Centre for Poetry and Poetics, Sheffield as its first reading into the Autumn 2023 Series presents: a reading with CUT COLLECTIVE; a collective of writers of poetry, prose, hybrid and experimental texts. We will hear readings by Mark Lindsey, Ethel Maqeda, Amber Whitham and AJ Moore. The four readings will be preceded by short readings from fresh MA in Creative Writing Sheffield graduates: Heather Beier, Harley Ryley, Milly Winston-Jacques and others.
Mark Lindsey was awarded his MA in Creative Writing from the University of Sheffield and is currently working on his first full collection of experimental, hybrid poetry. His writing uses prose, poetry, poetic essays and collage to explore issues of fiction and truth, politics, history, misogyny, psychology and trauma. His research includes explorations of grief, the importance of the physical and its relation to truth in poetry and non-fiction and use of erasure as a method of exposure in the works of contemporary women poets. His work has been published by “independent, cross-cultural, multi-lingual experimental publisher” Pamenar Press and in print and online editions of the University of Sheffield’s creative writing journal Route 57. His first book NEXT TO NOTHING and THIS WAS MEANT TO BE A STORY was published by Beir Bua Press and is a winner of the 2021 Laurence Sterne Prize and was nominated for the Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize for First Full Collection 2023.
Amber V Whitham’s writing is often concerned with the relationships and parallels between animal, plant, and human bodies, intertwined with Dadaist concepts of consciousness, illness, trauma and the corporeal condition. Her work consists of hybrid writing which ranges from narrative prose to traditional verse; often blending the two to emulate a stream of consciousness that is both physically and metaphorically represented on the page.; symbolising the erosion that trauma has upon both the body and mind and how mental and physical illness might affect the natural world. She completed both her BA in English Literature and her MA in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Sheffield, where her research focused on modern women’s poetry and its treatment of illness. Having had her work featured in Route57, Amber is currently working full-time as a copywriter, whilst writing in her spare time and working on her newest collection.
Ethel Maqeda is a Sheffield-based Zimbabwean British writer and graduate of the University of Sheffield’s MA Creative Writing program. With a passion for foregrounding unheard narratives, her work draws inspiration from African women’s experiences, at home and in the diaspora. She uses prose fiction and non-fiction to explore issues of home, black womanhood, African women’s struggles, and triumphs over experiences of racism, colonialism and global exploitation. She is currently writing a creative non-fiction collection exploring Southern African women’s practice of Ubuntu in the diaspora. Ethel’s stories have appeared in various journals, including Short Fiction: The Visual Literary Journal, Isele Magazine, Wasafiri Magazine, and the University of Sheffield’s creative writing journal Route 57) and in anthologies, Volume-3 (Palm-Sized Press), We are not Shadows (Folkways Press), Wretched Strangers (Boiler House) and Verse Matters (Valley Press).
A J Moore is a Creative Writing PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield, researching the archive, intertextuality and identity. Work in Route 57, Blackbox Manifold, D.O.R (LJMcD Communications), Eyeland (c22 Press), For The Love Of, Beir Bua Journal and The Babel Tower Noticeboard. Chapbooks M(P)atriarchive (Beir Bua Press) and Zeitgeist (c22 Press).
Twitter: @AJMoore_70.
Further info on the collective: https://www.cutcollectivewriters.org/
And on further readings of CPP: https://cppsheffield.tumblr.com/