Cut Collective open new season at Sheffield’s Centre for Poetry and Poetics

The new season of events for University of Sheffield’s Centre for Poetry and Poetics got off to a warm and lively start on Wednesday, October 11 with a reading from Cut Collective, made up of UoS alumni, A J Moore, Amber V Whitham, Ethel Maqeda and Mark Lindsey.

The evening was introduced by Dr Ágnes Lehóczky, senior lecturer in Creative Writing at the university and director of the CPP and began with readings from recent graduates Mina Miller, Milly Winston-Jacques and Harley Ryley, who was featured in last year’s Cut Selection (see some of her work here). The event was also used by Cut to tease their next Cut Selection event, further details of which will be announced soon.

In the second half, Cut began their readings. Mark read extracts from his short story Polly Bank which made its public debut and takes a look at class, gentrification and consumerism through two families at different ends of the economic spectrum in a northern city in the early 1970s, while Amber followed up with a selection of older and newer poetry, including her latest piece Swan Song, which looks at the dichotomy between working and living and the ways we cope under capitalism. Ethel read a selection of works of fiction and poetry including the the work in progress laughter and On Remembering which are part of her recent poetic explorations celebrating the strength and resilience of African women, and the evening was rounded off by A J who read selections of poetry, some from a new and previously unheard sequence about bed linen from her work on domestic objects which explores archival texts and the relationship they have to the historical and current experiences of women.

Cut Collective would all like to give huge thanks to the audience, who were warm and enthusiastic throughout. To find out more about the Centre for Poetry and Poetics new season, visit their website, here.