Interesting evenings

We're well into NaPoWriMo now - but it's proving a time to listen and to read a lot of poetry as well as to write it. As it should be, of course - I don't think you can hope to write without being an avid reader too, taking every chance to widen your own knowledge and understanding of the art. And the past week has provided some great opportunities to do so - at New Bohemians last Friday, Buzzwords on Sunday and at a tremendous reading on Monday at the Suffolk Anthology bookshop here in Cheltenham.

Two American poets, Katherine E. Young and Rose Solari, had been in the UK for the Oxford Literary Festival. Their reading, "Wayfaring Strangers: Identity Beyond Borders", gave fascinating insights into two different approaches. The two women are obviously very used to reading together and complimented each other beautifully. Rose read from her third collection "The Last Girl"; I found her poems, several of which related to family, very moving. Katherine - a translator by background - read some of her own poems from "Day Of The Border Guards" but also a couple of her translations from Russian poets. I'm not overly familiar with Russian history and culture but her poems, and the stories behind them, have certainly whetted my appetite - lots to follow up there!

Rose and Katherine