Poetry at the Dusty Miller

Calder Valley reading series Poetry at the Dusty Miller is a now monthly night with invited readers, organised by Carcanet Press-published Carola Luther and Judith Willson in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub – and it’s back for the autumn.

Since its first outing in December 2023, Poetry at the Dusty Miller has definitely gathered steam, with five well-attended events under its belt, as well as a special edition summer takeover by former Brontë Parsonage Museum writer-in-residence Ian Humphreys (who you can catch at this year’s Manchester Literature Festival). Carola Luther and Judith Willson have so far welcomed the likes of Lucy Burnett, Amanda Dalton, Steve Ely, Tom Jenks, Andrew McMillan and Kim Moore, winner of the 2022 Forward Prize for Best Collection, and this month’s guests are James Davies, Victoria Gatehouse and Rebecca Hurst.

James Davies’s writing includes many books of poetry, including stack from Carcanet, an exploration of minimalism and alternative walking practices, and it is like toys but also like video taped in a mall from Pamenar, in which pairs of lines push and pull between bliss and bathos creating a magical fuzziness. He is also the author of some prose texts including the Oulipian psychedelic romantic comedy When Two Are In Love or As I Came To Behind Frank’s Transporter (Crater Press), written in collaboration with Philip Terry, and The Wood Pigeons (Dostoyevsky Wannabe), a slenderising of a quiet night in for two.

Victoria Gatehouse is an award-winning poet and children’s writer – and a zoologist. Her pamphlet The Mechanics of Love (Smith | Doorstop) was selected as a ‘Laureate’s Choice’ by Carol Ann Duffy and her first poetry collection, The Hawthorn Bride, is published by Indigo Dreams. She grew up in Leeds and is now based in West Yorkshire. Her poetry has been broadcast on BBC radio and widely published in magazines including The Rialto, Mslexia, Magma, The North, Anthropocene and Butcher’s Dog. She is a three-times winner of The Poetry News Members’ Competition, and was highly commended for the Gingko Prize, 2023.

Rebecca Hurst is a writer, opera-maker, illustrator and researcher. She is the author of the poetry collection, The Iron Bridge, published by Carcanet, and with one of the poems shortlisted in the Forward Prizes, and an Emma Press-published poetry pamphlet, The Fox’s Wedding. Her music theatre work, in collaboration with composers, has been widely performed in the UK and Europe. Rebecca is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. She also leads workshops in schools, museums, hospitals, and libraries.

The organisers of Poetry at the Dusty Miller say just turn up, no booking is necessary and all are welcome. The event is free, with a hat passed around at the end of the evening to contribute towards the performing poets’ travel expenses, and there will also be books for sale – so remember to bring some readies. Getting there is not too difficult, with a bus stop outside and Mytholmroyd Railway Station a five-minute walk (and regular trains from Victoria if you’re heading over from Manchester).