Established Monthly Poetry Session in the Melville bar, hosted by Ric Hool.  Bringing local and international poets to Abergavenny to celebrate the art of words and the story of our time that is expressed by current poets.  £5

This Months Guest Poets:

Pauline Plummer is of Irish/Welsh mix from Liverpool who has lived in the North East England since the 1980s where she became a founding editor of Mudfog Press and a former poet laureate of Middlesbrough.  She has 4 collections of poetry, most recently ‘Life Pours Ordinary Plenty’ – Red Squirrel Press 2022, a verse novella ‘From Here to Timbuktu) Smokestack 2012, a collection of short stories ‘Dancing with a Stranger’ Red squirrel 2011. She has taught creative writing in UK, Greece, Sierra Leone and now works with asylum seekers, teaching English and cooking.

Josephine Scott was born in Northumberland but spent her childhood in Australia. In When Rain Becomes Memory (her third collection, following Sparkle and Dance and Rituals) poetry is rooted in matters historical and domestic concerning her coastal place of residence, whilst also responding and sensually exploring the minutia of daily life.Poems have recently been included in This Cullercoats (Iron Press, 2019) and poetry magazines throughout Europe and the United Kingdom.  She is a graduate of Northumbria University.

Frank Olding writes in Welsh, reads his work in both English and Welsh.  Frank was poet in residence at the Art Exhibition of the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale in 2010 and is a member of the Gorsedd of Bards. He was honoured with an Ovate at the 2011 Eisteddfod in recognition of his services to Wales.                                             Frank Olding’s new collection of poems Eilun, published by Gwasg y Bwthyn, is rooted deeply in the magical and suggestive relationships between history and mythology.