First Story presents poets Caroline Bird, Salena Godden and Ross Sutherland
For one night only, outstanding performances by three of the UK’s most celebrated poets in support of literacy charity First Story.
Caroline Bird is an award-winning poet (winner- Eric Gregory Award 2002; shortlisted – Geoffrey Dearmer 2001 and Dylan Thomas Prize 2008 and 2010). Her first collection, Looking Through Letterboxes, was published by Carcanet Press in 2002. She was one of the five official poets at London Olympics 2012. Her fourth poetry collection, The Hat-Stand Union, will be published in the summer. She is also a playwright: her children’s musical, The Trial of Dennis the Menace, premiered at the Southbank Centre, and her acclaimed, radical version of The Trojan Women was at The Gate Theatre in 2012.
Caroline Bird is First Story Writer-in-Residence at Willowfield Humanities College in Waltham Forest.
www.carolinebird.co.uk
Salena Godden’s short stories, stage and page poetry have been published in anthologies such as Penguin’s IC3, Canongate’s Fire People and The Handbook of Decadence, published by Dedalus. As a performance poet she has toured extensively and read alongside writers such as Irvine Welsh and Will Self. She has hosted a number of radio and television programmes. Salena writes and performs in nu-ska duo SaltPeter and is a co-founder of The Book Club Boutique. Her first novel, Springfield Road, is due to be published later this year.
Salena Godden is First Story Writer-in-Residence at Saint Gabriel’s College in Lambeth.
www.salenagodden.com
Ross Sutherland is a poet and performer. He is the author of four collections of poetry, including 2012’s Emergency Window, published by Penned in the Margins. Here he debuts an extract from his upcoming one-man show, Stand-By For Tape Backup. In it, Ross takes an old VHS tape belonging to his granddad (full of old game shows, adverts and 80s movies), and synchronises it, shot-for-shot, with a brand new poem on death, memory and re-runs.
rosssutherland.co.uk
First Story is a charity that strives to support and inspire creativity, literacy and talent in challenging secondary schools and their communities. They arrange and pay for acclaimed writers to run creative-writing workshops in schools across the country.
www.firststory.org.uk
