2 - 7 October 2006

The Dylan Thomas Centre has organised a week of events and workshops celebrating poetry as performance. The festival will run from Monday 2 to Saturday 7 October.

Highlights will include a performance by local school children as part of the Beyond Wordplay project, the culmination of the Swansea Poetry Slam competition, a series of workshops and a performance by two of the UK's most innovative Welsh-born spoken-word artists, Rhian Edwards and Nathan Penlington.

Please see below for the full programme, and contact the Dylan Thomas Centre on 01792 463980 for tickets.

Monday 2 October 6.30 pm - 8.30pm

Schools Performance followed by a reading by our Poets in Schools Peter Read and Phil Bowen. Funded by the City & County of Swansea's Beyond Wordplay project, a week of schools visits by our poets will be followed by this opportunity for the young people to perform their work.

This will be followed at approximately 8-45pm by a reading by two fine poets and performers actor, poet and playwright Peter Read, and poet and playwright Phil Bowen.

FREE ENTRY but please reserve places.

Tuesday 3 October - 7 pm

Poetry Slam Semi-Final #1

The winners of the preceding heats compete for a place in Saturday's Final. Followed by Guest Poets Emily Hinshelwood & Clare Potter, appropriately both former winners of the John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry.

Inclusive Ticket for both events £3/£2 concessions.

Wednesday 4 October

Roundyhouse Day - The long-running Swansea Poetry magazine presents a Poetry Workshop and an evening of readings from star contributors:

2 - 4.30pm Workshop - run by Byron Beynon - an introduction to the magazine followed by a look at some contemporary styles in poetry; creative writing ideas and exercises; steps towards getting your poetry published.

Cost £10

7pm - Roundyhouse Readings - with Tony Curtis, Nigel Jenkins, Herbert Williams, Paul Henry and Roundyhouse editors Byron Beynon, Phil Carradice, Sally Roberts Jones, Brian Smith and Alexandra Trowbridge-Matthews.

FREE ENTRY

Thursday 5 October - 7pm

Poetry Slam Semi Final #2 + Ek Zuban: One Voice - where the social meets shamanism - a spoken word and musical collaboration by Bob Beagrie, Andy Willoughby and Shaun Lennox, performing poems from 'The Flesh of the Bear' Anglo-Finnish Exchange, weaving social realism and mythos across borders and peripheral territories.

The Tees Valley has been an unacknowledged hotbed of literary activity over

the last ten years with 5 independent presses, a vibrant live scene with a

number of significant poets beginning to emerge, as can be seen from the new Iron anthology 'North By North East'.

Two of the area's most active poets have teamed up with Blues maestro Shaun Lennox to present a polyvocal voyage of lyrical grit from Teesside's

post-industrial landscapes across the Finnish Archipelago and the Siberian

Steppes to Khanty Mansisk. Along the way you'll encounter a host of curious

characters including The Grey Man, The Mermaid, The Baba-Yaga, The Man of Blood and Jesus of The Elk.

Inclusive Ticket for both events £3/£2 concessions.

Friday 6 October

Seventh Quarry Day - More recent but highly successful Swansea magazine The Seventh Quarry presents a workshop and performance:

9.30am - 3pm (including lunch-break)

AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE - Writing for Children

Peter Thabit Jones

Have you ever wanted to write for children? This day of workshops with The Seventh Quarry's editor will present you with the opportunity to develop a picture book, story and poetry for an area of literature that is more popular than ever. You will be guided through the publishing requirements and the full craft of each form. The approach of the structured workshops will be one of encouragement and positive feedback.

Cost £20

7pm

The Seventh Quarry Presents:

George Wallace, Long Island's (Suffolk County) first Poet Laureate, has had his work translated into nearly a dozen foreign languages. He has performed across America, including Carnegie Hall, and throughout Europe. The author of thirteen collections of poetry, he has been a driving force in New York's poetry community, creating radio, television and public performance venues.

Mary de Rachewiltz, the daughter of Ezra Pound, said of George: "I am reminded of e e cummings, the best I know." Leading American composer David Amram described him as "a spellbinding reader." His poetry is archived at Hofstra University, New York, and Long Island Studies Institute. His poetry will be featured in forthcoming issues of The Seventh Quarry.

FREE ENTRY & WINE

Saturday 7 October

Poetry Bookstalls, Young Welsh & Poetic Day and Festival Finale

The Dylan Thomas Centre will be hosting stalls by local publishers and magazines, and displaying a wide variety of poetry information. Local publisher and poetry website Young Welsh & Poetic will present a FREE workshop especially for young writers under 30, run by Festival Poet Peter Read, and participants will get the chance to participate in a public reading at 5.30pm in the Dylan Thomas Centre bookshop.

Bookstalls open 10 - 5; Workshop 2 - 5

7pm - Grand Slam Final - the winners of the two semi-finals meet in a show-down to decide Swansea's first Open Slam Champion

Followed by the Festival's closing event with the fabulous poetry duo

Rhian Edwards & Nathan Penlington Two of the UK's most innovative Welsh-born spoken-word artists, Rhian Edwards and Nathan Penlington, tear-up the boundaries of page and stage with a slickly staged scrapbook cabaret featuring twilit tales of woe and weird wonder, curious conjuring that will baffle and confound, and celestial song.

Rhian Edwards: 'Astounding performances that get you in the emotional gut'

The Verb, BBC Radio 3

'An exceptional writer and one of the most compelling performers on the spokenword stage' - Hugo Williams, Times Literary Supplement.

Nathan Penlington: 'A natural performer, witty, inventive, stylish and original' - Robert Newman.

'Sensation' - The Guardian

Inclusive Ticket for both events £3/£2 concessions.

Swansea Poetry-in-Performance Festival is an EDS Dylan Thomas Prize Ltd/Dylan Thomas Centre initiative, funded by City & County of Swansea via the Beyond Wordplay Project, Academi and SW Wales Tourism Partnership, and is part of the Swansea Fringe Festival and Swansea Writing Schools. With assistance from Swansea and Neath & Port Talbot Library Services.

Please contact the Dylan Thomas Centre on 01792 463980 or email david.woolley@swansea.gov.uk for more information.

Advance booking for workshops is strongly advised as numbers are limited