Held at Lansdown Hall, this event discusses languages and poetry: Karen Downs-Barton, Alun Hughes, Martha Sprackland reading and Q&A.
Karen Downs-Barton is a neurodiverse, working-class writer. Her collection, Minx, won the John Pollard International Poetry Prize. Her pamphlet, Didicoy, was an International Poetry Book and Pamphlet Competition winner and Poetry Book Society recommendation. Karen has performed at Radio 4's The Verb, Ledbury, Deptford, Swindon, and Edinburgh International Book Festivals.
Alun Hughes is a poet, non-fiction writer and wilderness guide living in Stroud. His work has been published variously by Yew Tree Press, Ambient Receiver, Amplify Stroud, Steel Jackdaw and as Salmon Paths on Substack. His debut pamphlet collection, Down the Heavens was published in 2022. An album with Lensmen, Somewhere Somewhere was also released in the same year. He is currently working on his next collection, Digeny, which focuses on the sensory experience of indigeneity and being on these islands. He is also collaborating with Sean Borodale on a collection for Dialect Press and his poetry film, Long Barrow to Cuda Falls, will make its debut at this year’s NeoAncients Festival. His writing is based in nature-based practices, emergent animism and indigenous perspectives.
Martha Sprackland is an editor, writer and translator. Citadel (Pavilion, 2020) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Costa Poetry Award; a new collection is forthcoming in 2027. Dark Night, her translation of sixteenth-century Spanish mystic St John of the Cross, is published by Penguin Classics.
Held at Lansdown Hall, this event discusses languages and poetry: Karen Downs-Barton, Alun Hughes, Martha Sprackland reading and Q&A.
Karen Downs-Barton is a neurodiverse, working-class writer. Her collection, Minx, won the John Pollard International Poetry Prize. Her pamphlet, Didicoy, was an International Poetry Book and Pamphlet Competition winner and Poetry Book Society recommendation. Karen has performed at Radio 4's The Verb, Ledbury, Deptford, Swindon, and Edinburgh International Book Festivals.
Alun Hughes is a poet, non-fiction writer and wilderness guide living in Stroud. His work has been published variously by Yew Tree Press, Ambient Receiver, Amplify Stroud, Steel Jackdaw and as Salmon Paths on Substack. His debut pamphlet collection, Down the Heavens was published in 2022. An album with Lensmen, Somewhere Somewhere was also released in the same year. He is currently working on his next collection, Digeny, which focuses on the sensory experience of indigeneity and being on these islands. He is also collaborating with Sean Borodale on a collection for Dialect Press and his poetry film, Long Barrow to Cuda Falls, will make its debut at this year’s NeoAncients Festival. His writing is based in nature-based practices, emergent animism and indigenous perspectives.
Martha Sprackland is an editor, writer and translator. Citadel (Pavilion, 2020) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Costa Poetry Award; a new collection is forthcoming in 2027. Dark Night, her translation of sixteenth-century Spanish mystic St John of the Cross, is published by Penguin Classics.
