Poetry at the Dusty Miller
Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
New Calder Valley reading series Poetry at the Dusty Miller continues apace, with its line-up invited by Carcanet-published Carola Luther and Judith Willson. Now it has three well-attended events under its belt, in December, February and March, in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub, it returns on Tuesday 7 May.
Having so far welcomed the likes of Amanda Dalton, Steve Ely, Ian Humphreys, Tom Jenks, Andrew McMillan and Helen Tookey, the three guests this time round are the poets Lucy Burnett, Martin Kratz and Kim Moore, so you can expect a real meeting of minds.
Until recently, the artistic director of StAnza International Poetry Festival, Lucy Burnett has published two poetry collections with Manchester’s Carcanet Press – Tripping Over Clouds (2019) and Leaf Graffiti (2013) – and one with Guillemot Press: one step sideways and 13 down came out in 2021 and is a poetic sequence devised from collaging crossword clues from the newspaper. Her hybrid novel, Through the Weather Glass, is published by Knives Forks and Spoons, a project she toured. Another outreach project is Scree. She currently works as a lecturer in creative writing at Lancaster University.
Martin Kratz is the programme manager at Manchester Poetry Library (be sure to look out for upcoming MPL events in the Literature Guide!). He is the co-editor of Mount London: Ascents in the Vertical City (Penned in the Margins, 2014). A pamphlet, A Skeleton’s Progress (Poetry Salzburg) was published in 2018. He has new work in After Sylvia: Poems and essays in celebration of Sylvia Plath (Nine Arches, 2022). His reviews and translations from the German have appeared in journals, in a zine he created during lockdown and in the anthology The Heart of a Stranger: An Anthology of Exile Literature (Pushkin Press, 2019).
Kim Moore’s second collection, All The Men I Never Married (Seren, 2021), won the 2022 Forward Prize for Best Collection. Her first collection, The Art of Falling (Seren 2015), won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and her pamphlet If We Could Speak Like Wolves was a winner in the 2011 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition. Her first non-fiction book, What The Trumpet Taught Me, was published by Smith/Doorstop in May 2022. Most recently, Seren published her hybrid book of lyric essays and poetry Are You Judging Me Yet? Poetry and Everyday Sexism (2023). She is a lecturer in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
The organisers of Poetry at the Dusty Miller say just turn up, no booking is necessary and all are welcome. The event is free, with a hat passed around at the end of the evening to contribute towards the performing poets’ travel expenses, and there will also be books for sale – so remember to bring some readies. Getting there is not too difficult, with a bus stop outside and Mytholmroyd Railway Station a five-minute walk (and regular trains from Victoria if you’re heading over from Manchester). Back on Tuesday 4 June 2024 – watch this space!
