That is £4.50 off and beats Amazon's price. If you want, I can sign it for you. This sale is for a limited period (ends 30th November). The Owl Unbound/Fool's Paradise bundle price is also reduced.
So it's "Happy Birthday" to Owl Unbound and to you too.
A few days ago Helen Ivory posted this question on Facebook. There was a flurry of responses, none from a festival, nearly all saying they didn’t know the answer.
I
wondered about replying as I am one of the three members on the Cheltenham
Poetry Festival (CPF) management team, but I decided to write this blog post
instead as I can give a longer and more considered reply.
The
first thing to say is that this post is my personal take on the question and is
limited to one poetry festival.
Considerations in booking poets
We book
poets, who will be attractive to our audience or should I say audiences. We
have a 10-day event this September in Cheltenham. The audience for this is
different from that for the year-round online festival we run. We can be more
adventurous with the online festival. But with both in-Cheltenham and online
festivals we are looking for poets who can read their poetry in a way that reaches
out and engages our audience.
There
are other considerations when we book poets. The first is financial and of
course is related to ticket sales. We don’t have a large budget and we have to
make it balance at the end of the year/festival. It means we can’t book all the
poets we would like. Sadly issues such as the size of the fee, costs of travel
and accommodation, all play a part.
Does
the poet’s work fit with the programme? We want our programme to be diverse, in
all sorts of ways, in subject matter, poetry style and form, ethnicity, poet’s
age etc. We usually have a minimum of two poets reading per event, do they
complement each other, maybe they are dealing with the same theme but in
different ways?
So how do we find poets?
Poets
are constantly approaching us, far more poets than we have slots. A polite
email is the best option, rather than messaging us. Do read any information we
have on the website about when and how to apply.
We are
also proactive in looking for poets. We read poetry books and magazines, go to
poetry events especially online ones. If we find someone who excites us and
fits what we are looking for, we may approach them or keep them in mind until
we can.
The
open mic slots at our online events are really important to us. Open mics is a
way of performing at the Festival that is open to everyone, not just for newbies
but also established published poets. We do sometimes offer a headline slot to
someone, who has come to our attention via the open mc.
So what can you do to get a headline slot?
In conclusion
I hope
this post helps. As a fellow poet I know how hard finding readings can be. Good
luck.
UPDATE
Cheltenham Poetry Festival website now has a "Take Part" page and a dedicated contact form for poets to join a special mailing list. The page is here https://cheltenhampoetryfestival.co.uk/take-part/
This is an extraordinary piece of writing: truly compelling. Alison Brackenbury.
Fool’s Paradise is a dive into the uncanny: into that rich heritage of myth in which we find ourselves both far from home, and simultaneously at home. Fiona Sampson
I do not find self promotion very easy. In fact I cringe and procrastinate everytime I have to do it. Yes, I'm on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the first more so than the others, but it is not enough. And my publishers have a right to expect me to do some book promo, afterall they have invested time and money into making my book a success and so should I (time at least). So about six months ago I decided I would invest in some book promotion.
I turned to Isabelle Kenyon to act as publicist for me, on the recommendation on Anna Saunders. Over 3 months Isabelle got me 7 reviews with more hopefully on the way, a spoken word event, a blog interview, youtube feature, 2 radio appearances and a podcast appearance.
I was delighted with Isabelle's hard work. Of course Isabelle has a great list of contacts, which would take me ages to achieve and then I would need the temerity to approach them. But Isabelle also gave me the confidence to relax and focus on what I was good at - reading at open mics and giving readings.
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For people who are perhaps earlier in their writing journey and are experiencing financial difficulties there are still a few free places on a workshop Isabelle is leading for the Cheltenham Poetry Festival next Tuesday available here https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/cheltenhampoetryfestival/t-axarox
