Speakeasy Online Poetry Evening
Presented by Super Culture and The Write Box
For our 23rd Speakeasy we welcome Irish born guest poet Pratibha Castle, reading from her latest acclaimed pamphlet, ‘Miniskirts in The Waste Land’, a powerful narrative of what it’s like to be a young woman (who happens to be Catholic) in the midst of the sexual revolution from 1964 to 73 – TS Eliot meets the 60s & 70s!
“Castle’s hit a true vein of universal experience. No-one has mapped it more precisely or with such exact feeling, heartbreak, evocative detail or truth”. Simon Jenner, Director, Survivors’ Poetry
The evening will also host the ever-popular open mic sessions with MCs Sue Hill & Bob Walton at The Write Box. The open mic spots, bookable in advance, are for single-poem readings (40 lines max) – book your ticket then email becky@superculture.org.uk if you are interested in sharing your poem.
For more information about creative adventures in writing with The Write Box, email thewritebox15@gmail.com.
Pratibha Castle Bio
Pratibha Castle, an Irish born poet of working-class background, lives in West Sussex. Widely published – nationally and internationally – in journals and anthologies including Agenda, London Grip, High Window Ink Sweat &Tears, International Times, One Hand Clapping, Orbis, Spelt, Stand and Tears In The Fence, amongst others, she has been longlisted and given special mention in numerous competitions including Indigo Press Spring Competition, Repton Festival, King Lear, Bray Festival, Binsted Arts, Brian Dempsey Memorial Award, Gloucester Poetry Society, Slipstream and the Welsh Poetry Competitions. The title poem in her latest pamphlet Miniskirts in The Waste Land (Hedgehog Press), a Poetry Book Society winter selection 2023, was shortlisted in The Bridport Prize 2023.
Her debut pamphlet A Triptych of Birds & A Few Loose Feathers was a joint winner in Hedgehog Press Nicely Folded Paper competition 2019. She is currently working on a collection inspired by her childhood and Irish heritage.
Aged nine, Pratibha won a writing award run by Cadburys. The following year she wrote, directed and acted in a school play to raise money for charity.
She first wrote poetry at the age of sixty while studying English and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, graduating with a first-class honours degree. She studied further on their MA in Creative Writing.
Simon Jenner writes of Miniskirts in Tears in the Fence:
“It’s difficult to convey how wonderful Miniskirts in The Waste Land is; and so different from A Triptych of Birds & A Few Loose Feathers (her first book) tonally and linguistically. If her first collection is lyrical, the second is essentially narrative, both fiendishly detailed”.