[Katy Evans-Bush]

Oxfam, the UK-based international charity, is about to publish its second CD of poets reading their work. The first one has raised £50,000 since last year! Anyway, I'm in it - and very happy about that! - reading a sonnet called "Our Passion."

Anyone in the UK can easily buy the CD, which includes some big names; they are sold in all Oxfam shops at £4.99 each. I'm not reading at the launch event, but if you are in or near London, the details are:

Readings by Dannie Abse, Sujata Bhatt, Siobhan Campbell,
Elaine Feinstein, Attila the Stockbroker,
John Hartley Williams and Wayne Smith.

Hosted by Todd Swift

Thursday 18th October at 7pm

The Poets’ Church
St Giles in the Field
60 St Giles High St

Holborn, London
Tottenham Court Rd Tube Station


Collection in aid of The Darfur Appeal
Oxfam works with others to overcome poverty and suffering.

PS - Oh, and as Peter Coghill points out in General Announcements, my long article on MacNeice's "Autumn Journal" is now up at Contemporary Poetry Review. Phew! I also review WS Merwin and the English poet Frances Presley in the next issue of "Poetry London," which is launched on the 17th.

[David Landrum]

Wow, Katie. Congratulations. I hope we can get it in the States. Would love to hear you read. And it's for a very worthy cause.

Congratulations, again, on everything.

David

[Rose Kelleher]

That's wonderful, Katy. And they say poetry makes nothing happen. Ha! £50,000 is not nothing! Congrats.

[Clive Watkins]

What an enviable work-rate, Katy! Well done!

Clive

[Catherine Chandler]

Katy, Congratulations on this. It's wonderful to know that poetry is contributing to such a worthy cause. As David said, I hope it will become available in North America.

Catherine

[Quincy Lehr]

Katy--

Can't make the Oxfam reading (a bit of a schlepp), but it's great to see the momentum building for you. The MacNeice piece was really, really good. Do you know if the CD will be on Amazon at all?

Quincy

[Maryann Corbett]

Katy, thanks for the news of this genuine accomplishment.

I can't find the CPR thread now, or I'd put this there: I'm enjoying the MacNeice review very much, and I've been motivated at last to start reading "Autumn Journal" after hearing folks here say so much about it.

(In case there's anyone else who hasn't read the poem yet, look here )

[Katy Evans-Bush]

Thanks, everybody.

Clive, I'm glad you think so! It's all been in the pipeline for a long time.

David, Rose & Catherine, yes, it is good to think of poetry contributing to something good. Catherine, the person to thank for that is Todd Swift, a Canadian poet who has been Poet in Residence at Oxfam's Bookshop in Marylebone High St for the past four years - he has worked incredibly hard running high-profile readings four times a year, as well as organising not one but two CDs, in partnership with the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB)!

Catherine & Quincy, not sure how easy it is to get from the USA, or if it's on Amazon. A brief look at the Oxfam website wasn't very helpful. I'll drop a note to the nice lady at Oxfam and see what she says.

Quincy and Maryann, I'm thrilled (and relieved) that you like my MacNeice piece! And if it's making you read AJ, Maryann, all the better. I love that poem. Great link, I should have come to you when I was researching it and didn;t want to carry around my Collected!

KEB