POETRY READING GROUPS
Are you a member of a poetry reading group? You can get
reading group discounts from our bookselling site www.poetrybookshoponline.com.
If you’re keen to share some poetry with
members of your reading group, here are some ideas
you might like to try out in a future meeting.
Familiar Favourites
Get members to bring copies of their own favourite
poem to a meeting. Talk about your selections
in relation to Simon Armitage's 10 top tips or
discuss your general poetry reading experience
from the following perspectives:
- What encounters, positive
or puzzling, have group members had with poetry?
One PBS member tells us he reads poems when
he's waiting for his potatoes to boil!
- What successful approaches
to poetry reading can members of the group recommend?
- Do you know any poetry
by heart? What's the difference between knowing
a poem and simply reading it?
- When do the poems you
know spring into your mind? Do you read them
to yourself or to others?
- Which discussions are
most stimulating: the ones about poets you admire,
or the ones about work you don’t like?
Novelists and
Poets
Focus on a writer who writes both novels
and poetry (Try Simon Armitage, Margaret Atwood,
John Burnside, Raymond Carver, Fred D'Aguiar,
Helen Dunmore, Sophie Hannah, Tobias Hill or Jackie
Kay). Contrasting and comparing gives your group
a way to explore ideas about the differences between
poetry and fiction reading.
Anthologies
There are dozens of poetry anthologies
edited thematically - from love to war, gardens
to science. What themes unite your previous reading
group choices? Could your poetry reading relate
to these? If you'd prefer to read chronologically,
tackle a century, a generation or even a decade
at a time.
Whatever poems you read, try varying your approach
to them from one meeting to the next. Think about
discussing the craft and construction of individual
poems, or comparing one poem (or poet) with another,
or looking at the poems against a background of
other literature of a similar period or theme.
T S Eliot
Prize
Every year, the PBS awards the T S Eliot Prize
for the best new poetry collection. There are
always ten books on the Shortlist, providing a
ready-made structure for a reading group meeting.
Pick a poet each. You could read the poems out
loud, discover more about the poets' previous
work, attend poets' readings (try publishers'
websites for details) or even award your own prize.
There are more than 200 literary prizes awarded
every year in the UK. Do the results affect your
reading? Have the judges' surprise decisions ever
infuriated you?
T S Eliot Prize winners
Reading
group discounts
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