POETRY FROM THE THIRD FLOOR

Plymouth poets Kenny Knight and Steve Spence will be reading at Plymouth College of Art and Design, in the Library, Tavistock Place, Thursday 29 April, 5PM, entry is free. Kenny Knight's most recent publication is The Honicknowle Book of the Dead, Steve Spence's new book is A Curious Shipwreck; they are both published by Shearsman of Exeter.

THE LANGUAGE CLUB

The next meeting of The Language Club, Plymouth Arts Centre, 38 Looe Street, Plymouth, is on Saturday 3 April at 7.30 pm with guest poets Susan Taylor and Simon Williams. Susan has published five collections, including The Suspension of the Moon and The Complete Bearded Stranger. Simon Williams' third collection Quirks was published by Oversteps in 2006. The dancer Katerina Kyriacou (photo T. Williams and K Kyriacou) will be accompanying Susan.

    The Language Club is Plymouth's regular open mic poetry event with artists' bar. Entry £5 / £3, poetry performers, musicians, everyone welcome. Open mic slots available on the night. Contact Tim Allen on 01752 661339, tallentw@aol.com

SCOTT PRIZE WINNER

I just heard that Tom Vowler is a winner in the Scott Prize run by Salt Publishing for new short story collections. Tom's collection They May Not Mean To But They Do was one of four winners in this open competition to find new talented fiction writers for this highly successful publisher of poetry and fiction. Tom's winning book will be published in hardback in UK and Australia and paperback in USA. Congratulations to Tom and to all the prizewinners in the competition.

A CURIOUS SHIPWRECK

If you're at the Language Club you might want to get a copy of this new poetry title now available from Shearsman Books of Exeter. It's Plymouth poet Steve Spence's first collection A Curious Shipwreck. Steve's work has appeared in Stride, Tears in the Fence, Tenth Muse, Great Works, Shearsman, and The Rialto. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Plymouth in 2007. Steve has been performing poems from this book for some time now; he's a regular at the Language Club and I saw him read a while back at Exeter Phoenix with Kenny Knight. Michael Mackmin of The Rialto writes: 'I think these poems are likeable, funny, intelligent, their satire exact for these times'. Good luck with the book, Steve.

McCABE AT THE LANGUAGE CLUB

The next meeting of the Language Club is Saturday March 6, 7.30-10.00PM at the Plymouth Arts Centre. The guest reader will be Chris McCabe, author of The Hutton Enquiry and Zeppelins, both from Salt publishing, who supplied the photo. The usual open mic and bar: readers, singers, musicians, everyone welcome. Tickets £5 and £3 concessions at the door. Contact Tim Allen tallentwataoldotcom.

SCOTT PRIZE SHORTLIST

Tom Vowler's short story collection 'They May Not Mean To But They Do' has been shortlisted for the Scott Prize for Short Fiction. Four of the shortlisted collections will be published by Salt. Tom is a Plymouth graduate MA in Creative Writing; I posted a previous story last year about his award from Arts Council England. He works on the editorial team of the journal Short Fiction. Tom's blog about writing is here.

TAKING FLIGHT

Rose Cook's poetry has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Devon and has appeared in many magazines but Taking Flight from Oversteps Books is her first full length collection. Rose co-presented the Totnes poetry performance platform One Night Stanza with Matt Harvey. Good luck with the new book, Rose. Take a look at her site here.