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The University of Gloucestershire supports Cheltenham Poetry Festival for a fourth year

The University of Gloucestershire are supporting Cheltenham Poetry Festival for a fourth year and the partnership between University and Festival is “priceless” according to Festival Director Anna Saunders.

The University have supported the festival’s activities since 2012 and this year will be behind a showcase of short fiction at the festival – in an event entitled Flash.

The event incorporates a showcase of new writing by students on the Creative Writing Course and a reading by visiting award-winning writer Tania Hershman.

The event is just one of the ways the University has partnered with the Festival. The alliance is also responsible for the programming of talks by lecturers from the University. At this year’s festival English Lecturer John Hughes will be talking about Bob Dylan, Head of Creative Writing Nigel Mcloughlin will exploring the poetry of WB Yeats and Professor Paul Innes will offer a introduction to Shakespeare’s Roman plays.

“Our partnership with the University of Gloucestershire is priceless,” Festival Director Anna Saunders said. “As well as supporting festival events as a sponsor, the University has enriched the programme by enabling us to offer events headed up members of their teaching staff. This has made for a very inspiring programme of talks and readings.”

Mike Johnstone, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire said: “The Cheltenham Poetry Festival is one of the highlights of Gloucestershire’s arts calendar, and we’re thrilled that our students are participating. It’s a great opportunity for them to test their work in front of a live audience. Flash fiction is a growing genre which demands that authors compress whole stories into micro form. The challenge we set our students was to write their stories in under 150 words; to cram the big dramas of human being into a paragraph isn’t easy, and I’m delighted with the work that they’ve produced.”

Information about all events is available on the Poetry Festival website. Flash runs on Tuesday 10 May 2016 at 8:00pm at Smokey Joes.