Registration from 9.45-10am on the main concourse at the entrance to Sage. Refreshments will be available in the Barbour Room on Level 2.
10 AM
Welcome to the Symposium by Newcastle Poetry Festival Director Sinéad Morrissey.
Inter/Ventions: Art and Poetry | 10:15 – 11:15
Irene Brown, Head of Fine Art at Newcastle University, leads the discussion on cross-art collaborations between poetry, film and visual arts with artist and poet Sophie Herxheimer, who illustrates Poetry London magazine; internationally renowned artist and poet Alec Finlay and French poet-artist Iris Colomb, whose live art/poetry interventions expand the possibilities of traditional poetry readings.
Inter/Active: The Digital Frontier and Pioneering Poetry | 11:20 – 12:20
Jon Stone, Co-editor of Sidekick Books’ Robot Poetry Anthology, delves into the interactive world of poetry and cutting-edge technology, from Artificial Intelligence to robo-poetics and gaming, to reveal how innovation is re-inventing poetry. The panel will also include poet JR Carpenter, winner of the Dot Award for Digital Literature, Stephen Sexton, whose Super Mario-inspired poetry is forthcoming from Penguin this year, and Naho Matsuda, creator of an immersive installation which transformed live smart data into an ever-changing poem at the Great Exhibition of the North.
**LUNCH TIME BREAK**
Inter/Ruptions: Playful Forms/Transforming Poetry | 13.30 – 14.30
Leading poetry critic and editor of The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem, Jeremy Noel-Tod chairs a panel on the playful forms disrupting traditional definitions of poetry. World-class innovators including the distinguished American poet and essayist Mary Ruefle, Ledbury Forte Prize winner Sandeep Parmar, and filmmaker, poet and digital artist, Ahren Warner, examine the transformations at play in poetry today, from micro-poems to lyrical essays, spoken word and prose poems.
Inter/Pretations: Poetry and the Body | 14:40 – 15:40
Linda Anderson, poet and Professor of Modern English and American Literature at Newcastle University, explores the interplay between poetry and the body. This panel includes Forward prize-shortlisted poet Malika Booker, Helen Ivory, author of The Anatomical Venus, and prize-winning author of playtime and physical, Andrew McMillan. The panel will consider a range of ways in which poetry interacts with the body, from LGBTQ and feminist perspectives, to interpretative dance.
**TEA BREAK **
Inter/Play Performance: Poetry Reading | 16:00 – 17:00
Join us for the Inter/Play in action with three stars of the symposium: Stephen Sexton’s debut collection If All the World and Love Were Young is forthcoming from Penguin; Poet and PBS Selector, Sandeep Parmar, is the author of The Marble Orchard and Eidolon(Shearsman); and Malika Booker is a multi- disciplinary artist whose work is rooted in storytelling.
