The first Sheffield Poetry Festival kicks off on Saturday 26 March with a plethora of readings, performances, talks, and workshops. One of the poets performing at the opening event at The Workstation is Sheffield’s own Nell Farrell performing alongside the renowned Yorkshire wordsmith, Simon Armitage. Following the success of her first pamphlet, The Wrong Evangeline and the tour of Some Girls’ Mothers (which Armitage has described as “touching, wounding and humbling), our guest blogger Hazel Scott caught up with Nell before the event, to hear a little more about her new pamphlet, A Drink With Camus After The Match.
Hazel: Nell – the poetry scene in Sheffield seems to be gaining momentum, warranting its own event?
Nell: The Festival is going to be a great showcase for the amazing talent we have in Sheffield. There are events specially for kids, young writers’ events, others involving music and drawing, some indoors, some outdoors, local groups, national names, Derbyshire poet laureates – there’s even a Poetry University Challenge.
Hazel: How do you feel about performing at the launch event, it looks like you’ll be in excellent company?
Nell: Very excited as Simon Armitage is one of the most gifted poets in the country and I love his writing. Even though he’s a Manchester United supporter – he’s written a poem about giving a lift to Dennis Bergkamp, my all-time Arsenal hero. Since my pamphlet is called A Drink With Camus After The Match you could begin to hypothesise that one of the things poets do is make things up about famous people…
Ed Reiss, who’s also reading on April 1st is a wonderful poet too – clever, funny and quirky – and he knows more poems off by heart than any other human being I’ve ever met.
Hazel: Tell us a bit about your own poetry, and the story behind this latest pamphlet.
Nell: I’m delighted to be having a pamphlet produced by The Poetry Business here in Sheffield. The pamphlets they produce are things of simple beauty and just the right size for a pocket or a bag, friendly, very reasonably priced at £4.
This is actually my second pamphlet. My first The Wrong Evangeline was published in 2003 by Panshine Press, a small Manchester poetry press who produce the magazine Rain Dog. It had a gorgeous cover designed by Sheffield artist Tracey Holland and has now completely sold out.
Hazel: What do you think about the poetry scene in Sheffield in general – can you recommend any groups or events to budding poets out there?
Nell: We’re lucky to have The Poetry Business here in Sheffield – a poetry set-up with a national reputation – and a real commitment to quality, exciting modern poetry – bang in the middle of the city. I attended their Writing School, a couple of years ago – an intensive 18-month course for poets.
Ann and Peter Sansom run workshops and live poetry events, publish pamphlets and poetry collection and also produce The North, one of the most highly-regarded poetry magazines in the country. People travel from all over the country to attend their monthly writing days.
Then we’ve got Signposts, the Sheffield Writing Development Programme. They run advice and resource sessions for people interested in finding out more about writing, and produce a monthly e-bulletin. You can email them on info@signpostssouthyorks.org.uk to be put on the mailing list – which is a great way to find out about what’s happening – they have information about writing groups, performances, competitions, classes and workshops.
The Sheffield writing event I attend most frequently is the creative writing class I tutor on Friday mornings – Heeley Women Writers in the City! They are the funniest, feistiest, friendliest bunch of women you could hope to meet – and the best advertisement imaginable for the individual and collective joys of creative writing. They rise to any writing challenge I set them and they are (mostly) tolerant of my frequent outbursts of Arsenal-related grief…
So, if you’d like to hear Nell perform or browse the Sheffield Poetry Festival brochure and come along to one of the events. You can also buy a copy of her fab new pamphlet of poems from The Poetry Business website or drop her a line if you’re interested in finding out more about Heeley Women Writers in the City at nell.f@talktalk.net.