Poetry Doubles

George Szirtes & Laura Helyer

Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre, Dumfries

Monday 17th September 7.00pm

Tickets £7.00 (£5.00 concessions)

Poetry Doubles Masterclass with George Szirtes

Glasgow University Crichton Campus 10.ooam

Tickets £3.00 (Free when purchased with ticket for reading)

Tickets from Andrew Forster on 01387 253383 or andrew@dgaa.net

George Szirtes is one of the most acclaimed poets writing in Britain today. He has published 11 collections of poetry, and Bloodaxe will publish his ‘Collected Poems’ next year. He has won numerous awards, including the prestigious TS Eliot prize, the most acclaimed prize in poetry, for his 2005 collection ‘Reel’.

George was born in Hungary and moved to England as a refugee in 1956. His poetry explores both his Hungarian origins and his adopted English home.

George reads with Laura Helyer. Laura, who returned to Dumfries earlier this year after completing an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews, is one of the region’s brightest young voices. Laura was commended in last year’s Cardiff International Poetry Competition and was awarded a prestigious Donald Dewar Arts Award, granting her time for her writing. Whether her subject is the enviroment, art or her parents’ long marriage, Laura brings a quiet intelligence to bear on her poems.

Laura can also be heard on Saturday evening during the Dumfries Film Festival, reading poetry and prose to introduce the film ‘An Arctic Tale’ at the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre on Saturday 15th September at 8.15pm.

The day after the Poetry Doubles reading George will run a Masterclass, looking in detail at selected participants’ poems. The date for submission has passed but there are still places in the audience if would-be poets are interested in the process of developing a poem.