A showcase edition of our regular Play On Words Open Mic session, a monthly space for sharing poetry, fiction, live literature and other written and spoken words in a warm, and supportive environment at Forest Arts Centre, New Milton, in association with ArtfulScribe. For this Festival special we’re thrilled to welcome Martin Figura and Helen Ivory to Forest Arts Centre.
Martin Figura’s collection and show Whistle were shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and won the 2013 Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show. Shed (Gatehouse Press) and Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine (Cinnamon Press) were both published in 2016. In 2021 he was Salisbury NHS Writer in Residence; the resulting pamphlet My Name is Mercy (Fair Acre Press) won a national NHS award. A second pamphlet from Fair Acre Press Sixteen Sonnets for Care came out in October 2022. His latest collection The Remaining Men has just been published by Cinnamon Press.
Helen Ivory is a poet and visual artist, recently given a Cholmondeley Award by The Royal Society of Authors . Her sixth Bloodaxe Books collection Constructing a Witch, is forthcoming in September. She edits Ink Sweat and Tears and teaches creative writing online for the UEA/NCW. A book of mixed media poems Hear What the Moon Told Me is published by KFS, and chapbook Maps of the Abandoned City by SurVision. She has work translated into Polish, Ukrainian, Spanish, Croatian and Greek for Versopolis. Wunderkammer: New and Selected Poems (2023) is published in the US by MadHat Press. Her Poem The Square of the Clockmaker has recently been riding the rails as one of the Poems on the Underground.
Helen and Martin will join attendees at our regular session, sharing new and existing material, their own work and favourite pieces of writing. Visiting writers are welcome to arrive ten minutes beforehand and speak to our host if you’d like to read or perform something as part of the evening, whether or not you’ve attended Play on Words before.
This special event is part of Play on Words, a New Forest community led literature festival for writers, readers and everyone who loves words. Check out the Play on Words website, www.playonwords.co.uk, for the latest updates and what’s on.
The Play on Words Open Mic runs monthly all year round and is an ideal space to trial new work, perfect delivery of existing material, or just to share out loud some of your favourite pieces. Some months we sit in a sharing circle with a drink, others we get up to perform with or without a mic, depending on numbers and what the group would like to share. Regular participants, occasional guests and those who’d just like to listen are all welcome at our monthly meeting.
Event: Tuesday 22 October, 7.30pm
Tickets:
- Free - please feel welcome to take a free ticket if money is tight or you'd like to try out something new
- £5 – our recommended ticket price for great value
- £10 – to cover the cost of your ticket AND pay it forward for someone else
- £20 – make a fantastic contribution to supporting literature in the New Forest
