“A Study Day on Poetry” by Steven Fowler, James Haddow & Roger McGough

In this Study Day we bring you three poets, including the renowned Roger McGough, who will together offer members a wide-ranging look at this popular genre.

Programme
9.30 Registration
10.00 Steven Fowler, Kingston University
11.00 Coffee / Tea
11.30 James Haddow, Taxi Driver Poet
12.30 Lunch – Bring-Your-Own – Tea / Coffee available
1.30 Roger McGough, Poet, Playwright, Children’s Author & Broadcaster
2.30 Tea / Coffee
3.00 Roger McGough – Concluding Session
4.00 Departure

Speakers – Steven Fowler is a poet, writer and performer working in the literary, modernist and avant-garde traditions. He has published ten collections of poetry, over twenty publications of limited-edition poetry, art and collaborative works. He is a founder of the European Poetry Festival and has been teaching at Kingston University since 2014. James Haddow is the Taxi Driver Poet. He has published several collections of his verse which he describes as “racy, raunchy, topical, soft, sensitive, brutal, political, satirical, comical, tough, loving and spiteful” and much of it was originally delivered to the passengers in his taxi. Roger McGough was born and raised in Liverpool. A prolific writer, he has published more than fifty books of adult and children’s poetry, as well as several plays. Notable poetry collections include Defying Gravity (1992), The Way Things Are (1999), and That Awkward Age (2009). After university McGough dabbled as a pop singer and lyricist in the band the Scaffold which earned minor fame for his song “Lily the Pink” when topping the UK charts in 1968. Influenced by the Beat culture in the United States, McGough embraces freedom of expression through his poems’ subjects and verse structure. He focuses primarily on the ordinary and every day, and his poetry is both accessible and popular. He considers poetry a form of subversion and often uses various forms of humour, particularly wordplay, to confront serious topics in an effort to expose the subjectivity of reality. He currently hosts the Radio 4 program Poetry Please.

For full information please see the BOOKING FORM