POETRY | BURNING EYE BOOKS: MUM’S THE WORD

Come along for a cosy poetry performance at our Fluffy Library installation by Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou, where Burning Eye Books are inviting little ones to bring their parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents to an afternoon of parenthood poetry.

Eager to make poetry inclusive and accessible, Burning Eye Books will be showcasing some of their most talked about poets, including Thommie Gillow, Deanna Rodger, Nadia Malik, Sally Jenkinson, and Liv Torc, hosted by Shagufta K.

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This event takes place on Fluffy, an ageless, gender-fluid, snow-white sprawling beast that has taken up residence in our Front Room. Read more about Fluffy Library here. 

The event is free but Fluffy has a limited capacity for guests so please arrive early to avoid disappointment. 

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A Bit About the Poets:

Deanna Rodger is an international writer, performer and facilitator. She co-curates two leading spoken word events: Chill Pill and Come Rhyme With Me and is on the board of Safe Ground. Accolades include: ELLE UK’s ’30 inspirational women under 30′, The Female Lead’s ’20intheir20s’, Cosmopolitan’s ‘No.1 trailblazing woman’, youngest UK Poetry Slam Champion (Farrago 2007/8) Previous international performances and workshops include: San Miguel Poetry festival (Mexico), Canada (British Council/Shakespeare lives), Beirut (Roundhouse), South Africa (Connect ZA and Roundhouse), Zimbabwe and Sudan (both British Council)

Sally Jenkinson is a regular performer at poetry and literature events, and music festivals around the UK. In 2014 she toured Australia and the UK with her show ‘Folly’, co-written and performed with the musician Nuala Honan. She runs creative writing workshops for children and young people, as well as adults with a learning disability, and has worked on large-scale projects with organisations such as Apples and Snakes, Take Art, Poetry Can and Boom Satsuma. She is co-producer of Wandering Word, which has programmes and runs the Spoken Word stage at festivals such as Shambala and Boom Town for the last 5 years. Her debut pamphlet, Sweat-borne Secrets, was published by Burning Eye in 2012 followed by ‘Boys’ in 2016.

Thommie Gillow is the Regional Co-ordinator of Hammer and Tongue Bristol – a national poetry organisation that organises monthly events with touring guest poets. An English teacher, feminist and ex-single mum, Thommie brings her daughter and students up to question traditional values. In this book her poetry explores the often secretive aspects of pregnancy, birth and motherhood, the attempts to get pregnant, pain of loss and difficulties of becoming a mummy. Currently in her second marriage, Thommie has suffered many miscarriages, survived an ectopic pregnancy, dealt with post-natal depression and learnt to share her nine-year old daughter with a man who is not her father. She writes about it, teaches, talks to her daughter, watches some Netflix, then writes about it again. Thommie lectures Creative Writing in the South West, runs poetry workshops for Domestic Violence charities and has recently completed a series of commissions for the National Science Festival writing about `Women on the Moon’. She has a Masters in Creative Writing and Education and her first collection `My Stepmother Tried to Kill Me’ was published by Burning Eye books in 2014.

Nadia Malik was born in South East London and is of European and Indonesian decent. Nadia writes about trauma and healing; she writes about identity, family, home and the desire to belong. Nadia is currently preparing to become an art therapist. She lives in London, where she raises her daughter as a single mother. Her debut collection ‘Venus Shells’ was released with BE in 2018.

Shagufta K. Iqbal is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, and workshop facilitator. Founder of The YoniVerse Poetry Collective, and co-founder of Bristol’s Kiota Project. Described by Gal Dem as a poet whose work ‘leaves you validated but aching – her narratives are important, heart-wrenching and relatable.’ Her poetry collection Jam Is For Girls, Girls Get Jam (Burning Eye Books) has been recommended by Nikesh Shukla as ‘a social political masterclass.’ He poetry film ‘Borders’ has won several awards, and has been screened at festivals including London Short Film Festival, Encounters Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, and Underwire Film Festival.

Liv Torc is a razor blade skating performance poet, who plunges the vast caverns and dormant volcanoes of the human condition. A Radio 4 Slam Winner, a former Bard of Exeter and current co-host of The Hip Yak Poetry Shack. Liv runs the spoken word stage at WOMAD and the Hip Yak Poetry School. Her first published book ‘Show Me Life’ was released by Burning Eye in 2015. In 2019 she performed at Glastonbury Festival and is representing Somerset for the BBC’s national poetry day celebrations. Her latest poem ‘The Human Emergency’ has been seen online by over 65,000 people and is now in the works to become an orchestral multi-media musical composition, to be performed in Philadelphia’s main concert hall in 2020.