Friday 8 March 2024

Preorder 'With Love, Grief and Fury' audiobook on Audible

 



Hello my dears, just popping on here to make a quick post to share this - the preorder for my NEW audiobook 'With Love, Grief and Fury' went live online today. This audio version will be launched alongside the beautiful hardback edition on May 2nd 2024 with Canongate. 


CLICK HERE

WITH LOVE, GRIEF AND FURY 

ON AUDIBLE 


With Love, Grief and Fury contains love poems, for people and the planet. Grief poems brimming with compassion, mourning what was and contemplating what could be. And poems of fire and fury that will kick some ass, tell the truth and inspire change and hope. Over thirty years after she first stormed the UK poetry scene, the trailblazing and award-winning writer Salena Godden has produced her most audacious and definitive collection to date. 

For those of you that enjoyed listening to my 'Mrs Death Misses Death' audiobook or that like to listen to poetry read aloud, this is the one for you. I hope you like it and I thank you in advance for all preorders as they really help any new title on its journey. 




💜💫 

March 15 - @HackneyEmpire

March 18 - @thesocial

March 23 - @NPGLondon

April 13 - @LyraFest

April 27 - @southbankcentre








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Talking of NEW audiobooks: Lovely to see so many of you in Shoreditch for the WOW Global event and the star-studded launch of Annabelle Hirsch incredible audiobook, ‘A History Of Women in 101 Objects’  - I'm honoured to be joining so many amazing voices and taking part in this audiobook of 101 stories of empowerment and resistance and helping to raise funds for REFUGE and WOW charities. Here's some pics of the event by 📸 @elliekurttzphoto 


Backstage: Liv Little, Anita Rani, Annabelle Hirsch, Salena Godden,
Elif Shafak, Martha Wainwright & Jordan Stephens



Jordan Stephens


Elif Shafak


Annabelle Hirsch


Salena Godden


Anita Rani


Martha Wainwright


Liv Little



CLICK HERE: 


"We are proud to celebrate International Women’s Day 2024 with the launch of the audiobook of A History of Women in 101 Objects by Annabelle Hirsch read by a chorus of 101 remarkable women. This ambitious audio project was recorded across 18 studios in 12 countries, and we’re so grateful to our amazing readers: Gillian Anderson, Katy Hessel, Anita Rani, Jackie Kay, Len Pennie, Annabelle Hirsch, Shirley Manson, Rebecca Solnit, Sandi Toksvig, Marina Hyde, Naomi Shimada, Harriet Walter, Celia Imrie, Kate Manne, Margaret Atwood, Janina Ramirez, Doon Mackichan, Helen Mirren, Elif Shafak, Kathryn Hunter, Kate Mosse, Miriam Margolyes, Val McDermid, Caitlin Moran, Dolly Alderton, Georgia Byng, Olivia Colman, Sasha Lane, Adjoa Andoh, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sue Perkins, Ece Temelkuran, Mary Ann Sieghart, Alison Steadman, Daisy Ridley, Rebecca Hall, Krista Tippett, Patience Agbabi, Michelle Newell, Jeanette Winterson, Geraldine James, Sinead Cusack, Tiya Miles, Crystal Clarke, Louise Brealey, Leïla Slimani, Helena Kennedy, Samin Nosrat, Anna Holmes, Michelle Gomez, India Knight, Natascha McElhone, Lauren Elkin, Kate Winslet, Helena Bonham Carter, Sylvia Whitman, Noma Dumezweni, Meera Syal, Niamh McGrady, Denise Gough, Jacqueline Wilson, Siri Hustvedt, Gaby Wood, Sophie Hunter, Lisa-Kaindé Diaz, Annabel Mullion, Sharleen Spiteri, Jennifer Clement, Julia Gillard, Christiane Amanpour, Jude Kelly, Kerry Fox, Ruth Rogers, Maggie Smith, Hanna Schygulla, Kübra Gümüşay, Erica Wagner, Sandra Hüller, Jodie Whittaker, Virginie Efira, Nicola Sturgeon, Juno Dawson, Juliet Stevenson, Sally Phillips, Anjelica Huston, Lisa Dwan, Ruth Ozeki, Joanna Lumley, Cynthia Erivo, Martha Wainwright, Eleanor Updegraff, Sinéad Gleeson, Salena Godden, Lili Taylor, Mariella Frostrup, Rakie Ayola, Katie Kitamura, Saffron Hocking, Tahmima Anam, Vivian Oparah, Shirin Neshat.

A History of Women in 101 Objects audiobook was created to show how the past has always been as complicated and fascinating as the women that peopled it and ‘to add texture and intimacy to the slowly re-emerging stories of women from the past’ Guardian - 25% of the proceeds go to Refuge for their work empowering women and children experiencing domestic violence.  - Join us tonight, Friday March 8th, with WOW, for an evening filled with optimism, determination and laughter, featuring discussion and readings from some of our cast and authors!


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I'll leave you with these stunning images: 

Here's some powerful artwork I have been loving on instagram by @DEVTHEPINEAPPLE - sharing this stunning work with solidarity and hope for the courage we need globally, not just for International Women's Day, not just for Mothers Day, but every day. I share these and once again call for a permanent ceasefire, freedom and libration, none of we are free, until we are all free. 










Friday 16 February 2024

Springtime gigs and events....


 

Hello loves, 

How are you? I hope you are doing ok. Here is a blog post of things to look forward to and to share some of my first live shows of 2024 and dates for March. I will add more shows as they come in, so keep an eye on this page. I haven't performed since November, it feels strange, it has been a long and dark winter hibernation. I am looking forward to seeing your faces again and sharing my two new books and hearing your new poetry and work too. This spring I am honoured to be asked to be a judge for the Nibbies - British Book Awards 2024 - and so I will have lots of reading of new books to do over the next few weeks. As usual I'll keep adding gigs to this page as new dates are confirmed. I kick off this year with an incredibly powerful WOW event for International Women's Day on March 8th, this will be my first gig of the year, supporting and launching the audiobook of 'A History of Women in 101 Objects' and raising money for Refuge and WOW charities, please scroll down for all tickets and info and links... I am slowly getting ready to leave my cave and come find you all. See you back out there, see you in the festivals and fields, see you in the bookshops and libraries, see you here and there, keep dreaming the big dream, keep fighting the good fight, forever love, peace and justice, forever onwards...

sgxx 





March 8th - WOW | IWD - One Night Live In London 

International Women's Day, WOW, Shoreditch Town Hall, London. I am honoured to support the very brilliant Annabelle Hirsch and her glorious book ‘The History of Women in 101 Objects’ Come join us on #IWD2024 to launch this exciting audio book. I am just one of many friends and supporters coming together for this beautiful audio book and the Refuge UK and WOW charities.





March 15th | Hollie McNish 'Lobster' | Hackney Empire 

Congratulations to Hollie on her new poetry book 'Lobster' - I believe tickets for her London launch at the Hackney Empire are very nearly sold out. I'm excited to support Hollie alongside the wonderful Michael Pedersen for this brilliant event. This will be a real treat. Catch us if you can!






March 18th | 'Strange Things.. at The Social'

Delighted to join White Rabbit to celebrate the launch of this brilliant Richard Norris memoir. Richard Norris in conversation with Salena Godden plus guests Harry Sword, The Soft Bouncers, The Hardway Bros and more... 





March 23rd | National Portrait Gallery | Poetry

"Photographers Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron are two of the most influential women in the history of photography. They lived a century apart – Cameron working in the UK and Sri Lanka from the 1860s, and Woodman in America and Italy from the 1970s. Both women explored portraiture beyond its ability to record appearance – using their own creativity and imagination to suggest notions of beauty, symbolism, transformation and storytelling. " 

Join award-winning author, poet and broadcaster, Salena Godden for a poetry performance in the Galleries. Drawing on magical realism and the notion of a dream space - themes explored within the upcoming exhibition, Salena will be reading a selection of her works exploring similar themes. 




April 13th | Raise The Bar | Lyra Festival, Bristol

Excited to be back at RTB in Bristol in April. The incredible line-up includes UK poetry stars and heroes of mine, Nikita Gill and Cecilia Knapp. This is part of Lyra Festival 2024, it will be a wonderful evening, tickets on sale now... 









please donate and share 














Raise the Bar returns to Bristol Beacon for a Lyra Festival special, featuring legendary UK poet Salena Godden alongside a lineup of dynamic performers.

Raise the Bar returns to Bristol Beacon for a Lyra Festival special, featuring legendary UK poet Salena Godden alongside a lineup of dynamic performers.




Friday 19 January 2024

January and poetry...


Hello my January friends,

How are you? Here's my face. Long darkness, wintry silence, cold night skies. I’m clocking into the 4am Writing Club. I’ve been in here every morning for quite a few weeks now. Winter. Writing. Watching for first light. I’m like a surfer waiting to catch a wave on night oceans. I don’t know why I take these lonely pictures, maybe to document the isolation. The feeling of now. Maybe so when it is another era and another time and things are different and changed, I’ll see it and know how this time is gone. How nothing changes. How everything changes. One day these pictures will be in the past and long ago, and we will be in other worlds, I don’t know what that will look like yet, but I have faith in it, and I hold onto it, and want to meet you there.


I am just popping onto my blog to say hello and share some poetry and quotes and to belatedly wish you and all a peaceful and healthy and happy 2024. For those of you that subscribe to this page you'll know I always write a personal blog post like this in January, often with a piss take of my new year resolutions and a run down of everything that happened over the last 12 months, but I'm just not feeling like it this year. I feel quite quiet and introverted, and although lots of significant things happened, I feel like I just am already looking to the future and trying to visualise and picture it and even that in itself is hard right now. This winter I'm mostly hibernating and hiding in books. I am deep in creation, swallowed up in the real work and proper madness of book making. Talking to fires and moons, trying to make sense of this unreal real world and seeking the light. I have been doing lots of work to prepare to launch two beautiful new books this May 2024, and I'm also completing a new novel due for publication in 2025. More about the novel later...






On May 2nd 2024 Canongate will double launch these two books together: the revised edition of my literary childhood memoir  'Springfield Road - A Poets Childhood Revisited' almost twenty years since it was first drafted - I was in my 30s when I wrote this memoir and I could never write this now or remember being a child so clearly and vividly as I have here. Plus we will also be publishing the new poetry book  'With Love, Grief and Fury' which is a full 2020s collection, containing 80 new works on themes of love and peace and joy and gratitude and compassion and empathy and identity and age and womanhood and wisdom and hope and healing and survival and rage. I am nervous that both books are so deeply personal and confessional of then and of now. Also both books launch on the same day and so it will seem fitting that we'll have to have a lovely big party gathering booze up boogie for that, watch this space. I will be back on the road and touring these books throughout spring and summer, and I hope to see you at lots of gigs and festivals and bookshops. I cannot wait to share this work and go on adventures and reconnect with old mates and to see all of your faces again, we have so much catching up to do. Preorders are available now, they really help a new book on its voyage, so I thank you all so much for all preorders so far. Remember: choose bookshops and support independents, preorder links below.

I started the year sharing a performance film of a poetry show I did back in October for Apples and Snakes at the QEH, Southbank. There are four poems captured here: three pieces are from my 'Pessimism is for Lightweights' collection and one exclusive from the forthcoming 'With Love, Grief and Fury' check it all out below. I have lots of films in my archives to share, I am so behind with things, but I want to remember to try to remember to film more of my new poems and performances this year, I have even started trying to share things on tik-tok, but I am not very confident on there yet, but if you can find me there, come say hello. 

I will  post my 2024 tour dates and more book news soon. For now I just wanted to say hey and share some poetry and some hope and some love and urge you to remain whole and hopeful and soft hearted. There is so much pain and sorrow and grief and anger and war and bombs and death and hunger in the big bad world right now. We must all fight to stay soft and strong and resilient all at the same time, to not get despondent, to not get bitter, to keep fighting the good fight. To hold the line. 

More than ever, I love the poets, I just want to say thank you to the poets. Thank you for your powerful words and messages online and offline, for sharing petitions and letters and posts for ceasefire, for your sense of community, for your moving poetry and books, for sharing your truth, for sharing your light, for showing us what you see and feel and know, for narrating the times, thank you for your humanity. Follow all the poets, follow the poets I follow, follow more poets, follow all the poets, have a look at some book recommendations here: 



Poetry is medicine. Poetry is food. Poetry is protest. I'll leave you with some images and poems by incredible poets, shared in solidarity with all freedom fighters and peace seekers and hope punks. Please keep the faith, share when you can, donate where and when you can, I'll add some links below...

Keep writing and keep reading and keep loving,
More soon comrades, 

lovelove, 
sgxx