Mark Connors - author and poet
Ilkley Literature Festival's Open Mic winner for 2014 and 2015!
"Mark Connors' poems trace an enjoyable, sharp, often lyrical path through Irish paternal roots, growing up in seventies Leeds, step fatherhood and the things that suffer the breaks along the way in a life - hearts, crockery, snooker…There's humour and nostalgia among the everyday dread and death and dreams of America. There are puffins with hair like Ray Reardon's and a soaring that sets in every time birds come up, as they often do. Any time despair threatens: 'Even Gods can't change the past/so what chance do I have?' then words carry hopes on wings to repair another day because as Connors so brilliantly shows us: 'Sometimes poems like to follow/their own paths don't they?'"
Kate Fox
Nothing is Meant to be Broken
Available from 24th March 2017 from Stairwell Books
"These poems come dancing at you with a light step, but sock a knuckle-duster punch. Wired, but taut as the best jokes well-told, the poems shunt time and emotions around in unpredictable configurations. Connors keeps coming on." Peter Spafford
"An utterly generous collection. Mark opens up all of his landscapes – personal, political, geographical – and invites us in. From Leeds to Mull and Donegal via the highways of Arizona and beyond, these poems radiate a warmth – and an easy, quiet skill – which always holds the reader close. Loss, marathon running, murder, birds and Brexit, Mark approaches all his subjects with honesty, humour, and deep respect, until it seems he can find meaning – or a redemptive beauty – in anything. The result is a collection which resonates and lingers" Clare Shaw
"Well crafted and laced with humour, this is a mustang of a collection – wild and beautiful." Brett Evans
The NOTHING IS MEANT TO BE BROKEN Tour Autumn/Winter 2017
Thursday 26th October • York Explore, York
York Explore Library, Library Square, YO1 7DS. 7.00 pm
Friday 13th October • Ilkley Literature Festival Fringe, Ilkley
Ilkley Playhouse, Wildman Theatre, Weston Road, LS29 8DW. 9.30 pm
Wednesday 4th October • Spire Writes, Chesterfield
Chesterfield Labour Club, Unity House, 113 Saltergate, S40 1NF. 7.30 pm
More details and dates TBA
The NOTHING IS MEANT TO BE BROKEN Tour Spring/Summer 2017
Saturday 26th August • Jackanory, Wakefield
Westgate Studios, 55 Westgate. WF1 1BW. 2.00 pm
Wednesday 26th July • Rhubarb, Shipley
The Triangle. 47 Bradford Road, BD18 3DS. 7.30 pm
Thursday 20th July • Away With Words, Hull
Union Mash Up, 24 Princes Avenue, HU5 3QA. 7.30 pm
Thursday 6th July • Spoken Weird, Halifax
Victorian Craft Beer Café, Powell Street. HX1 1LN. 7.30 pm
Tuesday 20th June • Sale Out Loud, Sale
Waterside Arts Centre, Waterside Plaza, M33 7ZF. 7.30 pm
Thursday 15th June • The Stanza, North Shields
Beldons, The Exchange, Howard Street, NE30 1EW. 7.30 pm
Sunday 21st May • York Explore, York
York Explore, Museum Street, YO1 7DS. 1.45 pm
Thursday 18th May • Duke of York, York
Duke of York, 3-4 King Square, YO1. 7.00 pm
Thursday 11th May • Shaken in Sheeptown, Skipton
Bojangles, Newmarket Street, BD22 2HR. 7.30 pm
Monday 8th May • Puzzle Hall Poets, Sowerby Bridge
The Blind Pig, 4 Tower Hill, HX6 2EQ. 7.30 pm
Wednesday 26th April • Unity Words, Wakefield
Unity Works Café Bar, Westgate, WF1 1EP. 7.00 pm
Tuesday 25th April • Working Title, Lancaster
The Three Mariners, Bridge Lane, LA1 1EE. 7.30 pm
Wednesday 19th April – • Poems, Prose & Pints, Harrogate
The North Bar, Cheltenham Parade, HG1 1DA. 7.30 pm
Wednesday 5th April • WordSpace, Horsforth
The Hop Shack, New Road Side. LS18 4QD. 7.30 pm
Friday 24th March • Headingley Literature Festival, Leeds
The Chemic Tavern, LS6 2NG. 7.30 pm