Placeholder Poetry Southampton returns after a sold out debut event

Placeholder Poetry Southampton returns after a sold out debut event

After a sold out debut event in January, Wire Wool Events and Placeholder Poetry return for the second in their series of innovative poetry performances.

Three brand new poets bring their distinct voices to The Bookshop Alehouse, Southampton on Thursday 28th March for a night to challenge and delight.

Placeholder is home for poetry readings of the avant-garde, queer and radical. Following their success in Brighton, Wire Wool Events and Placeholder are collaborating to bring this unique experience to Southampton.

Reading their work at this second event are Cat Chong, Susmita Bhattacharya and J Pyrite.

Amy Juliet Brown (Wire Wool Events) says: “Southampton has a real appetite for performance poetry! These courageous poets use their words to chronicle the world as they see it – right now. We’re looking forward to another evening that welcomes the poetry-curious and all those who are ready to explore some big ideas, together”

Cat Chong is a poet, publisher, and PhD student at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where their work considers the intersections between genre, genderqueerness, and disability. They’re a graduate of the Poetic Practice MA at Royal Holloway and editor at Osmosis Press. Their work has been published internationally in publications based in the UK, Singapore, Canada, and the US. Their debut collection 712 stanza homes for the sun was published in 2023 by Broken Sleep Books while their second collection, the serial poem titled Dear Lettera 32, has just been released by Permeable Barrier as of February 2024.

Cat Chong

Susmita Bhattacharya (pictured top) is an Indian writer. Her debut novel, The Normal State of Mind (Parthian 2015), was longlisted at the Mumbai Film Festival. Table Manners (Dahlia Publishing 2018) won the 2019 Saboteur Award for Best Short Story Collection. Her poems have appeared in Mechanic’s Institute Review, Janus Literary Journal and many more publications. Susmita is a Creative Writing Lecturer at University Of Winchester, a lead facilitator for ArtfulScribe and Co-Founder of Write Beyond Borders. She will be reading from Gathering: Women Of Colour On Nature (404Ink 2024).

J Pyrite is a nonbinary person who has been writing poems for over half their life. Their work focuses on themes of trauma and recovery, mythologising lived experience through dazzling imagery and a fierce passion for all things beautiful and true.

J Pyrite

Doors: 6.45pm doors, 7pm start

Downstairs @ [the bookshop alehouse], Southampton

3 x 20 min poetry readings

Price: £5 from wirewoolevents.com

Limited tickets available

This event is a toiletries donation point for Basics Bank – please bring toiletries, tampons and towels if you are able.

A raffle will be drawn, with all proceeds going to Yellow Door

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