The Centre

The Centre for Modern Poetry provides a rich research environment for staff and students working in the field of Modern and Contemporary poetry and poetics. Staff affiliated to the Centre include David Ayers, David Herd, Ariane Mildenberg, Jan Montefiore, Simon Smith and Sarah Wood. We stage a range of regular events, including reading groups, research seminars and performances. In 2010 we hosted Charles Olson 2010, an international conference to mark Olson’s centenary, and in 2011 we helped found Sounds New Poetry, an international poetry event associated with Canterbury’s longstanding Sounds New music festival. In 2012 the Centre will contribute to the European Avant-Garde and Modernism Conference to be hosted at the University of Kent in September. Over the past few years we have been glad to welcome leading poets, scholars and critics to give talks, readings, lectures and workshops. Recent visiting speakers and performers have included: Peter Gizzi, Marilyn Hacker, Michael Heller, John Kinsella, Tony Lopez, Redell Olsen, Richard Price, Matthew Welton.