Papia Ghoshal, Abanti Mukhopadhyay Chakrabarty

Friday 10th October

5.30 - 6.30pm​

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Meet and mingle at our venue for the weekend. We kick off proceedings with this free event to put you in the mood for our jam-packed programme, with live music and poetry from prominent baul performer Papia Ghoshal, and classical and contemporary dance from Abanti Chakrabarty Mukhopadhyay.​

 

Papia Ghoshal is a poet, actor, baul performer, fine artist, University lecturer and documentary film maker. Baul sadhana is a part of the Tantric spiritual practices of ancient India where the practitioner writes lyrics, composes songs, and dances while singing with ancient instruments. At this event Papia will perform her new poems and introduce her new book: Baul Tantrics

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Abanti Chakrabarty Mukhopadhyay is trained in classical and contemporary dance. She is currently working on a PhD in maths education. She is also a radio presenter of popular Bengali show Chayer Adda on Unity 101 FM. She is an avid reader of world literature.​

 

Suitable for: all

Duration: 1 hour

Format: in person event, poetry, music and dance

Access: relaxed performance

Winchester Muse and Poetry Platform

Friday 10th October 

6.30 - 8pm

 

Winchester has a vibrant poetry community, with groups meeting up across the city to celebrate and practise their craft. At this event, we’re handing the mic to Winchester’s Poets. Join Winchester Muse and Poetry Platform as they host us for an evening showcasing their talented poets and welcoming us into their own unique space. Featuring the inaugural Kathryn Bevis Prize-winner Jenny McRobert.

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Winchester Muse meets on the second Monday of the month at 7pm at Winchester School of Art and simultaneously on zoom.

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Poetry Platform is a monthly celebration of spoken word; a linguistic open mic taking place on the first Tuesday of every month at The Railway Inn.

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Jenny McRobert’s poems have appeared in many publications.  In 2024 she won The Kathryn Bevis Prize (best poem entered into Winchester Poetry Prize by a Hampshire poet) and the International Welsh Poetry Competition in 2023. She was shortlisted for both The Bridport Prize and The Rialto. Her debut collection, Silver Samovar, was published by The High Window Press in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Poetry Book Awards.

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Suitable for: all

Duration: 1.5 hours

Format: in person event, poetry readings

Access: relaxed performance

Diane Seuss, Mona Arshi, Luke Kennard

Friday 10th October

8.30 - 10pm

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In celebration of our festival’s focus on fresh approaches to the canon, we are proud to present three major poets with their new collections. Diane Seuss, who will read by livestream from the US, revisits her poetic education and great love: Keats. Mona Arshi’s new work rescues overlooked women from the edges of Greek tragedy, while Luke Kennard makes us see Shakespearean sonnets and biblical texts anew.

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Diane Seuss’s sixth collection is Modern Poetry, a finalist for the National Book Award. frank: sonnets, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is a memoir in linked contemporary sonnets, while Modern Poetry explores a self-education in poetry, and the efficacy of poetry in a harrowing world. Both are published in the UK by Fitzcarraldo Editions, and will feature in this reading.

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Mona Arshi’s debut collection Small Hands (2015) won the Forward Prize for best first collection and was followed by Dear Big Gods (2019) and her novel Somebody Loves You (2021). Her third collection of poetry, Mouth, is published by Chatto and Windus in July 2025.

 

Luke Kennard is a poet and novelist who lives in Birmingham and teaches at the university. His sixth poetry collection, Notes on the Sonnets, won the Forward Prize in 2021; The Book of Jonah is his seventh.

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Diane Seuss will be appearing virtually at this event

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Suitable for: all

Duration: 1.5 hours

Format: in person and online

Access: BSL interpreted