Liz Berry & Paddy Glackin

Until I felt it at last          the rush of squall thrilling my wing
                   and I knew my voice
was no longer words but song       black upon black.

‍I raised my throat to the wind
                                       and this is what I sang . . .
- Liz Berry, Bird

Liz Berry is an astonishing poet who has the ability to stop you in your tracks when she speaks the words of her poems, drawing on the dialect of the ‘Black Country’, her native West Midlands. A warm and true poet who describes the folkloric dimensions of nature and place with vivid observation. For The Shaking Bog, she is joined by renowned Irish fiddle player Paddy Glackin for a delicately interwoven performance of poetry and music.

Liz Berry’s extraordinary first book of poems, Black Country (Chatto 2014), described as a ‘sooty, soaring hymn to her native West Midlands’ (Guardian) garnered a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, received a Somerset Maugham Award and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award and Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2014. Liz's pamphlet The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto, 2018) was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice and the title poem won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2018.

Paddy Glackin is a founding member of The Bothy Band and is one of Ireland’s leading traditional fiddle players. ‍

“Berry’s writing often seems curiously intent on conjuring a kind of spiritual transcendence.” - The Guardian, 2014‍

“Ecstatic, quicksilver poems, ablaze with originality, curiosity and a passion for words.” - Ruth Padel

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As this event is taking place inside St Patrick's Church and inline with these guidelines, patrons can only attend the event with proof of immunity (vaccinated or recovered) in the form of a vaccine certificate.

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Click here to buy Liz Berry's book Black country from our partner, Bridge Street Books