Poetry night in Lewes set to benefit Ukraine

Agenda is one of the best known and most highly respected poetry journals in the world. Ezra Pound was a co-founder.

It's edited in Mayfield by Patricia McCarthy, a former winner of the National Poetry Prize, who is one of the poets. South Downs Festival director Barry Smith is another.

For the night, the guest of honour is David Harsent, a poet of many awards and a professor of creative writing. Josephine Balmer and Timothy Adès are also translators (his bookstall will be in the Town Hall from 10 till 4pm). Brighton poet John O’Donoghue will also read and Nigel Horn will play the guitar.

Barry added: “The event is being held in the historic White Hart Hotel, Lewes, where Tom Paine and the Headstrong Club debated issues of the day – a discussion that fed directly into the writing of the American constitution. The historic setting is an appropriate place for audiences to hear the words of the Agenda poets, several of whom have won or been shortlisted for major awards.

“Heading the bill is David Harsent. David Harsent has published nine full collections of poetry and several limited editions, and has received a number of literary awards, including the Eric Gregory Award, the Geoffrey Faber Award, the Cheltenham Festival Prize, two Arts Council Bursaries and a Society of Authors Travel Fellowship.

“His earlier collection, Legion, won the Forward Prize for best collection 2005 and was shortlisted for both the Whitbread Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His Selected Poems was published in June 2007, and was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize. His most recent collection, Night, was Poetry Book Society Choice for Spring 2011, was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize and the Costa Prize, and won the Griffin International Poetry Prize.

“Harsent has collaborated with composers (most often with Harrison Birtwistle) on commissions from the Royal Opera House, the Proms, The Nash Ensemble, the Prussia Cove Festival, VARA (Holland), the Aldeburgh Festival, the Aix-enProvence Festival, BBC Radio and Channel 4 TV. Pieces have been performed at ROH, the Royal Albert Hall (Proms), the Concertgebouw, The Megaron (Athens), the South Bank Centre and Carnegie Hall. Gawain and The Woman and the Hare have been issued as CDs, and The Minotaur as a DVD. Several pieces have been performed on radio and television.

“David Harsent is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Roehampton and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.”

The evening is free with a collection to help cover costs. Any surplus will be donated to aid for Ukraine.

All welcome.