News Archive

On the Border with
Simon Armitage and Owen Sheers

Saturday 5 December, 7.30 pm    
The Drill Hall, Lower Church St., Chepstow NP16 5HJ
Tickets: £12.00 (£10.00 concs)

On the Border presents a grandstand finish to its first season on Saturday 5 December when Simon Armitage and Owen Sheers read at the Drill Hall in Chepstow.

Simon Armitage is one of the most prolific and widely known poets of his generation. He has published over a dozen volumes of poetry and picked up a clutch of awards including the Forward Prize and the Lannan Prize. His collections are regular Poetry Book Society recommendations. Other awards include an Ivor Novello Award and a BAFTA. He’s written two novels, and four stage plays, and is a regular writer for radio, television and film. His poetry is slangy, streetwise and yet unflinchingly down-to-earth. His favourite areas are idiomatic tales, funny dramatic monologues and revel in a heightened chattiness and vitality. Sean O’Brien compares him favourably to Philip Larkin. Simon is a vice president of the Poetry Society and a patron of the Arvon Foundation. In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Owen Sheers was born in Fiji and brought up in Abergavenny. His first collection of poetry, The Blue Book (Seren, 2000) was short-listed for the Wales Book of the Year award and the Forward Prize. His debut non-fiction prose work The Dust Diaries (Faber 2004), was short-listed for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize and won the Wales Book of the Year 2005. His next collection, Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005) won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. His first novel, Resistance was short-listed for the Writers Guild Best Book Award and translated into nine languages. He recently presented the successful television series, A Poet’s Guide to Britain. Owen’s poetry is moving, striking, vital and mysterious. Carol Ann Duffy describes him as one of the most exciting new talents around.

This event promises a feast of witty, moving and accessible poetry. It offers an ideal introduction to poetry for friends and loved-ones and might be of special interest to young people studying English Literature. 

You can book tickets online now by going to:
www.poetryontheborder.org
(there is a reduction for booking online)

Alternatively buy in person at:
The Chepstow Bookshop in St Mary’s St., Chepstow.

Supported by Academi

Another season of On the Border readings begins in February 2010 and features readings by Glyn Maxwell and Stephen Knight, Les Murray and Pascale Petit, Fleur Adcock and Tiffany Atkinson, Ruth Bidgood and Daljit Nagra, Gwyneth Lewis, Dannie Abse and others. 

For further details visit:
www.poetryontheborder.org