Polygon, 1984).

Stewart Conn was Edinburgh Makar in 2002-5. His most recent collection is The Breakfast Room (Bloodaxe, 2010). He was shortlisted for the 2000 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award for Stolen Light: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 1999). He is a former Head of BBC Radio Drama.

Vicki Feaver is the author of three poetry collections, the most recent The Book of Blood (Cape, 2006) shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Poetry Award and the Forward Prize. She is one of the 2012 Judges for the National Poetry Award.

John Glenday was shortlisted for the 2010 TEd Hughes Prize for Excellence in New Poetry and for the Griffin Poetry Prize 2010 for his most recent collection Grain. In 2011, he was a National Poetry Competition Judge along with Jackie Kay and Colette Bryce.

Jackie Kay's most recent publications are a memoir, Red Dust Road (Bloomsbury, 2010) and Fiere (Picador, 2011), winner of the Costa Book Prize for Poetry. In 2011 she was a National Poetry Judge along with John Glenday and Colette Bryce.

Aonghas MacNeacail celebrates his seventieth birthday this year with the publication of new and selected poems in Gaelic and English Laughing at the Clock - New and Selected Poems (dèanamh gàire ris a’ chloc - DÀIN ÙRA AGUS THAGHTE (Polygon, 2012).

Stephanie Green, organizer and master of ceremonies of Poetry in the Persian Tent, is the author of the poetry pamphlet Glass Works which was shortlisted for the Callum MacDonald Award in 2006. Her poems have been published widely, including in The Edinburgh Review.

Ryan Van Winkle is Poet in Residence at Edinburgh City Libraries. His first collection, Tomorrow, We Will Live Here, (Salt, 2010) won the Crashaw Prize. In 2012 Ryan was awarded the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship.

Old MacDonald had a Farm for Africa Project was devised by Makar Liz Lochhead, Scotland’s National Poet and poet Jim Carruth in association with Oxfam to set up a number of farms across Africa, providing communities with livestock and resources to look after them. The twelve-month project aims to found as many farms as possible by the 1st of April, 2013. For more information on the Old MacDonald Project, visit www.justgiving.com/Stephanie-Green6.

Jane McKie won the 2011 Edwin Morgan Prize. Jim Carruth is published by Mariscat. He is founder member of St Mungo's Mirrorball, a Glasgow Poetry Society. Niall Campbell has won an Eric Gregory Award. His pamphlet is published by HappenStance, 2012. Helen Mort became the youngest ever poet in residence at The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere in 2010. Her first collection, Division Street, is due out with Chatto & Windus in 2013. William Letford's debut collection, Bevel, will be published by Carcanet and launched at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August.

John A Sampson is noted for his collaborative performances with poets, especially Stewart Conn and Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate. Sampson is a virtuoso on the flute, piccolo, recorder, crumhorn, and other wind instruments.

Patsy Seddon, clàrsach, has played in the harp and singing duo Sileas, the all women five piece The Poozies and larger ensembles like Clan Alba with Dick Gaughan. She has recorded twelve CDs. She teaches Scottish Harp and Kodály musicianship for NYCoS.

Carole Clarke, mezzo-soprano, is well-known on the Scottish oratorio circuit. She will sing a range of light music. Irene Railley, leader of the Just Voices a capella group, has travelled to Bulgaria and Georgia collecting traditional music.

Tickets are £10 (£8 concessions) through the Hub box office from their website www.hubtickets.co.uk, email boxoffice@hubtickets.co.uk, telephone 0131 473 2000 or in person from The Hub, Castlehill, Royal Mile, Edinburgh EH1 2NE. Tickets are available on the door but reservations are recommended due to limited seating.

For more information on Poetry in the Persian Tent, visit sites.google.com/site/stephgreen1/poetry-in-the-persian-tent.

For more information on the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, visit
www.festivalofspirituality.org.uk/.

Join the Poetry in the Persian Tent community on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/events/411353128904042/

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