Multilingual Poets Network and IMLD with Manchester Poetry Library

It was wonderful to be selected as a founding member of the Multilingual Poets Network at Manchester Poetry Library.

We are a small group, and our sessions have been very relaxed and flexible, with lots of chatting and listening, learning about each other’s languages and poetry, sharing our work, and offering each other feedback.

My poem ‘Cor marant’, exploring the etymology of the word ‘Cormorant’, is one that I shared and workshopped with the group, and was later accepted for publication in Under the Radar, which felt really special to me.

I was also invited to perform at the International Mother Language Day (IMLD) open mic night with a wider group of writers (pictured). This was a really lovely event, with poetry in so many languages, and everyone supporting each other.

As a keen linguist (I speak and teach English, French and Spanish, am a long-time learner of Mandarin Chinese, and have some Irish), I love to be able to combine different languages, and explore linguistics and the concept of language itself, in my poetry.