North Wales International Poetry Festival

I spent last Sunday in a surprisingly sunny Mold, North Wales. I had been invited by Zoë Skoulding to a lunch held in Mold Town Hall for the poets who were part of the North Wales International Poetry Festival. The lunch consisted of dishes made using locally sourced ingredients (I wish I had asked for recipes) and I got to sample Snowdonia Ale courtesy of the Purple Moose brewery.
It was great to meet Zoë, who was one of the judges of the Poetry Wales Purple Moose competition, and she presented me with my prize after the lunch. I was also given the chance to do a first reading of poems from my pamphlet, Maps and Love Song for Mina Loy.
After lunch I went up to Clwyd Theatr for a reading given by the international poets. This was a tri-lingual event as each poet read in their mother-tongue as well as having Welsh and English translations of their poems. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to listen to the sounds of all these languages including Spanish, Greek, German, Chinese and Polish.
I was especially pleased to chat to Katerina Iliopoulou from Greece, who told me how she has been translating Mina Loy into Greek - I would love to hear that performed some time!

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