Modern Cornish Poetics

In 2022, Broken Sleep Books released the anthology ‘Modern Cornish Poetics.’ This event takes three poets published in that book (including its co-editor, Ella Frears) and gives them to opportunity to define for us what being a Cornish poet is in the 21st Century. We will also have an crucial perspective from native Kernewek speaker Taran Spalding-Jenkin, who translated many of the poems in the book.

Featuring:

Ella Frears is a poet and artist originally from Cornwall, now based in London. Her debut collection,  Shine, Darling,  (Corsair, 2020) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry.   Goodlord  (Rough Trade Books & Corsair 2024), a hybrid work which takes the form of one long email to an estate agent, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection and the Sky Arts Award for Times Breakthrough Artist of the Year. Ella is this year’s Poetry Fellow at UEA.

Taran Spalding-Jenkin is a native Kernewek speaking poet, performer and translator. Their work explores the spaces between identities, disability, queerness, and hireth – the longing for a lost home or one which has never existed. Taran has been awarded the Awen medal for creativity and in 2024 became a bard of Gorsedh Kernow for their contributions to Cornish poetry. Their debut pamphlet Health Hireth is out now with Broken Sleep Books.

John Wedgwood Clarke is from West Cornwall. He has published three collections of poems, Ghost Pot, Landfill and Boy Thing and a number of pamphlets, including Red River: At the Mouth, with artwork by Naomi Frears. You can find out more about John's Red River project at www.redriverpoetry.com. As Professor of Poetry at the University of Exeter, he leads on poetry's animation of interdisciplinary research, most recently for RENEW, a five-year NERC-funded project to renew biodiversity.   

This event will feature readings from all three poets, plus a short Q&A.

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Host or Publisher Plymouth Poetry Festival