Fire River Poets have decided it is time to begin our regular monthly poetry evenings again.
We are still unable to hold our regular events at the Creative Innovation Centre, so we are introducing ‘virtual events’ using Zoom, which many people are now familiar with.
We hope it will be a welcome return to some sort of normality for everyone who writes poetry or has a love of poetry.
ROSIE JACKSON lives in Frome, Somerset, where she teaches creative writing workshops and works in arts and health. She has a first-class degree from the University of Warwick, a D. Phil. from York, and has taught in many universities and educational settings, including the University of East Anglia, Nottingham Trent, Bristol UWE, Bethesda Writers’ Centre Washington DC, Skyros Writers’ Lab, Cortijo Romero, and the Open College of the Arts.
Her poetry pamphlet What the Ground Holds (Poetry Salzburg, 2014) was followed by her first collection The Light Box (Cultured Llama, 2016). Her poetry has been published in Acumen, Ambit, Domestic Cherry, Frogmore Papers, High Window, Poetry Ireland Reiew, Poetry Salzburg Review, Scintilla, Tears in the Fence, The Interpreter’s House, other journals and anthologies; set for GCSE; used for a sculpture by Andrew Whittle in the grounds of a Dorchester hospital; and she has collaborated with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
With Dawn Gorman she won the Hedgehog Pamphlet competition 2019; won 1st prize and the Hilly Cansdale award at Wells 2018, 2nd prize at Torbay 2018, 1st prize in the Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition 2017, 3rd prize Hippocrates Open 2017, Hilly Cansdale Award Wells 2015, 1st prize Bath 2015, 2nd Prize Battered Moons 2015, 1st and 2nd prizes Berkshire Festival, 2016 and 2017, 2nd prize Havant Literary Festival, and has been widely commended at Bridport and elsewhere. She was a Hawthornden fellow 2017.
Her books of prose include Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion; Frieda Lawrence; The Eye of the Buddha (fiction); Mothers Who Leave and she has won awards for her short stories. The Glass Mother: A Memoir was published by Unthank Books in 2016. www.rosiejackson.org.uk
GRAHAM BURCHELL lives in South Devon. He has lived and worked in Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Tenerife, Mexico, France, Chile and the United States. He was a teacher from 1976 to 2003, with a B.Ed. in Art and Education. He became a full-time writer in 2004. His first collection Vermeer’s Corner, based on the 35 known paintings of Johannes Vermeer, was published in 2008 (Foothills Publishing, NY).
With an M.A. in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University in 2010, he went on to publish The Chongololo Club with Pindrop Press in 2012; Kate (Indigo Dreams Press) and Cottage Pi (one of the winners of the inaugural Sentinel poetry book competition), both published in 2015. His next collection will be published by Indigo Dreams in September 2018.
His poetry has appeared in most of the major UK poetry magazines and he has won, been placed or commended in many competitions. These include 1st prize in the the National Stanza Competition 2015; winning the 2012 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year; runner-up in the 2016 BBC Proms poetry competition; 3rd place in the Bridport Prize 2017; 1st prize in the Red Shed Poetry Competition, 2018.
He was a Hawthornden fellow 2013. For several years he has been active in the poetry scene in Devon, as chairperson of Moor Poets and as one of the team of five who run the Teignmouth Poetry Festival. www.gburchell.com