Manchester Poets at Chorlton Library

This autumn Manchester Poets returns to its usual home of Chorlton Library, following its exile to Withington while renovations took place at the Carnegie HQ.

Manchester Poets is the successor to South Manchester Poetry Group, which was founded by Dave Tarrant in 1978. Later the group was renamed Manchester Poets and in 2001, Copland Smith took over as MC. The literary scene stalwart will henceforth return to its traditional third Friday of the month slot, with revised timings of 7-9pm. Aiming to bring you a cross section true to Manchester’s diverse poetry scene, you will find humour and performance poets alongside the more ‘serious’ writers. Readings start with floor poets, and sometimes music, followed by an invited guest.

The latest to step into that role is Graham Mort, emeritus professor of Creative Writing and Transcultural Literature at Lancaster University and a visiting professor at the University of the Western Cape.

Graham Mort has let us in on a secret and says he will be reading work from his last two poetry books, Black Shiver Moss (Seren) and Samara (4Word Press, illustrated by Claire Jefferson), as well as a forthcoming collection of poems, Rivers Joining.

Based in North Yorkshire, Graham Mort writes poetry and short fiction and has published ten full-length collections of poetry. He also recently edited 10 Poems About Weather, published by Candlestick Press in their very successful ‘I0 Poems About’ series and featuring poems by the likes of Helen Dunmore and National Poet of Wales 2008-2016 Gillian Clarke. He has won a number of awards for his work including prizes in the Arvon, National and Cheltenham poetry competitions as well as a major Eric Gregory award for his first collection. Short fiction prizes include the Bridport Short Story Prize, the Edge Hill Prize and the Short Fiction International Prize. He has worked on writing projects throughout the UK and internationally in sub-Saharan Africa, Kurdistan, Vietnam and China.

The Guardian‘s Sarah Crown called him: “A master technician – Mort forswears flash and glamour in favour of an architectural attention to the relationship between form and language, fitting words to lines with a dexterous fluency.”