TOWN Poetry: Local Verse, Local Verve

Join local poets Victoria Gatehouse, Ian Humphreys, Amanda Dalton, Gaia Holmes, and Ross Kightly for a poetry evening, as part of The Book Corner's and The Grayston Unity's TOWN Festival.

Victoria Gatehouse is a Zoologist, award-winning poet and children’s writer. Her poetry has been broadcast on BBC radio and widely published in magazines. Her pamphlet The Mechanics of Love (Smith | Doorstop) was selected as a ‘Laureate’s Choice’ by Carol Ann Duffy. She is a three-times winner of The Poetry News Members’ Competition. Her first poetry collection, The Hawthorn Bride, is published by Indigo Dreams.

Ian Humphreys’ latest poetry collection, Tormentil (Nine Arches Press) won a Royal Society of Literature ‘Literature Matters’ Award while in progress, and is a Yorkshire Times Book of the Year. His debut, Zebra (Nine Arches) was nominated for the Portico Prize. Ian was Writer in Residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum (2023/24), and is the editor of No Net Ensnares Me: An anthology of prose poetry inspired by the Brontës and the wild (Calder Valley Poetry). He is the editor of Why I Write Poetry, and the co-editor of After Sylvia (both from Nine Arches).

Amanda Dalton is a poet, playwright and essayist. Her poetry collections How To Disappear, Stray and Fantastic Voyage (May 2024) are published by Bloodaxe Books. Poetry pamphlets include an experimental poetry ‘sketchbook,’ 30 Poems In Thirty Days (Arc 2021) and Notes on Water (smith|doorstop 2022). For theatre and BBC Radio 4 and 3 she writes original drama, essays and adaptations. She is a visiting lecturer at Manchester University and MMU’s Writing School. Her website is at amandadalton.co.uk.

Gaia Holmes is the author of 3 poetry collections, Dr James Graham’s Celestial Bed, Lifting The Piano With One Hand and Where The Road Runs out (Comma Press). She has been a gallery attendant, a cleaner, a lecturer, a lollypop lady and a busker and has lived in churches, caves, deserted beach houses, tall terraces and caravans. Her debut collection of short stories, He Used To Do Dangerous Things, was published in Summer, 2024.

Ross Kightly is the unofficial Poet-in-Residence at The Book Corner. His collection of poetry, Out of Bounds, is published by Calder Valley Poetry.

Host or Publisher The Book Corner