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How to sustain a poetry career with award-winning poet Mary Jean Chan

How to sustain a poetry career with award-winning poet Mary Jean Chan
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Poetry can be a financially challenging career but it is, without a doubt, creatively rewarding, enriching and powerful.

During a time of crisis, poetry is growing in popularity, among audiences, readers and especially young people of colour who are showcasing their talents on YouTube and Instagram.

The past two years has seen exciting poets of colour such as Inua Ellams, Raymond Antrobus , Jay Bernard, Roger Robinson and Mary Jean Chan secure prestigious poetry prizes, expanding the form and challenging narrow perceptions of what poetry is - and who poets are, and can be.

But what is the reality of being a contemporary poet? When do you know when your work is good or strong enough to be showcased? How do you build an audience if you are a page poet rather than a spoken word artist? What are the challenges to earning a living at poetry? And how do you honour your authentic voice and self in the work?

Joy Francis, executive director, Words of Colour Productions, will explore some of these questions while In Conversation with poet Mary Jean Chan who will read from her award-winning collection Flèche and engage in an audience Q&A.

Mary Jean Chan says: "I believe that a career in poetry is, at the best of times, a precarious one. That I have been able to sustain a career as a poet speaks to my privileges, but I do hope to share some practical tips and suggestions with participants, and to answer any questions they might have as they forge their own paths as poets."

"As a poet, editor, critic and academic, I work across poetry, editing and literary criticism, so I will discuss how these overlap. Ultimately, there is no set path to follow as a poet, but I hope that my experiences will shed some light on what has worked for me over the past five plus years since I began building a life and career around poetry in the UK."

About Mary Jean Chan

Mary Jean Chan is the author of Flèche (Faber & Faber, 2019), which won the 2019 Costa Book Award for Poetry, was shortlisted for the 2020 International Dylan Thomas Prize and is currently shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre First Collection Poetry Prize. Chan was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem twice in 2017 and 2019, and received an Eric Gregory Award in 2019. In Spring 2020, she was guest co-editor at The Poetry Review. Chan is Lecturer in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Oxford Brookes University and lives in London.

Eligibility

This event is open to budding and emerging writers of colour, based in the UK. You do not have to apply to attend any of these events and you can book directly from our Eventbrite page, once you fit the aforementioned criteria.

About Take Flight Hub

Take Flight Hub is a new professional and creative development programme for emerging writers of colour and is a collaboration between University College London (UCL), Spread the Word and Words of Colour. Some of the countrys leading novelists, poets, playwrights, literary agents and publishers of colour will be sharing their expertise in a series of free talks, masterclasses, workshops, panel discussions and presentations over five weeks, made possible by a grant from the UCL Knowledge and Innovation Rapid Response fund.

The Take Flight Hub was inspired by BookTrust Represents research conducted by Dr Melanie Ramdarshan Bold, Associate Professor in Publishing and Book Cultures at UCL, which found that emerging writers of colour needed support, advice and access as part of an industry focused network to help sustain their careers.

Views - 05/08/2020 Last update
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