Intersections at International Anthony Burgess Foundation

One-off event Intersections, aka Local and International Poetry in Manchester, unites four award-winning poets from Canada with three writers living and working in the North West, and aims to explore how words connect people from different backgrounds and different parts of the world, identifying where their work intersects – if it actually does.

The international collaboration is the brainchild of Jonathan Mann, researcher and editor of the poetry of our very own Anthony Burgess, and organiser of monthly London-based poetry series Capital Letters (CapLet), which focuses on linguistically innovative/experimental styles and promotes dialogue between poets from different traditions.

Says Jonathan: “Intersections combines two very different communities of writers, and seeks to explore whether and – indeed – how their work intersects. Perhaps we’ll find it doesn’t, or perhaps surprising commonalities will emerge. Either way, the event promises to create a fascinating insight into the nature of poetry in practice.”

From across the Pond come Ian Burgham and Catherine Graham, who Jonathan met at the Congress of Language and Literature in Mexico, and who are members of The Shaken and The Stirred collective, a group of prize-winning poets whose work is an important part of the Canadian contemporary literary establishment. They will be joined by Jeanette Lynes and A F Moritz. Meanwhile in the UK corner, we have Amy McAuley, Tom Jenks and Scott Thurston.

Ian Burgham is the author of six collections of poetry, with a new collection due in 2018. Catherine Graham’s sixth poetry collection, The Celery Forest, is out this year, and she teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto. Jeanette Lynes is the author of seven books of poetry and director of the MFA in Writing at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. With 20 books of poetry to his name, multi-award-winning A F Moritz in 2009 received the Griffin Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious awards for a volume of English-language poetry.

Amy McCauley is poetry editor for New Welsh Review and the recipient of a 2016 Northern Writers’ Award. Part-time PhD student at Edge Hill University, Tom Jenks (pictured) has published seven books of poetry and administers the avant objects imprint zimZalla. He runs experimental poetry reading series The Other Room at The Castle (next outing Wednesday 23 August, celebrating Robert Sheppard’s European Union of Imaginary Authors, aka EUOIA, with live and filmed readings by Robert Sheppard, Alan Baker, Joanne Ashcroft, Patricia Farrell and more) along with the final of tonight’s readers, Scott Thurston, author of three collections, lecturer at the University of Salford, and Jonathan’s PhD external examiner. Ah – the UK link!

As well as creating dialogue between and within the two sets of poets, the event will allow audience members to have the opportunity to join in, so that the “on- and off-stage” roles become indistinct, with both sides central to the performance. Expect the unconventional, and we’re sure you’ll be just fine!