Joe Duggan's Blog

Very excited to be kicking off 2016 with a performance at this great venue in Shoreditch. The line-up looks brilliant and I’m looking forward to firing out a high-powered Saturday Night Set mixed with new material and some old favourites.  Special thanks to Graham Buchan for inviting me. And did I mention it’s free? And it’s a straight run on the Overground for any Crystal Palace heads brave enough to leave the triangle.

Read on for more info about the great line-up ……!

Vesna Goldsworthy

At the age of 23 Vesna Goldsworthy read her poems at a football stadium to an audience of thirty thousand. Shewas born in Belgrade in 1961 and has lived in London since 1986. She writes in English, her third language. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia and the author of four widely translated books: Inventing Ruritania, on the shaping of cultural perceptions of the Balkans; the Crashaw Prize winning poetry collection, The Angel of Salonika, one of theTimes best poetry books of the year; and two international bestsellers, both of which were serialised on BBC Radio 4, Chernobyl Strawberries, a memoir, andGorsky, a novel, Waterstones Book of the Month for September 2015.

“funny, painful and brilliant” The Observer, “extraordinary” The Guardian, “If there has been a more honest, calm and profoundly moving memoir in the last few years, then I’ve missed it.” Times Literary Supplement.

Joe Duggan

Joe Duggan, originally from Northern Ireland, was a founder member of the “Bunch of Chancers” Poetry Group, touring throughout Ireland and New York State. He moved to London in 2002. Joe’s first collection “Fizzbombs” from Tall Lighthouse in 2008 was highly commended in The Forward Prize. He has featured at Latitude, Cheltenham and Galway Poetry Festivals, to a full house at the South Bank, and runs a regular sell-out night in Crystal Palace. He has written stories for children and also lyrics for Irish band “Different Drums”, text for Echo Echo Dance, and recently produced a CD with ambient-loop geniuses “The Fireflies” on legendary DJ Andrew Weatherall’s new label.

“under-rated, lyrical, haunting and witty.” Saskia Sarginson, The Irish Times, “Stunning debut collection, vibrant and memorable.” Salena Godden, New Camden Journal, “Under the chatty vernacular is a lovely, casual sharpness, like an unexpected hot chilli in something sold as sweet.” Cherry Smith, Brand Magazine.

Patricia Foster

Patricia Foster is an award-winning writer, Sable Litmag Poet-In-Residence (2014-2015) and an original member of acclaimed writers’ collective ‘Malika’s Poetry Kitchen’. She hails from Lewisham, south east London. She has read poetry in Jamaica, Oslo, New York and toured The UK, The Netherlands, Antwerp and Chicago. She has also performed for Apples and Snakes, read at Goldsmith University and The Barbican, worked in the theatre and written and toured with female poetry collective ‘Thea-Poets’.

Patricia has successfully facilitated writing and personal development workshops for ‘Every Woman Inspired’ international women’s conference in Jamaica in 2013,2014 and 2015. In 2006 she facilitated a ‘Family History’ themed writing workshop for BBC London Radio’s Family History Day.

Patricia’s poignant poetry draws on her Jamaican heritage and close family bonds. She is published inmany anthologies and publications in the UK, Norway and the USA. Her first chapbook is scheduled for release in Spring 2016.

 Alan Wolfson

Alan Wolfson is a performance poet and painter. Words and images spill out of the tumble dryer of his imagination like warm damp things that could have done with another ten minutes.

He was born in Cardiff and studied graphics at Cardiff College of Art and West of England College of Art and Design. Suddenly he dropped his paintbrushes and careered off into broadcasting.

In 2000 he began painting again and between canvases took to writing verse, revisiting his radio copy writing skills and liberating them from the inconvenient parameters of a brief and a deadline.

He is a member of the Hammer & Tongue Camden poetry team, and runs two monthly open mic events in London,’ Words and music in the Woods’, and ‘Friggers of Speech’, which he has taken to Edinburgh twice. He has performed at Latitude and Greenman among many other festivals, and two 45-minute one man shows in Cape Town.

You can join the event on facebook here, or just see you there !