The UWS Writing & Society Research Group in collaboration with the UTS Centre for New Writing presents an illustrated seminar by Neil Astley of Bloodaxe Books.

Island Voices: Contemporary Poets from Britain and Ireland

In this seminar, Neil Astley will premiere a film, Island Voices, featuring some of Bloodaxe's best known poets, with a discussion to follow.

Date: Wednesday 17 Feb. 5.00pm - 7.00pm
Venue: University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
Address: Studio Room 1.05, Bon Marche Building, UTS
Cnr Broadway & Harris Street, Ultimo

RSVP essential: writing@uws.edu.au

Neil Astley is founding editor of Bloodaxe Books, the renowned British poetry publishing house which has produced over 900 books by more than 300 writers since its foundation in 1978.

As well as publishing famous names in literature from all over the world - its poets and books have won virtually every major literary award given to poetry, from the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Pulitzer to the Nobel Prize - Bloodaxe has discovered and helped establish the reputations of many of Britain's most promising new writers, and is known especially for its range, from traditional English poets to playful postmodernists, with a special interest in contemporary American poetry and poetry in translation; and is widely credited with transforming the publication opportunities for women poets in Britain. Bloodaxe has also been filming and recording poets, and in this seminar, Neil Astley will premiere a film, Island Voices, featuring some of Bloodaxe's best known poets, with a discussion to follow.

Neil Astley has won a Gregory Award for his own poetry, and has published two poetry collections, Darwin Survivor and Biting My Tongue, and two novels, The End of My Tether (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award), and The Sheep Who Changed the World.

Neil Astley gave a controversial lecture - with far-reaching effects - on the state of British poetry at StAnza, Scotland's poetry festival, in St Andrews in March 2005:
http://www.stanzapoetry.org/stanza06_archive/lecture.htm

RSVP essential: writing@uws.edu.au