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Derry-Londonderry Clipper Festival

As part of the Poetry Parnassus UK Tour, which sees some of the poets who participated in Poetry Parnassus take part in events at different locations around the UK, I'll be at the Derry-Londonderry Clipper Festival this coming Thursday and Friday (5-6 July).

Yachts and crew competing in the Clipper 11-12 International Yacht Race started arriving in Derry-Londonderry on 29 June at the end of the transatlantic leg of the race, and the city welcomes them with a 10-day festival. Part of the festival programme is the 'Songs of the Sea' event, hosted by the Verbal Arts Centre, which features sessions with thirteen Poetry Parnassus poets (Imruh Bakari, Maureen Roberts, Andra Simons, Dhabiya Khamis, Selina Marsh, Saradha Soobrayen, Kate Kilalea, Gerður Kristny, Soleiman Adel Guemar, Zahir Al-Ghafri, Adbullahi Botan Hassan, Rocío Cerón and myself) who represent nations with close links to the sea.

For this I'll be doing a 1-hour workshop on 5 July, right beside where the boats are moored on Queens Quay, during which participants will compose a collaborative poem around the event title and festival theme - and will then take part in a 'Literary Deathmatch' reading at the Verbal Arts Centre (complete with a Eurovision Song Contest-style voting system and heats and semi-finals and finals...) the following evening, 6 July.

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