“… life, literature, and the pursuit of happiness in the famous Troubadour cellar-club, London’s liveliest and best–loved poetry landmark since the 1950s …”
Former US Poet-Laureate Billy Collins on the Troubadour’s 60th birthday as a writer’s café…
Thanks to the zeal of its many managers and promoters, the Troubadour has evolved over its 60 year history from a hidden-away beatnik coffee house to a world famous center for the performance of music and poetry. Its walls have become storied, and if only the place had halls, they would be hallowed. The Troubadour was the scene of the first reading I gave in the UK, and I count myself among the long line of poets who are eager to return and darken its doorway again.
welcome
from Coffee-House Poetry organiser, Anne-Marie Fyfe
Back from my coastal travels (of which more on Mon 12 Nov) & an Antrim-Coast, #coffeehousepoetry summer residential week, to a series of five fantastic #poetrymondays (with interwoven #sundaygallery workshops) from now to Christmas when we celebrate the season’s end with an un-slushy/un-sentimental look at the poetry of snow (on Mon 10 Dec)!
But first, do remember that Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2018 is open for submissions right now with a deadline of Mon 22 Oct — your chance to be one of those oustanding poets who not only collects a major Troubadour prize, but gets to read your prizewinning poem with 2018 judges Jo Shapcott & Daljit Nagra at – one of the season’s highlights, Earls Court’s equivalent of the Oscars – our Mon 26 Nov Prize Night.
As to upcoming events, an amazing opener with Chester Johnson who worked with WH Auden on the American Episcopal Church’s retranslation of the psalms, & with Elizabeth Powell whose title poem Tony Hoagland describes as wild, entertaining & ambitious, backed by 20 Troubadour poets’ choices of right-now poems that take us to America, right now!
That’s followed by some of the best of this year’s new writing from six headline guests & some great Troubadour poets all reading new work.
And for those of you who’ve wondered about the Arts-Council-funded words&music performance The Voyage Out that I’ve taken to Suffolk, Cornwall, Devon, Antrim, Cork, Wexford, Scottish Highlands & Islands, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Maine & Nova Scotia, the project ends with a performance at #coffeehousepoetry on Mon 12 Nov (with music, plus sea/coastal openers by 21 Troubadour poets.)
And first workshop of the autumn now posted on classes page!
Hope to see lots of you for our To Look for America evening on Mon 15 Oct.
#sundaygallery classes & courses - oct-dec 2018
- sun 14 & sun 28 oct, 12-3.30 pm: minds of snow: two-part themed writing workshop with anne-marie fyfe
advance booking only as our workshops/classes (limited to 15 attendees) are frequently oversubscribed: pay via PayPal (see classes page) or cheque to Coffee-House Poetry, PO Box 16210, LONDON W4 1ZP: if overbooked you’ll be informed by e-mail & refunded promptly
