We are postponing this event due to the heatwave. A new date will be announced soon

Smokestack Lightning is the 200th book published by Smokestack Books since 2004, comprising one poem from every book published down the years, many of which are in translation.

Smokestack champions poets who are unfashionable, radical, left-field and working a long way from the metropolitan centres of cultural authority. Smokestack is interested in the World as well as the Word; believes that poetry is a part of and not apart from society; argues that if poetry does not belong to everyone it is not poetry.

In this event – part of a series of regional events – editor Andy Croft will be joined by his local cohort of writers and translators Rob Francis, Roy McFarlane, David Duncombe, Emma Jones, John Lucas, Deborah Tyler-Bennett and Mike Wilson.

The reading will also form the launch of Neil Fulwood’s Mad Parade, published this month by Smokestack,  poetic rant by one of Nottingham’s many current working class poets.

Mad Parade is a collection of white-hot political satirical poems taking the piss out of some of the knaves and fools who parade their poisonous egos across the world’s stage – Tony Blair, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson, Keir Starmer, Donald Trump. Funny, furious and profane, it’s a book of hit-and-run poems, take-no-prisoners, drive-by attacks in verse on the Ancient Regime.

Tickets £3.00 or £10 including Smokestack Lightning (£12.00 if posted) or £18 including Smokestack Lightning and Mad Parade (£20 if posted) or £10 including Mad Parade only (£11.00 if posted).

Book your ticket and buy one or both books here, via Eventbrite.

We expect this event to be full so please book in advance!