We are pleased to welcome back old favourite John Harvey to read from what he claims (!) will be his last poetry collection, launched this November by Nottingham’s Shoestring Press.

John is perhaps best known as a writer of crime fiction – in 2007 he was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing – he is also a dramatist, small press publisher and poet. A new & selected poems, Out of Silence, published by Smith/Doorstop in 2014, was followed by Aslant (Shoestring Press, 2019). Recipient of honorary doctorates from the Universities of Nottingham and Hertfordshire, in 2020 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Goldsmiths College, University of London.

“Harvey is a fine poet. What is most striking is the insight into the minds and hearts of others – there is a tenderness here that many British poets do not risk.” – John Burnside

John will be joined by his fellow Shoestring poet Julie Lumsden in her debut Five Leaves reading. Julie will largely be reading from her latest collection Dog Days. Julie was born in Staffordshire, grew up in Kent, Shrewsbury and Germany and now lives in Chesterfield. She studied at Manchester School of Theatre, is a Licentiate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has a Master’s degree in Writing from Sheffield Hallam. She won the Poetry Society Stanza competition on the theme of villains, had a play broadcast on Radio 4, and gave a yearly lecture to undergraduates at Nottingham University.

Her book Dog Days is reviewed here

Refreshments provided