Tuesday, 24 June 2025

Midsummers, gigs and news....

 




Hello, how are you? 

So, here’s a quick post to let you know whats' been happening and whats next... 

First off, we are going to be in Ireland in July. I’m very excited to be invited to perform at CAIRDE SLIGO ARTS FESTIVAL and WEST CORK LITERARY FESTIVAL and the tickets are LIVE for all shows! 

It is a dream gig to bring my new poems and books to Ireland. I have been asking to come and visit but have not had an opportunity to come see the country since before times and have such happy memories of being there, exploring and writing and completing the final tweaks of Mrs Death Misses Death at the Curfew Tower in Cushendall, Co. Antrim in 2018. 

I have published four books since my last gigs in Ireland in Dublin and Belfast back in 2019. How the years and books are flying by. I will post more about this trip, but for now confirming I will see you in Ireland in July 

I'm busy writing books, and not doing my usual circuit of all the gigs and festivals this summer, so I will miss you and all that fun, but will be back on a UK tour in the autumn with the beautiful new paperback edition of With Love, Grief and Fury, this new edition will be published in October 2025 in time for National Poetry Day and BHM and I will post all my gig dates for this autumn tour soon, for now you can find some dates here  

I am beyond excited to visit Ireland again! This will be a joy. Ahh loves, it’s gonna be a treat, see you on the sunny side, you beautiful people Xx








Tuesday July 8th: 
Cairde Sligo Arts Festival
Yeats Building, 6pm

Join poets Saoirse Anton, Salena Godden and Alice Kinsella for an evening of poetry and conversation. From political optimism to parenting (arguably the same thing), and cat ownership to circuses (definitely the same thing), these poets cover creative continents. Between them, they bring award-winning fiction, memoir and poetry. 

Salena Godden's debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death (2021) won the Indie Book Awards for Fiction and the People’s Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards and the Gordon Burn Prize. Her new full poetry collection With Love, Grief and Fury and literary childhood memoir Springfield Road - A Poets Childhood Revisited were published in May 2024.

Saoirse Anton is an Irish writer, performer and producer. She released her debut pamphlet Confetti Catching in February 2024, written while living with NoFit State Circus as Production Poet in Residence in Spring 2023. 

Alice Kinsella’s books include Milk: On Motherhood and Madness (2023) and Wake of the Whale (2024) which was a Sunday Independent Book of the Year. The Ethics of Cats (2025) is her debut full-length poetry collection.



link: cairdefestival.comaped by lives lived on the road, on the margins and in the thick of it.






Friday July 11th:
West Cork Literary Festival
Marino Church, Bantry, 6.30pm

Salena Godden published her latest collection of poetry With Love, Grief and Fury in May 2024 and on the same day her memoir Springfield Road: A Poet’s Childhood Revisited was reissued. Salena’s electrifying live performances, at everywhere from literary festivals to the Women’s March and Extinction Rebellion protests in London’s Parliament Square, have earned her a devoted following and we can’t wait to witness her West Cork performance.
 
‘Read these poems then listen to Salena read these poems then go and watch Salena read these poems. She is a master of every incarnation this art form may take and I am constantly in awe of her. This collection brings so much joy and makes me determined to live more, lust more and love more.’ Hollie McNish

Salena will be doing a full solo show and reading her latest poetry and will also in conversation with fellow poet, Alice Kinsella 






Sunday July 13th:
West Cork Literary Festival
Marino Church, Bantry, 6.30pm

Join West Cork Literary Festival and Poetry Ireland for an evening of award-winning poetry with Mona Arshi and Oluwaseun Olayiwola

Mona Arshi’s new poetry collection Mouth will be published in July and it gives voice to the marginal women of Greek tragedy to present fresh perspectives on war and migration today. As a human rights lawyer, Mona saw power and its abuses, the structures of silencing set against refugees. As a poet, she charts the movements and migrations that change the course of our lives – from child to adult, from home to elsewhere, from grief to what lies beyond. 

Strange Beach is the debut collection from poet and choreographer Oluwaseun Olayiwola. Intimate and erotic, ecological and philosophical, the poems in Strange Beach illuminate the body as a porous landscape across which existential dramas, filial fractures, and sexual reckonings occur. 

This event will be moderated by fellow poet Salena Godden.













Tom, Lily, Oli and Salena, backstage
POET TOWN charity event for Refugee Buddy Project 
June 19th 2025





T H A N K  Y O U 

I thank every one of you who came out to support Refugee Week and our glorious  POET TOWN gig for The Refugee Buddy Project in Hastings. We raised the roof and raised about £900 for the charity with a sold out show, a dozen poets and two bands and a full heart and a full house. It was a beautiful show of solidarity and faith and passion and warmth and rage and I thank you all for supporting it, thank you for contributing and sharing in it all. Thank you. 

Meanwhile, Moth Light Press still need our help and the POET TOWN anthology is still crowd funding, so if you would like to support us you can find all the info on the POET TOWN patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/c/PoetTown/posts

The Refugee Buddy Project  will still need our community and help and funding all year around, please check out their work via their website:














Artwork, Lorraine Schneider, 1967







Artwork by Dev The Pineapple, 2025




Roaring 20's Radio Show 

We have a new lively LIVE show airing on Monday afternoon's once a month on Soho Radio. We have been running our show since November 2019 and we recorded our stunning June 2025 edition yesterday. You can listen again and find us via Soho Radio. Our next LIVE and lively show is Monday July 21st.  Come find us on Soho Radio - Presented by Salena Godden, Amah-Rose Abrams and Matt Abbot, Roaring 20s Radio amplifies the best art and culture, books and poetry, music and activism, as we collectively ROAR through the unprecedented events of this tumultuous decade. 



Artwork by Tiril Valeur, 2025 




Monday, 19 May 2025

Anthologies: POET TOWN & BOG PEOPLE


Poet Town Portrait of Salena Goddess by Maxine Silver, May 2025



Poet Town Portrait of Salena Goddess by Maxine Silver, May 2025


Sharing a peek at the new portraits for the Hastings Poet Town project taken by Maxine Silver - thank you! We chose the Fire Hills for this shoot. This is home to me, the smell of blooming yellow gorse, so glorious and coconutty, the greens, blues and turquoise of the sea and the sky, all the salt in the air and all those delicious colours and feelings. I love it up here. 


Hastings is a seaside resort with an illustrious poetic history. Once a haven for Pre-Raphaelite poets and Victorian authors, it is still a hub of creativity today.  It continues to be home to artists, musicians, and renowned contemporary writers.  Edited by Richard Newham-Sullivan and with a foreword by Salena Godden 'Poet Town: Poets & Poetry of Hastings & Thereabouts' is an anthology that brings together the best classic, modern and spoken word poets, linked to this uniquely creative coastal town.


Poet Town received a phenomenal quote and endorsement from the mighty Joelle Taylor - thank you Joelle. The wheels are truly in motion now, and this fantastic Hastings poetry anthology, celebrating 200 years of poetry from Hastings and thereabouts will be launched summer 2025. There will be an exhibition of the Maxine Silver portraits and launch party events at Hastings Book Festival and many more lovely things in the pipeline. Please watch all the poets pages for news and updates on all of this. This is what community looks like to me, the poets gathering...


Follow #PoetTown on your socials... more soon!




Poet Town Patreon 


Poet Town in Hastings Independent






Poet Town Portrait of Salena Goddess by Maxine Silver, May 2025

 











Talking about fantastic new work, anthologies and exciting collections of note, this month we also saw the cover reveal for this beautiful new book: 


‘BOG PEOPLE - A Working Class Anthology of Folk Horror’ edited by Hollie Starling. I'm so excited to read this book. I'm also looking forward to sharing new work, my new eerie short story ‘I am Hagstone’ is haunting these pages, and she will be tapping at your bookshop windows in October 2025, just in time for Halloween. 


Unleash the dark and delirious with this electrifying anthology of folk horror from some of Britain's most iconic working-class voices: A.K. Blakemore, Daniel Draper, Emma Glass, Mark Colbourne, Mark Stafford, Hollie Starling, Jenn Ashworth, Natasha Carthew, Salena Godden and Tom Benn.


A phonograph cylinder that plays on a loop for eternity, casting out ghostly spectres of violence; a centuries-old stew made of dismembered body parts; a bigoted woman working at an ossuary, the bones she watches over her only remaining friends; three siblings who set out to scatter their fathers’ ashes, a man none of them could stand; and a hagstone sat in the pocket of a witch.


Uncanny and unsettling, wild and wyrd, the ten stories in this collection showcase the best of folk horror. Set in and around England, they celebrate working-class culture and history, and, sharp as a guillotine blade, reveal the real monsters that stalk our green and pleasant land.



Pre-order BOG PEOPLE from Bookshop.Org






 a handful of delicious dates 

summer 2025



June 13: LONDON

FRQNCY LDN

with Alex Lavery, Nikita Gill, Arun Gosh & more 

St Matthias Church, Stoke Newington


June 14: SUFFOLK

An Evening with Salena Godden

St Mary's, Walpole, Suffolk


June 19: HASTINGS

Poet Town X Refugee Buddy Project

poetry charity fundraiser at The Print Works


July 8: SLIGO

Ciarde Sligo Arts Festival, Ireland 


July 11: CORK

West Cork Literary Festival, Ireland












Out now: With Love, Grief and Fury


Out now: Springfield Road 


Out now: Pessimism is for Lightweights 


Out now: Mrs Death Misses Death


Linktree: https://linktr.ee/salenagodden 


Buythebook: https://buythebook.online/salena-godden





Residential Writers Retreats 


June 30 - July 5: MONIACK MHOR 

Moniack Mhor Writers Retreat, Scotland 

with Salena Godden and Louisa Young 

Special guest speaker Michel Faber


August 18 - 24: CHATEAU DE SACY

Residential Poetry & Yoga Retreat

Chateau de Sacy, France 


December 1 - 6: ARVON 

Residential Writing Course, Arvon at The Hurst 

Exploring Feminine Creativity with Nikita Gill

Special guest speaker Joelle Taylor








thanks for finding my page






tickets: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/poettown/1729348







Salena Godden 

Biog Summer 2025


Salena Godden FRSL is an award-winning novelist, poet and broadcaster of mixed Jamaican-Irish heritage. Her debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death was published by Canongate in 2021 - it won the Indie Book Awards for Fiction and the People’s Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards and the Gordon Burn Prize. 

A hardback edition of Pessimism is for Lightweights - 30 pieces of courage and resistance was published by Rough Trade Books in 2023. The title poem is on permanent display at The Peoples History Museum in Manchester. 

A new full poetry collection With Love, Grief and Fury and literary childhood memoir Springfield Road - A Poets Childhood Revisited were published together with Canongate in May 2024. 

Her poem While Justice Waits was highly commended by the Forward Prize 2024 and a live performance from With Love, Grief and Fury was recorded live at Out-Spoken at The Southbank Centre and broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s The Verb and Pick of The Week. The gorgeous paperback edition of With Love, Grief and Fury will be published in October 2025, a cover reveal and pre-order links for this will be announced very soon. 

Work in progress: The highly-anticipated second novel set in the Mrs Death Misses Death universe, The Life Of Life will be published by Canongate next summer, 2026. Latest commissioned work: a dark fiction titled Rapier will be published by the Callaloo Literary Journal in the US in spring 2025. An eerie short story I am Hagstone will be published by Vintage in Bog People - A Working Class Anthology Of Folk Horror in October 2025.

Salena Godden has contributed poetry and written a foreword for an exciting community-spirited anthology titled Poet Town - The Poets and Poetry of Hastings & Thereabouts edited by St Leonards-born poet Richard Newham-Sullivan and celebrating over 200 years of Hastings poets. This richly varied poetry collection and photography book will be published by Moth Light Press and launched with live events and a photography exhibition at Hastings Book Festival in September 2025. 

Salena Godden is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Patron of Hastings Book Festival and an Honorary Fellow of West Dean, Sussex. 

For ALL book enquiries and bookings and info please contact publishers Canongate or Film, TV and Literary agent Crystal Mahey-Morgan at OWN IT!