A series in which four Nottingham-based poets read with a specially invited guest of their own choosing. Funded by the Nottingham Poetry Society.

Rona Cran is a London-based writer and scholar. Their first poetry collection, I Remember Kim, was published with Verve Poetry Press in 2023. They are the author of Collage in Twentieth-Century Art, Literature, and Culture (2014) and the editor of Conversations with New York School Poets (2025). Forthcoming books include Multiple Voices: New York City Poetry from the Mimeograph Revolution to the HIV/AIDS Pandemic and Shadows and Benedictions: a personal history of sharks. They are Associate Professor of Twentieth-Century American Literature at the University of Birmingham, and the founding co-director of the Network for New York School Studies.

Martin Stannard edited the magazine joe soap’s canoe, which in the 80s and 90s published and championed New York School poets including Ashbery, Koch, Paul Violi, Charles North and Tony Towle. His own poetry and reviews have been published since the late 1970s, and his associations and friendships with New York poets remain to the present day. Details of his writing can be found at www.martinstannard.com. After teaching in China for twelve years, he now lives in quiet retirement in Nottingham with his cat, Xiao Mei.

This will be a New York School evening, with Rona and Martin reading from their own work, and from that of other poets, and they will be talking about the School, their own connections with it and, of course, about the poetry. Questions will be welcomed. Answers will be attempted. Refreshments will be included.