An Evening with Victoria Kennefick

About

Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our online contemporary poetry reading series 'Go to the poets, they will speak to thee' continues throughout 2023. We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every month!

Our next event will feature poet Victoria Kennefick. Victoria's debut collection Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021) won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize. The collection is a powerful and evocative exploration of the many different types of hunger – whether this is physical, spiritual or emotional.

William Wordsworth often wrote about the people that he met on his walks – many of whom were suffering from lack of food, warmth or safety – who can ever forget the 'hunger-bitten girl' from Book 1 of The Prelude?

Ideas around food – the abundance of it or lack of it – links our contemporary poet with our presiding spirit, and so provides the theme for our final open mic of the year, which will be 'Food'. Please feel free to interpret this widely – whether you write about lack or abundance, family meals or midnight feasts, we look forward to hearing your work.