Award-Winning Poet And Author Joelle Taylor to Join 2022 Edition of The Gallion

TS Eliot Prize-winning poet Joelle Taylor will make a special guest appearance at the launch event of the annual anthology of new writing from the University of East London (UEL) creative writing students.

The award-winning poet, playwright, author and editor will join students at the 2022 edition of The Gallion which this year wrestles with the theme of Identity.

Written and edited by UEL students from the School of Arts and Creative Industries, the range of work will take audiences from surreal ditties to crime thrillers, from lyric essays to Young Adult science fiction and more. Alongside this, the contributors to the anthology have collaborated with UEL MA Acting and MA Theatre Directing students to create new productions as eclectic, diverse and creative as the students themselves.

The student performances will be followed by a special appearance from Taylor who will perform works from her latest collection, the 2021 TS Eliot Prize-winning C+nto, which explores sexuality and gender in poetry.

Described by TS Eliot Prize Chair of Judges Glyn Maxwell as "a blazing book of rage and light" C+nto is a rousing paean to and despairing elegy for the butch lesbian counterculture at a time of rising hostility, prejudice and violence towards the LGBT+ community. In her foreword to the book, Taylor says, "I wanted both to acknowledge the crimes against the LGBT+ community and reflect back to a time when we had a greater sense of unity, of self."

A tireless advocate for poetry's power to change lives, Taylor is the founder and artistic director of The Poetry Society's national youth slam championships SLAMbassadors. She has helped bring poets including Anthony Anaxagorou, Jay Bernard, Kayo Chingonyi and Vanessa Kisuule to the fore.

"Poetry and spoken word have a powerful transformational effect on young people," she says, "[poems] allow us to ask ourselves difficult questions and provide a platform for our awkward answers, to hold silence and to break it."

The Gallion 2022 Book Launch: "Identity", with special guest Joelle Taylor, takes place on Thursday, 12 May, from 6pm to 10pm at Main Lecture Theatre, University Square Stratford (USS) Building, 1 Salway Road, London E15 1NF. Open to all.

Tickets are FREE but must be booked via Eventbrite in advance to ensure entry.

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gallion-2022-book-launch-identity-tickets-327936736607

Photo credit: Roman Manfredi