The acclaimed poet Paul Farley will give a reading and discuss the importance of popular music in his work, in a talk entitled “Three Minute Singles: Pop Poems”. 

This event is programmed  with the support of Northumbria University, and as part of the Conference on Writing and Popular Music, held at Northumbria University on 24 June.

About Paul Farley

Poetry International writes:

"Born in Liverpool in 1965, Paul Farley has been described as, “one of our most vital and engaging voices,” (W.N. Herbert).

His poetry career took off in 1998, when he won the Poetry Review’s award for debut poets, the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize. His first collection, The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You (1998), swiftly followed, winning the Forward Poetry Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award, and shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award.

Continuing his unbroken run of prize-winners, Farley published his second collection, The Ice Age, in 2002, which then went on to win the Whitbread Poetry Award, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. Several poems in The Ice Age are influenced by his time as writer in residence at Dove Cottage, the home of Romantic poet William Wordsworth in the Lake District.

The Poetry Book Society named him as one of their Next Generation poets in 2004. ‘Liverpool Disappears for a Billionth of a Second’ won the Forward Poetry Prize for Best Single Poem and his 2006 collection, Tramp in Flames, was shortlisted for the 2007 International Griffin Poetry Prize. In 2009, Farley’s poem ‘Moles’, first published in Poetry Review, was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem). Farley has edited a selection of work by John Clare in Faber’s Poet to Poet series (2007).

He is currently Professor of Poetry at the University of Lancaster."

Info from Poetry International here

Commentary published by Paul Farley in The Guardian in 2006

"My name is Paul, and I am a mainstream poet. Mainstream poet: surely an oxymoron? (...)

My family would be puzzled (but relieved) to discover I'm mainstream, after spending a decade and a half as a recovering art student. If I tried to read my poems in Merseyside where I grew up, I'd risk having my head twisted off at the gristle: no amount of imploring "I'm mainstream! Mainstream!" would dissuade them.

I teach in a university now, but flashing a card marked "mainstream" wouldn't cut any ice there, either. Poetry is still a kind of backwater. As one veteran once whispered to me before a reading: "If you write poetry, it's your own fault ..." My old teacher, Michael Donaghy, would be laughing his head off."

You can read the whole commentary here

Interview

Also, here is an interesting interview with Paul Farley, about poetry, on Youtube, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuE969Pk1bU

The event will be accompanied by soe live music, from the great duo from Cullercoats, The Creels, and from the Star and Shadow very own organ player, Carl Heslop!

The Creels are a pretty fabulous band, and you can listen to their music here (latest tunes at the bottom):

http://soundcloud.com/the-creels

This is a FREE EVENT, open to everyone, and supported by Northumbria University