Poets & Players at Burgess Foundation
Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
Manchester regular Poets & Players is a must-go for lovers of words as well as music, presenting performers both established and emerging, with the latest readers Imtiaz Dharker, Ella Frears and Martin Zarrop. The music this month comes courtesy Natalie Sharp.
Imtiaz Dharker is poetry royalty – she was offered (but declined) the role of Poet Laureate, and in 2014 awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. Her seven collections, all published by Bloodaxe Books, include Over the Moon and the latest is Shadow Reader. Her poems have featured on BBC radio, television, the London Underground, Glasgow billboards and Mumbai buses. As an artist, she has had eleven solo exhibitions of drawings, and with her video film maker hat on, she scripts and directs video films, many of them for non-government organisations working in the area of shelter, education and health for women and children in India. She has been Chancellor of Newcastle University since 2020.
We are really excited that Ella Frears is coming to town! Originally from Cornwall, Ella Frears is a poet and artist based in London. Her debut collection Shine, Darling was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the TS Eliot Prize. She has held residencies at the Tate Gallery, the National Trust, Royal Holloway University physics department, the Dartington Trust’s Grade II-listed gardens, 16 motorway service stations, the number 17 bus in Southampton, and Exeter University’s environmental history department. Ella’s latest book Goodlord, which takes the form of one long email to an estate agent, was shortlisted for The Forward Prize and a Sky Arts Award, and longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. She hosts chat and music show Tears for Frears on Soho Radio.
Martin Zarrop is a retired mathematician who has lived in the Manchester area since 1980 and started writing poetry in 2006. He has published three pamphlets – No Theory of Everything, Making Waves, on the life and science of Albert Einstein, and To Boldly Go – as well as three full collections: Moving Pictures (Cinnamon, 2016), Is Anyone There? (High Window Press, 2020) and Turn Around When Possible (V.Press, 2023).
Everyone is welcome to P&P and, as always, the event is free (no need to book tickets) – show your appreciation by buying books and CDs from the performers on the day (please note only cash payments are accepted).
