January 2020 Literature Programme Listings plus newly announced exclusive event with Hilary Mantel o

Southbank Centre’s Literature Spring Season 2020 kicks off in January with a wide range of literature and spoken word events. The T.S. Eliot Prize Readings will be the first major highlight of the 2020 literary calendar; January also sees the return of Out-Spoken featuring award-winning poet Robin Robertson and London open-mic night The Pen-Ting Poetry brings an evening of live poetry and hip-hop to Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library.

Just announced: In an exclusive event, Hilary Mantel reveals the eagerly awaited third novel in her thrilling Thomas Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror and the Light (RFH, 6 Mar).

Full January Listings POETRY | LIVE READING | THE PEN-TING POETRY SHOWCASE

Wednesday 8 January 2020, 8pm, Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library at Royal Festival Hall, £5

London open-mic night Pen-Ting Poetry brings to the library an evening of live poetry and hip-hop with Pen-Ting founders SKY GOD and The Repeat Beat Poet. Community event Pen-Ting believes in art as a means of communication, understanding and education. Line-up to be announced.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/140117-pen-ting-poetry-showcase-2020

TALK | T.S. ELIOT PRIZE PREVIEW WITH JEREMY NOEL-TOD

Sunday 12 January 2020, 2pm - 4pm, Level 5 Function Room at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £10, Ages 16+

On the day of the T.S. Eliot Prize Readings, poetry critic Jeremy Noel-Tod will open up discussions around the ten books shortlisted for this year’s T.S. Eliot Prize in this special preview event.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/140126-ts-eliot-prize-preview-jeremy-noel-tod-2020

LIVE READING | T.S. ELIOT PRIZE READINGS

Sunday 12 January 2020, 7pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £12 - £15, Ages 16+

The T.S. Eliot Prize Readings will be the first major highlight of the 2020 literary calendar, showcasing the poets shortlisted for the 2019 prize. Hosted by Ian McMillan, the evening of poetry will offer the opportunity to hear some of the best contemporary poets in the English-speaking world reading from their own work, on the evening before the award ceremony and the announcement of the winner.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/128116-ts-eliot-prize-readings-2020

WORKSHOP | UNEARTHING QUEERNESS: A POETRY COURSE WITH RICHARD SCOTT

Monday 13 January - Monday 30 March 2020, 7pm -9pm, Blue Room at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £90, Ages 18+

Poet Richard Scott leads Unearthing Queerness, a new poetry course for Spring 2020. Over the course of 6 sessions, the course focuses on applying poetical skill to queer artefacts and also draws on Southbank Centre’s archival materials and exhibitions.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/139591-unearthing-southbank-centre-poetry-course-2020

BOOK CLUB | T.S. ELIOT BOOK CLUB

Monday 20 January 2020, 6.30pm, Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library at Royal Festival Hall, £7 (Ticket includes a glass of wine)

A week after the announcement of the T.S. Eliot Prize winners, this book club offers the opportunity to discuss the volume chosen by the judges as the best book of poetry published in the UK in 2019.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/140132-ts-eliot-prize-book-club-2020

WORKSHOP | WRITING TO UNDERSTAND CLIMATE CHANGE WITH JUDE YAWSON Monday 20 January - Monday 6 April 2020, 7pm -9pm, Sunley Pavilion & Blue Room at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £90, Ages 18+ Writer, poet and essayist Jude Yawson leads Writing to understand Climate Change, a new for Spring 2020. Over the course of 6 sessions, Yawson will offer tips on how to approach research, debate and documentary and how writing can tackle and help understand the climate crisis. The course is focussed on the history, present and future of climate change.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/139592-writing-understand-climate-change-jude-yawson-2020

POETRY | WORKSHOP | OUT-SPOKEN MASTERCLASS: JANUARY

Saturday 25 January 2020, 1pm - 4pm, Sunley Pavilion at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, £20, Ages 18+ Out-Spoken's Poetry Masterclass is a monthly three-hour weekend workshop facilitated by leading poets from the United States and the United Kingdom. Open to all ages and abilities, from beginner to the more advanced, the class aims to give anyone with an interest in poetry the chance to work with the country's most revered writers while learning some of their methods and approaches to crafting beautiful and original poetry.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/139530-out-spoken-poetry-masterclass-keith-jarrett-2020

POETRY | LIVE READING | OUT-SPOKEN: JANUARY

Thursday, 30 January 2020, 7.45pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, £7- £10, Ages 16+

Out-Spoken, one of London’s premier poetry and live music nights, which celebrates diversity of voice in writing and performance, continues its year-long residency at Southbank Centre with an evening of poetry, spoken word and world-class music hosted by poet and founder of SLAMbassadors national youth slam, Joelle Taylor and featuring the beats of DJ Sam 'Junior' Bromfield. The January edition sees award-winning poet Robin Robertson take the stage alongside further poets to be announced.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/139065-out-spoken-january-2020

EXHIBITION | POETRY | LIBRARY OF THE UNWORDS Thursday 5 December 2019 - Sunday 29 March 2020, 11am - 8pm (closed on Mondays), Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library at Royal Festival Hall, Free

The National Poetry Library marks the 30th anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s death with Library of the Unword, a new exhibition from South Korean artist Joo Yeon Park who has created new works in response to Beckett’s poems. Library of the Unwords is an exhibition of ‘writings/drawings’ in response to Beckett’s 1935 collection of poems Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates. Joo Yeon Park is an artist based in London. Her creative approach alludes to Echo’s repetition of Narcissus’ words in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/140145-library-unword-201920

#ENDS#

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press@southbankcentre.co.uk / 020 7921 0888

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Sara Oberthaler, Press Officer: sara.oberthaler@southbankcentre.co.uk

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NOTES TO EDITORS

About Southbank Centre

Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre and one of the UK's top five visitor attractions, occupying a 17 acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day.

The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to four Resident Orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and four Associate Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain).

Literature at Southbank Centre

Southbank Centre has a lively and diverse literature programme which takes place throughout the year and includes its annual London Literature Festival and biennial Poetry International festival. Featuring talks, debates, poetry, workshops, performance, live reading and more, Southbank Centre’s literature programme has played host to some of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Malorie Blackman, John le Carré, Richard Dawkins, Neil Gaiman, Malcom Gladwell, Naomi Klein, Celeste Ng, Michelle Obama, Philip Pullman and Zadie Smith.

About Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library

Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library is the largest public collection of modern poetry in the world and is housed at Southbank Centre in London. Founded by the Arts Council in 1953 and opened by poets T.S. Eliot and Herbert Read, the library contains over 200,000 items spanning from 1912 to the present day, extensive resources for poets, academics, schools and families. Hosting exhibitions and events, the library is free to use www.nationalpoetrylibrary.org.uk