At our next monthly reading, on 19th November, we welcome Ian Duhig to read from his poetry. While the reading itself will be online, members who would like meet and enjoy Ian’s poetry together can do so in our normal meeting room at the Royal Wells Hotel, where a zoom link and screen will be provided. There will be a short open mic for members. The evening begins at 8 pm.
Ian has published eight volumes of poetry since 1991. He is a multi-award winner, having won the National Poetry Competition no fewer than three times, and his New and Selected Poems (Picador, 2021) was awarded the 2022 Hawthornden Prize. We very much look forward to hearing him perform.
His latest collection, published in November 2024 is An Arbitrary Light Bulb (Picador). Duhig finds in the arbitrary an image for the randomness of inspiration and of life, haunted here by deaths of family and friends. He laments the lost but also responds to the glories of our existence, especially among the overlooked, with humour, technical variety and contagious pleasure.
Starting out from ‘contrary Leeds’, his home for half a century, Duhig’s poems roam widely through history, art-forms, loves and injustices, fired by the desire to share it all with his readers: knowledge, joy, anger and wonder.
‘The most original poet of his generation’ Carol Ann Duffy, Guardian
The Kent & Sussex Poetry Society 