Join us for this special event with guest poets Zoe Brooks and Anna Saunders, joint organisers of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival

September's poetry event at Drawing Projects UK will be a very special one. Trowbridge Poetry Stanza are delighted to present guest readers Zoe Brooks and Anna Saunders. Zoe and Anna are joint organisers of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival, as well as being outstanding wordsmiths, and we are delighted to say that both will be bringing new collections to share with us.

Zoe Brooks will be reading from her third collection Something In Nothing, published by Indigo Dreams earlier this year. Her First collection Owl Unbound (Indigo Dreams) was published in 2020, and her long poem for voices Fool’s Paradise (Black Eyes Publishing) in 2022.​She has been widely published in print and online magazines and in a number of anthologies including Wagtail: The Roma Women’s Poetry Anthology (Butcher’s Dog) and Contemporary Surrealist and Magic Realist Poetry (Lamar University Press).​​Zoe is also an extremely hard working director of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival, leading on the Festival’s year-round online programme. Zoe's new collection Something In Nothing weaves together the lives of various fairytale characters in a contemporary setting to explore universal and difficult issues, in particular the denial of evil. At its heart is the story of the serial killer Bluebeard and the Luminous Girl. Other characters include the elderly couple Beauty and Beast, the witch Baba Yaga, a non-magical godmother and a useless angel.

Anna Saunders has published eight poetry collections: Communion, Kissing the She Bear (Wild Conversations Press), Struck (Pindrop Press), Burne Jones and the Fox, Ghosting for Beginners, Feverfew, The Prohibition of Touch, and Eurydice in the Ruined House (all published by Indigo Dreams).Anna has a Masters in Creative and Critical Writing from The University of Gloucestershire is also a hugely inspiring mentor, teacher and workshop facilitator. She is the Founding Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival. Anna's latest book is Eurydice in the Ruined House. The ruined house of this collection is many things - the ravaged world, the wounded self, and a squat in which the gods party, make love, and control the fate of the mortals. Desire, heartache, and the redemptive powers of poetry are themes in a fiercely original and timely collection that invites us to leap into the dark and 'mine for the black stone of the heart.'

This will be a relaxed event with coffee and cake on offer from the Arthaus cafe, poetry reading and a chance to ask the authors questions.

All are welcome, but please take a look at the Poetry Society's code of conduct https://poetrysociety.org.uk/membership/poetry-society-stanzas/memorandum-of-understanding/ if you have not joined us for an event before.

Please do book in advance as tickets cannot be purchased on the day.

Description supplied by the event organiser.