When : 9th April 2008 - 7:00pm
Where : Old Abbey Inn
Price : Free

A new evening of innovative/experimental poetry in Manchester, in association with Openned, the highly successful London reading series. The first evening features readings by Alan Halsey, Tom Jenks and Geraldine Monk. Subsequent events will take place on the first Wednesday of every second month. Website: http://www.openned.com/manchester

Alan Halsey was born in London, Alan Halsey ran The Poetry Bookshop in Hay-on-Wye 1979-96. Halsey now lives in Sheffield. He also works as a graphic artist and book designer and has been the publisher of West House Books since 1994. He has had many poetry collections published, including the recent Marginalien (Five Seasons 2005) and Not Everything Remotely: Selected Poems 1978-2005 (Salt 2006).

Tom Jenks was born in Sunderland and now lives, works and writes in Manchester. He is the founding editor of Parameter Magazine (www.parametermagazine.org <http://www.parametermagazine.org/> ) and has had a mini-series published by Matchbox called Omens. His first collection, A Priori, is out now from if p then q.

Geraldine Monk was born in Blackburn in 1952, Geraldine Monk escaped school in 1967, escaped factories in 1969, escaped Leeds in 1974. She moved to Staithes, North Yorkshire for 10 years of 'splendid isolation', some very odd jobs and an increasing preoccupation with reading and writing poetry. She has a BA in English Studies from Sheffield Hallam University, was visiting lecturer in Creative Writing & Communication Studies at Chesterfield College of Art, 1992-1995, and was creative writer at St. Luke's Hospice, 1992-1999. Her Selected Poems were published in 2003 by Salt.

Tom Jenks