These Are Strange Times?(Shamloo): Living In Unsettling Times.
Gregory Spis a poet and a writer. His flagship poem, ?Short-feature tattoos? won him an award in London. He translated from Italian into Polish Le avventure di Guizzardi by Gianni Celati. He is a member of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad and two poetry groups: KaMPe & 4th Floor in POSK, Hammersmith, as well as Croydon Poets. Recently interviewed he read some of his poems on Radio Croydon.
Catherine Temma Davidson is an American writer who has lived in London since 1992; she is a novelist and poet who has published two pamphlets in the UK and won poetry awards on both sides of the Atlantic, most recently a 2016 commendation in the Troubadour International Poetry Prize and this year’s Free Verse. A child of a Greek Orthodox mother and Jewish father, married to an English husband, she often writes about identity, belonging and being a citizen of the place in-between.
Peter Godismo, a Nigerian poet now living in London. He has published three books: ?A Snake in the King?s Palace?, ?Chains and Rings? and ?Miffed? and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. His poems cover a wide range of issues, from love, hate, identity, tradition and governance. Peter belongs to Exiled Writers Ink, London Poetry Society, and The Artisan in the UK. He is a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Abuja literary Society(ALS), Guild of Artistes and Poets in Nigeria.
Hamdi Khalif is a poet originally from Somalia. While new on the poetry scene, she recently joined the Bards Without Borders collective, London poets from migrant and refugee backgrounds who are creating a response to Shakespeare to mark the 400th anniversary of his death. Hamdi?s poems are a fusion of both English and Somali, not only in terms of language but also in ideas and identity, covering a range of themes from loss to womanhood.
David Clark, this evening?s host, is the child of refugees, grew up in England, Italy, and Austria, studied anthropology in Canada and East Africa. He has edited the Poetry Page for Second Generation Voices and was on the editorial committee of Exiled Ink. His poems have been published in Contemporary writers of Poland, Flying Between Words, edited by Danuta Blaszak and Anna Maria Mickiewicz (2015) and in Second Generation Voices.