I’m very excited to announce my debut appearance at Edinburgh International Book Festival 2017! The event is ‘Fluid Love’ (with the lovely Jess Richards) on Sunday 27th August.
And that’s not all – I’m headlining at ‘That’s What She Said’ (Bar Bados, 22.8.2017 – voted Top Ten LGBT shows at the Edinburgh Fringe 2017 by Vada Magazine)
She Grrrowls (Black Market, 23.8.2017)
Hammer & Tongue (Banshee Labyrinth, 25.8.2017)
AND
The Freak Circus Poetry Bordello (Woodland Creatures, 10.8.2017)
http://vadamagazine.com/entertainment/arts/top-12-lgbt-shows-edinburgh-fringe-2017
Please check my Gig Page for more details…
I'm delighted to have been invited to be Guest Speaker on an Arvon course at Lumb Bank in February 2015! Looking forward to working with Adam Marek & Kerry Hudson.
http://www.arvon.org/
I'll admit to being surprised... it's a poem about an abattoir worker and I thought it would put the judges off. Another example of the importance of writers having the courage of their convictions. A fabulous start to 2014!
To check out Ariadne's Thread magazine – click the link.
Really pleased to have an interview & feature in The Skinny this month!
It's free to pick up in venues round Liverpool & Manchester during October, or click on the link below and go to 'current issues'.
Read one of the poems here:
"There’s nothing here that I’ll be needing.
I don’t do souvenirs. No grave-goods,
no grave. No-one will do their back in
digging me a hole; nor have the job
of unpeeling rotten carnations from my marker.
Stretch me out in a place of arc-lights. Open me up.
Reveal my inner workings, the plot twist no-one was expecting.
Let the harvesting commence. May my heart thump love
in the warm nest of another’s ribs, my liver filter
someone else’s happy anniversary, my lungs give voice
to laughter and whistling out of tune at bus stops.
Lay me to rest under the bright faces, the white coats of angels."
Being told you have cancer is a life-changing event. Especially when you are a singer and performer and the diagnosis is throat cancer. Everything Must Go is Rosie Garland’s unflinching perspective on her relationship with the illness.
‘A wry look at what life can do to you, expressed with poetic clarity’ (Bernadette Jodh)
Neither melodramatic nor tearful, it paints vivid pictures, so you can see the waiting room or the ward and feel that you’re joining her on this journey. Rosie is a true performer and this shines through in the poems, which have a dynamic and rhythmic beat, especially when things get tough. Most importantly, she shows how any disease – and cancer especially – attacks your humanity and more specifically your femininity. Yet the way she puts this into words is also uplifting.
“Who is this stranger who crept in and stole my body, and left me with a sack of sticks?”
and
”Throwing up over the consultant when he asks you how you’re feeling.
Throwing up so hard it comes out of your nose.
Acquiring the skill of throwing up accurately.”
You can read each poem on its own, but together they tell the story of a journey. This is a rather rare occurrence in poetry collections and makes Everything Must Go something special.
‘Everything Must Go’
By Rosie Garland
Published by Holland Park Press
RRP £8.99 (paperback)
ISBN 9781907320224
“Wow. ‘Everything Must Go’ is breath-taking in its laid-bare honesty. Rosie Garland’s poems tell of her battle with cancer from the moment she’s told until she receives the news its in remission. It’s not a pitiful or melodramatic narration, or even negative – Rosie expresses her experiences; her initial numbness and shock, her hair loss, her sickness, the wanting to disappear, the hospital, the pain and weakness, the treatment, the loss of her femininity – it’s heart-breaking but Rosie is so strong in her poems that’s it’s somewhat uplifting. My personal favourites from the collection are ‘Camouflage’ and ‘Dignity’. Quite stunning and bought a tear to my eye.
Highly recommended”
Source: http://www.bookapoet.co.uk/book_reviews/book_reviews/august_2012/
Manchester Central Library
St Peter's Square,
Manchester, M2 5PD
5.30pm – 8pm
free event
Join us for an evening of poetry hosted by Rosie Garland ("literary hero" - The Skinny).
With performance from award-winning poets, playwrights and spoken word artists Cathy Crabb, Sarah Miller, Anna Percy, Melanie Rees & Geneviève L. Walsh.
Doors open 5.30pm for a 6pm start, 8pm finish.
Free entry. Refreshments provided.
Presented by Flapjack Press in association with Manchester Library & Information Service
www.flapjackpress.co.uk
Fred’s Ale House
843 Stockport Road
Levenshulme,
Manchester M19 3PW
Free event
doors are at 7.30pm
The live literature night Verbose – first event for 2019!
Come to Fred’s Ale House in Levenshulme on 28th Jan for an evening of poetry and stories about magic realism & the surreal.
Our headliners are Rosie Garland, Gaynor Jones & Michael Conley, plus all your usual open mic faves. FREE ENTRY - don't miss it!
First up - Rosie Garland: novelist, poet, singer & flash fiction writer, dubbed one of the country's finest performance poets.
Northern Writer of the Year, Gaynor Jones, is known for her strange and often surreal stories, & final headliner for Monday 28th Jan is Michael Conley. We love his hilarious and surreal poetry and short stories and can't wait to see him perform.
Verbose brings words to the ’burbs with live literature in Levenshulme.
Tribeca,
50 Sackville St,
Manchester M1 3WF
£5
"The biggest spoken word night in London for women" (Evening Standard) returns to Manchester!
Shortlisted for Best Spoken Word Night in the UK (Saboteur Awards, 2017), That's What She Said showcases the best new writing and performance by women, featuring iconic and emerging authors with a mix of performance, poetry, storytelling, slam and more.
LINE-UP FOR THURSDAY 4th OCTOBER 2018
ROSIE GARLAND
Award winning ‘literary hero’ (The Skinny) Rosie is a novelist, poet and singer. Author of novels The Night Brother, Vixen and The Palace of Curiosities, and six solo poetry collections, most recently As in Judy (Flapjack Press). "One of the country’s finest performance poets" (Apples & Snakes). Winner of the DaDa Award for Performance Artist of the Year, the Diva Award for Solo Performer, and a Poetry Award from the People’s Café, New York.
SUZANNAH EVANS
DEBZ BUTLER
MORE DETAILS TO BE ANNOUNCED
WHAT THEY SAY...
"To put it bluntly, I'd never come across a spoken word night with such a fantastic lineup. 'How have I never come across this before?', I kept asking myself, 'this is everything I've ever wanted from a night out...'
The Brewery Arts Centre
122A Highgate,
Kendal LA9 4HE
7.30pm
This month our guest is the novelist Rosie Garland who is also famous for being Rosie Lugosi Vampire Poet!
Spoken word open mic for poets, novelists, actors, comedians and storytellers, anyone with original material and something to say. Open mic is up to 4 minutes, sign up on the door with the host Ann the Poet. Open mic followed by interval and then guest performance.
Live events tickets now include a £0.50p commission, whether booking on online, on the phone or at the counter.
Doors open half hour before start
Tickets £6.50
Conc. £3.50
Friday 8th June
5.30pm – free event
All Saint’s Park,
Grosvenor Square,
Oxford Road
Manchester, M15 6BH
Manchester Histories Festival returns across Greater Manchester for a long-weekender from 7-11 June 2018 with the theme protest, democracy, and freedom of speech. For Manchester Histories Festival 2018 and in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, we're presenting ‘Soapbox’ from 8th-10th June where we will create a Speakers Corner at All Saint’s Park off Oxford Road. The park will be transformed artists from the region, with a hustings, new visual identity, and food and drink stalls.
On Friday 8th June at c.5.30pm, Rosie Garland will be performing her spoken word piece about the Suffragette direct action in Manchester Art Gallery, which took place in April 1913.