ARTS & CULTURE
Poetry in the UK
Poets and poetry have always played a public role in British life. Did you know that John Betjeman was instrumental in saving St. Pancras station from demolition? There’s a statue to him there, looking up in wonder at the ironwork. Betjeman was an avid defender of Victorian architecture and a much-loved figure on television in the 1970s with programmes on his favourite buildings. St Pancras station holds a Betjeman poetry competition every year for young poets aged 10–13. After the May 2017 Manchester Arena attack, poet Tony
‘Longfella’ Walsh read his ‘This is the Place’ poem about Manchester, moving the huge audience to tears and cheers. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour slogan ‘For the many, not the few’ comes from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem ‘The Masque of Anarchy’. Poetry exists in many forms in the UK. Many people know that Shakespeare wrote great sonnets and
Wordsworth wrote something about daffodils, but there’s a lot going on in poetry in London most days of the week. In addition to venues like the Poetry Café, the Troubadour Coffee House, The Betsy Trotwood pub, Torriano Meeting House and the Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre for readings by both established and novice poets, there are bookshops with great poetry sections, international poetry award evenings, poetry classes and poetry appreciation days. There’s also a vibrant spoken-word scene in London, with performers reciting their work in venues like SLAM near King’s Cross. Apples and Snakes is a UK-wide, and sometimes international, organiser of spoken word events. Often the audience is the judge in these ‘battles’ and whichever poet gets the most applause wins the evening. The biggest poetry prize in the UK, and also open to
international writers, is the T.S. Eliot Prize. Founded in 1993 by
www.focus-info.org
Eliot’s widow, it awards £20,000 to the best poetry collection of the year. Last year, Jacob Polley won for ‘Jackself’ (Picador). Readings by the ten shortlisted poets of 2017 will be held on 14 January 2018 at the Southbank Centre. It’s one evening of the year where you can see all the great and good of the country’s poetry world in one place, letting their hair down and cheering for their favourites. Other big prizes are the Forward Prize and the National Poetry Competition. The Forward Prize will be awarded this year on the 21 September also at the Southbank Centre. There’s £10,000 first prize for best collection and £5,000 for the best first collection as well as £1,000 for best single poem. The National Poetry Competition attracts thousands of international entries and is the biggest prize for a single poem. Winners will be announced in 2018 and published in the Spring issue of The Poetry Review. The Free Verse Poetry Book Fair takes place this
year on 30 September in Conway Hall, near Holborn. It’s free to enter and buy or just admire the wares of more than 90 small and not-so-small presses who predominantly publish poetry in the UK. The day is interspersed with readings and panel discussions. If you’re interested in books or publishing it’s a fascinating look at what is being done away from
FOCUS The Magazine 13
Shelley
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