Celebrate the publication of great weather for MEDIA’s latest anthology Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea - a fearless and dynamic collection of poetry and short fiction from established and emerging writer worldwide - at London's famed Poetry Cafe.
Join us for readings by UK contributors and special guests Dallas Athent, Jane Ormerod, Martin Ouvry, Michael Sutton, Margot Weidemann, Sharmini Wijeyesekera, and Roddy Williams.
Hosted by Jane Ormerod.
£5/£3 concessions on the door
Submissions open for the 2020 anthology in October. This is a fabulous opportunity to learn about an independent press that loves new voices.
Dallas Athent is a writer and artist. She is the author of THEIA MANIA, a book of poems with art by Maria Pavlovska. Her work, both literary and artistic has been published or profiled in BUST Magazine, Buzzfeed Community, VIDA Reports From The Field, At Large Magazine, PACKET Bi-Weekly, YES Poetry!, Luna Luna Magazine, Bedford + Bowery, Gothamist, Brooklyn Based, and more. She’s a board member of Nomadic Press and co-founder of Lit Sisters--a literary event series at galleries in London.
Jane Ormerod is the author of the full-length poetry collections Welcome to the Museum of Cattle and Recreational Vehicles on Fire (both from Three Rooms Press), and the chapbook 11 Films (Modern Metrics/EXOT Books). Her work also appears in publications including Maintenant, AND/OR, Marsh Hawk Press Review, Post (BLANK), Sensitive Skin, The Nervous Breakdown, and Paris Lit Up. Born on the south coast of England, Jane now lives in New York City and performs extensively across the United States and beyond. She is a founding editor at great weather for MEDIA.
Martin Ouvry lives in London. A writer, musician, and teacher, Martin is a Wingate Scholar in literature and was a Hawthornden Fellow. His work has been published in a range of anthologies and magazines including Esquire, New Writing (Picador, London), The London Magazine, and the great weather for MEDIA anthology Suitcase of Chrysanthemums. He is writing a novel with the generous support of Arts Council England.
Michael Sutton is a poet from Liverpool, England. He currently studies Creative Writing at Edge Hill University where he is the recipient of the 2018 Rhiannon Evans Poetry Award. His poem “Bailiwick” is included in Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea.
Margot Weidemann is an American poet and musician based in London. A finalist in the Listen Up Britain Songwriter’s Contest of 2018, Margot is the recipient of the Balcones Poetry Prize, and has been published in Moof and She Rocks magazine, as well as The Texas Writer’s Journal. Her first chapbook, The Fortune of a Fairy, will be published in September 2019 alongside her forthcoming EP. It is a collection of poems exploring concepts of the divine feminine, sacred qualities observed in Nature, and the beauty in the darkness of the unknown, a theme explored both through interior psychological imaginings and global adventures. Consorting with the cosmic dance of life through starry eyes and a curious heart, Margot's playful investigations into the mystical and enigmatic are constructed through voracious inquisitions into folkloric traditions, esotericism, physics, and the enchantment that is day to day life.
For many years Sharmini Wijeyesekera tried hard to drop out of society; she camped in urban parks, hitchhiked across Europe and played music for her dinner. Now she lives in London and writes to satisfy her wanderlust. Her poetry has been published in Milvia Street and American Journal of Poetry, and she also writes and records story-songs as the artist Charmed Life. Find her in the latest great weather for MEDIA anthology, Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea.
A Welsh poet, Roddy Williams now lives in London. His poetry has appeared in The North,The Frogmore Papers, Magma, The Rialto, Envoi, The Stand, and in great weather for MEDIA’s The Other Side of Violet anthology. His first collection, BBC2, is due to be published soon. Winner of the Bruce Brown Poetry Trophy, he was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in recent years. Also an artist and illustrator, Roddy’s latest project is a series of digital portraits of his friends and random tube passengers, who have no choice in the matter. He is married with one cat.