Helen Ivory Launch Readings
Helen Ivory’s sixth collection Constructing a Witch, published October 2024, fixes on the monstering and the scapegoating of women and on the fear of ageing femininity. The witch appears as the barren, child-eating hag; she is a lustful seductress luring men to a path of corruption; she is a powerful or cantankerous woman whose cursing must be silenced by force. The collection includes ten collage illustrations by Helen Ivory.
Constructing a Witch is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for Winter 2024. It follows Helen's 2019 collection The Anatomical Venus, which examines how women have been portrayed as ‘other’; as witches; as hysterics with wandering wombs and as beautiful corpses cast in wax, or on mortuary slabs in TV box sets.
Helen Ivory is a poet and visual artist. She edits the webzine Ink Sweat and Tears, and teaches for UEA/National Centre for Writing online. She has published five collections with Bloodaxe Books, with a sixth, Constructing a Witch, out in October 2024. Her fifth collection The Anatomical Venus was shortlisted for the poetry category of the East Anglian Book Awards 2019. The cover of The Anatomical Venus, which features her own artwork, won the East Anglian Writers Book by the Cover Award (East Anglian Book Awards 2019). Her work has been translated into Ukrainian, Polish, Spanish, Croatian and Greek for Versopolis. Her US retrospective, Wunderkammer: New and Selected Poems, was published by MadHat in the US in 2023. In June 2024 she won a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors, an award recognising the achievement and distinction of individual poets. She lives in Norwich.
'Helen Ivory, a highly individualistic poet and visual artist, conjures a world that is both magical and sharply real. As in freshly conceived fairy tales, everything is transmutable. She expresses the intrinsic strangenesses of life, and makes a brilliant contribution to female empowerment through poems that are disturbing, agile, and visually telling.' – Moniza Alvi, Cholmondeley Award co-judge
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
More information and booking links for many of these events coming soon. Helen Ivory will be giving a number of joint events with her husband Martin Figura.
Saturday 26 October 2024
Norwich Book Festival
Dragon Hall, Norwich
More details here.
Sun 27 October 2024, 7.30pm
Online reading and conversation with Red Door Poets (via Zoom)
Mary Mulholland talks to Helen Ivory and Martin Figura about their writing lives and inspirations.
Free online event. More information and booking here.
Sun 3 November 2024, 4.30pm
Norwich launch event for Constructing a Witch
Norwich Arts Centre, St Benedict’s Street, Norwich, NR2 4PG
Helen Ivory will be launching her new collection at Norwich Arts Centre.
Free event. More information and booking here.
Tues 5 November 2024, 7.45pm
Reading at Ouse Muse
Eagle Bookshop, Bedford MK40 2NN
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
Thurs 7 November 2024, 8pm
Reading at A Lovely Word
The Everyman Bistro, Liverpool
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
More information about A Lovely Word available here.
Sun 10 November 2024
Reading at Buzzwords, Cheltenham
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
Mon 11 November 2024, 7pm
Poetry Reading hosted by Winchester Muse
Winchester School of Art, South Building
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura.
More information on Winchester Muse here.
Wed 20 November 2024, 7pm
Reading at Five Leaves Bookshop
14a Long Row, Swann's Yard, Nottingham NG1 2DH
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
Thurs 21 November 2024, 7.30pm
Wivenhoe Poetry
The Old Grocery, Wivenhoe
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
Fri 22 November 2024
Medway River Lit Festival
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
Sun 1 December 2024, 6.30pm
Reading at CB1 Poetry
The Town & Gown Pub & Theatre, 8 Market Passage, Cambridge, CB2 3PF
Helen will be reading at the December installment of this monthly poetry evening.
Tickets £5. More detalis will be forthcoming here.
Wed 4 December 2024, 7pm
Reading with Enfield Poets
Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield EN2 9HA
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
Fri 13 December 2024, 8pm
Reading with Ware Poets
Southern Maltings, Kibes Lane, Ware, Hertfordshire SG12 7BS
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
More information here.
Monday 13 January - Saturday 18 January 2025
Arvon Residential Writing Course: Transformation and magic
Arvon, Totleigh Barton
In this course with acclaimed poets Jessica Mookherjee and Helen Ivory you will look at the transformative nature of metaphor, and how to destabilize the familiar. You will explore the held power of words such as in spells and blessings. You will consider autobiography, metaphorical truth and magical realism, going beyond literalism into the imagination, where we have the power to deconstruct and reimagine.
Prices and booking here.
Wed 26 February 2025, 7pm
Reading at Satellite of Love, Bristol
John Sebastian Lightship, Cabot Cruising Club, Bathurst Basin, Redcliffe, Bristol BS1 6SG
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
Thurs 6 March 2025, 7.30pm
Reading at Utter, Luton
The Hat Factory, Luton
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
Thurs 8 May 2025
Reading at Shrewsbury Poetry
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura
Fri 9 May 2025, 8pm
Reading at the Poets’ Café, Reading
Poets' Café, South Street, Reading
Helen will be reading with Martin Figura.
PAST EVENTS
Bloodaxe online launch reading by Dzifa Benson, Nia Davies and Helen Ivory - Monday 21 October 2024, 7pm BST
Bloodaxe hosted this free launch reading by Dzifa Benson, Nia Davies and Helen Ivory, celebrating the publication of our October 2024 titles. All three poets will be read live and discussed their work with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley. Watch the recording below.
ONLINE VIDEO
[01 March 2024]
