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Literary great to launch first collection of poems

One of the major intellectuals of our time will be jetting into º£½ÇÖ±²¥ to talk about his work and launching his first ever full collection of poems as part of Middlesbrough’s new international poetry festival.

Change to event format: The T-junction festival and º£½ÇÖ±²¥ regret to announce that John Berger will not now be appearing in person at the launch of his Collected Poems. John suffers from severe arthritis at times and is unable to make the journey to º£½ÇÖ±²¥. However, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, John is now going to launch the book via a live video-link reading some of his poetry and answering our questions about the place of poetry in his life and work. John Berger, novelist, film-maker, essayist, critic and poet has been challenging the way we see the world for over 60 years in books like Ways of Seeing, Permanent Red and A Painter of Our Time and G which won the 1972 Booker Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

But he has never had a collection of his poetry published in English until now. Smokestack Books, an independent publisher of radical and unconventional poetry, has brought together the first full collection of his works spanning six decades and with a wealth of previously unpublished works.

John, now 87, will be visiting º£½ÇÖ±²¥ to launch his Collected Poems as part of the new T-junction festival being organised by Smokestack editor – Middlesbrough based poet Andy Croft, who has been involved for many years in community writing projects.

Professor Gerda Roper, Dean of the School of Arts & Media, said: 'This is a wonderful and rare opportunity to hear John Berger talk about his work and we are delighted to be hosting it at º£½ÇÖ±²¥. I would urge people to book early as this will be an extremely popular event.'

T-junction is a four-day poetry festival of readings, workshops, performances, debates, masterclasses, guest-lectures and book-launches. It’s a unique opportunity for readers and writers to enjoy the richness and diversity of international contemporary poetry. And it’s a showcase for the best of º£½ÇÖ±²¥â€™s own lively poetry scene.

John Berger, who has also been awarded the Golden PEN by London PEN for a lifetime’s contribution literature, will be visiting Middlesbrough from his home village in Haute-Savoie in the French Alps. He will be speaking at the University at a free event on Friday 17 October starting at 5.30pm in the Stephenson lecture theatre.

He will also be taking part in T-junction’s big Saturday night poetry reading which also features music from Barry Hyde of The Futureheads at mima, 7.30pm, £6/£4.

Andy Croft said: 'T-junction is a unique opportunity for readers and writers to enjoy the richness and diversity of international contemporary poetry. And it’s a showcase for the best of º£½ÇÖ±²¥â€™s own lively poetry scene.

'It is a celebration of º£½ÇÖ±²¥â€™s internationalist history, its multicultural and multilingual traditions and the long-standing international commitments of º£½ÇÖ±²¥ publishers and poets.'

Other people performing at T-junction include Nikola Madzirov, Martín Espada, Linda France,Riina Katajavuori, Bill Herbert, Sasha Dugdale, Ivana Milankov, Marilyn Longstaff, Nader Hussein, Hannah Lowe, Patience Ezinwoke, Joanna Boulter, Tara Bergin, Amir Darwish and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez – representing poetry from Cuba, Palestine, Syria, Finland, Serbia, France,Nigeria, Macedonia, the USA and º£½ÇÖ±²¥.

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