Crystal Clear Creators

I mentioned the launch of Crystal Clear Creators first six poetry pamphlets last week - you can find out more about them here. I've read enough by three of the poets involved - Roy Marshall, Aly Stoneman and Charles Lauder Jr - to be looking forward to their chapbooks a lot, but it'll be good to read some new voices too. Oh, and the covers look terrific.

Cultural Exchanges 2012

Someone tweeted yesterday about the programme for De Montfort University's annual Cultural Exchanges festival. I'll admit I'd forgotten all about it, but booking has only just opened for most of the events, I think, so there's still plenty of time.

I'm going to get along to the reading by Alan Halsey and Geraldine Monk on March 1, and I'd also like to be at the Crystal Clear Creators reading the following day. That might depend on work, though, and it also clashes with the launch of Milorad Krystanovich's posthumous collection in Birmingham. But the Crystal Clear event features a lot of fine poets - Jessica Mayhew, Andrew 'Mulletproof' Graves, Roy Marshall, Hannah Stevens, Charles Lauder Jr and Aly Stoneman - and it's also free (as is the Halsey/Monk event). Decisions, decisions.

Finally, I just noticed that on February 28, the festival also features Hugh McIlvanney in conversation. This one's £4, but that's a pittance to see the best British sportswriter since the Second World War (at the very least).