Poetry in the Pub

Alongside her own work, Catherine Smith presents three women poets of renown. Her own new book, Lip, is to be published in November by Smith/Doorstop. She teaches at Sussex University and in schools and colleges throughout the country.

Susan Wicks’ first book of poems, Singing Underwater (Faber, 1992), won the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Prize, as well as being a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and short-listed for the Forward First Collection Prize. Since then she has published four other collections of poetry, two novels and a short memoir. One of her novels, The Key, was serialised on Woman’s Hour. A book of short stories, Roll Up for the Arabian Derby, is due from Bluechrome in Spring 2008. She is currently the Director of the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Kent in Canterbury.

Susan Wicks

Patience Agbabi has performed her poetry all over the world. In 2004 she was nominated as one of the UK's Next Generation Poets. Her forthcoming poetry collection, Bloodshot Monochrome, will be published by Canongate in Spring 2008.

Texan Patricia Debney is the author of a collection of prose poetry, How to Be a Dragonfly (Smith/Doorstop, 2005), the overall winner of the 2004 Poetry Business Competition. Her short stories and poetry have appeared in various anthologies and journals, including New Writing, Tales of the Decongested, and the Forward Anthology of Best Poems, as well as online. She has written for opera as well as for solo voice. She currently lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Kent. Her first novel, Losing You, was published by Bluechrome in May 2007.