And here we are, our first Anniversary! In September, 2020, partly to counteract lockdown blues, I became involved with POETRYLIT, an online monthly poetry reading event (first Friday of every month).
POETRYLIT has two Featured Poets - the criteria is the poet must have at least one pamphlet published - many have a collection or more published by reputable publisher (not self-published). The Featured Poets have 10 mins each. These are followed by 5-6 Open Mic spots (5 mins each). The founder and M.C., Milla Van Der Have, creates a wonderfully welcoming atmosphere.
Milla and I met at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland (a writers' and artists' centre). She is Dutch but writes poetry in English. I liked Milla's warm and enthusiastic personality, so mainly to support her, when I heard about her plans for PoetryLit I started off doing an open mic, then got invited to be a Featured Poet. A request for suggestions for writers led to me offering so many that Milla asked me to be co-curator. This might explain why so many of the poets are Scotland-based (where I am) but also we have many from Ireland, the UK and USA, and occasionally poets (English-speaking) from other countries such as Spain, and to come, Italy and Norway. It has proved immensely popular and our open micers and audience are global, spanning UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Alaska, the Philippines, India and South Africa.
So to celebrate our first anniversary we had a special extended event with 3 instead of the usual two Featured Poets, starring the extraordinary MacGillivray (aka Kirsten Norris). Milla and I as hosts also read one poem each and there was an extended number of open mics.
Do register to watch online. It's fun, stimulating, inspiring and at times, moving. See https://www.facebook.com/PoetryLit to see who the up and coming poets will be. Then you must register on Eventbrite to get sent the Zoom link.
NB It starts at 7pm GMT. ( Don't be confused by Eventbrite listing 8pm CEST. That is the Netherlands time where Milla is based.)
And you can scroll down the FB page to see the fantastic line-ups we've had so far.
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