poetry & acoustic music at the Poetry Cafe

Friday 26th March 2010 

Poetry from Maggie Butt and John Godfrey.  Music from Kevin Stetson & Pete Burke.

Maggie Butt

Maggie’s new collection of pocket-sized poems, Petite, has just been published by Hearing Eye.  Her previous collections Lipstick and Quintana Roo were published in 2007 and 2003.  She appears widely in magazines and her poems have escaped the page to readings, radio and the internet.
Maggie is an ex journalist and BBC TV documentary maker, now head of the Media department at Middlesex University. She lives in North London and has two student daughters.

“Exquisitely framed cameos that are lyrical, highly-visual, and dance off the page with delightful immediacy,”  Katherine Gallagher.

“These small poems are tender, hopeful and unreasonably delightful,”  Helena Nelson.

John GodfreyHaving, in the late 1980s, been dragged along when his wife went on a few creative writing courses, John Godfrey found his interest in writing poems, latent since the sixth-form, re-awakened. Since his first poetry-competition success (4th in the Bridport) in 1997 he's won prizes in numerous others and been published in a range of magazines. Following his 1st prize in the Peterloo Poets competition in 2005 he had a collection accepted by them two years later. Sadly, it failed to appear before Peterloo ceased trading earlier this year so he's now looking for a publisher again.

Kevin Stenson & Pete Burke

Doc Stenson (vocals, guitar and harmonica) and Pete Burke (vocals, guitar) have their musical roots in the country and city blues and jazz of the 1930's and 1940’s, old Appalachian mountain songs and dust bowl ballads. These are blended with Celtic and European folk influences in their own compositions. Along their musical paths they met, played with and learnt from masters like Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Lowell Fulson, Simon Prager, Steve Phillips and the late Jo Ann Kelly. But these and a host of vinyl influences, including Merle Travis, Lonnie Johnson, Doc Watson and Little Walter have long been absorbed into their own musical voices. They have played at clubs, festivals and undertaken broadcasts for many years in Europe.

"Excellent acoustic fare from harmonica/guitar man Kevin Stenson and slide man Pete Burke, embracing blues, Appalachian songs and dust bowl ballads", Time Out

Friday 22nd April 2010 

Poetry from Nick Blair and Wendy Klein.  Music from Dave Ellis & Boo Howard.

Nick Blair

Wendy Klein

Brought up in the U.S. , Wendy came to England in 1971 via Sweden , France and Germany .  Mother of four amazing daughters and retired psychotherapist, she began writing poetry seriously after the publication of her first and only novel, Listening for Nightingales (2003).  Published in many magazines and anthologies, winner of the Ware Open Poetry Competition (2009) and the Torriano Competition (2010), Wendy’s first collection, Cuba in the Blood, was published by Cinnamon Press (2009).  A second, in-progress, is agreed.  She lives in a magical Victorian apartment in rural Berkshire , from which looking out the window and travelling are her two main sources for inspiration.

For more info click here.

Dave Ellis & Boo Howard