Poetry / Raise The Bar
Raise the Bar present joint book launch from Tom Sastry and new Bristol City Poet, Kat Lyons
Bristol’s biggest poetry night Raise the Bar will be hosting a double book launch at The Trinity Centre on August 16, featuring Tom Sastry and Kat Lyons, who has recently been announced as Bristol’s new City Poet. Support on the night will come from fellow poets Suzannah Evans and Saili Katebe.
You have no normal country to return to (Nine Arches Press) is the second full collection from Sastry, following his much vaunted debut, A Man’s House Catches Fire, which was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize.
As a poet, his creative preoccupations are with national identity, myth, and the personal and collective stories we mould ourselves upon.
is needed now More than ever
As well as stepping into the shoes of Bristol City Poet, Lyons is an award-nominated writer, poet, performer, workshop practitioner and all-round creative with a passion for the power of story as a catalyst for human connection.
Their debut collection Love Beneath The Nails is available now, published by VERVE Poetry Press.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf7Z3EJs75c/
Charting grief, ageing, relationships, queer life and identity, beauty and regret, and ecological crisis, it is described as “a plea to discover the things that really matter and hold on tight, knowing that everything is ephemeral, and all the more valuable for that”.
The book comprises poems as well as the entirety of Dry Season, Lyons’ spoken word show exploring gender, age and the realities of menopause, which they are currently touring.
Raise the Bar: Kat Lyons and Tom Sastry is at The Trinity Centre on August 16 at 7.30pm (doors 7pm). Tickets are available from www.headfirstbristol.co.uk or www.trinitybristol.org.uk.
All photos: Courtesy of Raise the Bar
Read more: Bristol’s new City Poet announced
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