Book Launch: Hongwei Bao, Self-Portrait as a Banana

Get ready for a night of poetic magic from a fantastic variety of feature poets. With a special extended feature with the star of the show, HONGWEI BAO, we are in for a night of queer power and joy, from China to the UK, where family and relationships cut to the heart of the matter.

Not only that, but he will be joined by phenomenal special guests ROBERT HAMBERGER, GREGORY WOODS and MARIA JASTRZĘBSKA.And... yes, more!... Our regular host ASHLEY EDGE will be joined by the one and only FAY ROBERTS!On top of this fantastic news, to really astound you: it’s completely FREE to attend!Having said that, we do encourage you to purchase a copy of Hongwei's stunning collection! Due for release on 27th September, you can have it in good time for the launch (how handy!).

Pre-order available before then here: https://amzn.eu/d/e1HHWLs

SELF PORTRAIT AS A BANANA

"Hongwei Bao's latest collection,Self-Portrait as a Banana, is a candid exploration of his queer, diasporic, East Asian identity and cross-cultural relationships. Appropriating, subverting and queering cultural tropes like the banana, rice and beckoning cat, and identities such as queerness and Chineseness, this is a powerful journey. A bold, humorous and refreshing celebration of queer desire, identity and cultural differences."

www.poeticedgepublishers.com

BIOS:

Hongwei Bao

Hongwei Bao (he/him) is a Nottingham-based queer Chinese writer, translator and academic. He is part of the Fifth Word Playwrights, GOBS Spoken Word Collective and Nottingham Playhouse Writers' Room. He is also a Middle Way Mentee for writing fiction and a New Earth Theatre theatremaker. His work explores queer desire, Asian identity, diasporic positionality and transcultural intimacy.

Hongwei is the author of Dream of the Orchid Pavilion (poetry pamphlet, Big White Shed, 2024), The Passion of the Rabbit God (poetry collection, Valley Press, 2024) and Queering the Asian Diaspora (nonfiction, Sage, 2024). His short story ‘A Postcard from Berlin’ was a runner-up for the Plaza Prize for Microfiction in 2023.

Hongwei has performed poetry at Bad Betty Live, City Arts Nottingham, Dandelions Poetry, DIY Poetry, ESEA Authors LitFest, ESA NE Newcastle, Five Leaves Bookshop, Fluent in Both, Lighthouse Bookshop Edinburgh, Kif Kif Antwerp, Nottingham Central Library, Nottingham Poetry Festival, Nottingham Playhouse, Notts Poetry, Nowhere Netherlands, Paper Crane Poetry, Prague Pride, Shaded Writers, Speech Therapy, and The Common Press London.

Instagram: @patrickbao77

Bluesky: @queercomrades

Robert Hamberger

Robert Hamberger has been shortlisted and highly commended for Forward prizes, appearing in the Forward Book of Poetry 2020. He has been awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship and won The London Magazine Poetry Prize 2023. His poetry has featured as the Guardian Poem of the Week and in British, American, Irish and Japanese anthologies. He has published six poetry pamphlets and four full-length collections. Blue Wallpaper (Waterloo Press) was shortlisted for the 2020 Polari Prize. His prose memoir with poems A Length of Road: finding myself in the footsteps of John Clare was published by John Murray in 2021. His website is www.roberthamberger.co.uk

Gregory Woods

Gregory Woods is the author of six poetry collections from Carcanet Press, the latest being An Ordinary Dog (2011) and Records of an Incitement to Silence (2021). His booklet, They Exchange Glances: Gay Modernist Poems in Translation (2024), is with Hercules Editions. His cultural histories include Articulate Flesh: Male Homo-eroticism and Modern Poetry (1987), A History of Gay Literature (1998) and Homintern: How Gay Culture Liberated the Modern World (2016), all from Yale University Press. For nine years he chaired the gender studies expert panel on the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH) project, for the European Science Foundation.

Maria Jastrzębska

Maria Jastrzębska has published 5 full length poetry collections including Small Odysseys

(Waterloo Press 2022), At The Library Of Memories (2013) Waterloo Press and The True Story of Cowboy Hat and Ingénue (2018) Cinnamon Press. Her selected poems were translated into Polish with Stowarzyszenie Żywych Poetów and Romanian with Integral Contemporary Press. She translated Justyna Bargielska’s The Great Plan B (Smokestack 2017) and has co-edited various anthologies, among them Queer in Brighton (New Writing South 2014) with Anthony Luvera. Her own poems are widely anthologised. She worked on Speaking Solidarity an anti-bullying project for young people. www.mariajastrzebska.com

Fay Roberts:

Fay Roberts is a performance poet, a musician, a storyteller, an events host, an award-winning voice actor, former Artistic Director for Spoken Word at PBH’s Free Fringe, and an enormous geek. During weekdays, ze persuades people to make lists and say no to shiny things. For every role, there is a different hat, and a spreadsheet to match. Zir first full collection, Spectral, came out with Burning Eye in March 2022, and ze describes it as “a kind of poetry concept album, with illustrations”.

Ashley Edge:

Ashley (they/xe) is a Staffordshire-based poet, with a Cheshire twang and Spanish heart. Writing from the soul, their poetry is a bag of diverse All Sorts. Their collection 'Those Days, These Days" was released in 2020 and they've been published in multiple anthologies, on BBC Upload, National Poetry Day and more. Chief Editor at Poetic Edge Publishers, tutor, workshop facilitator and event host, xe embraces every part of their AuDHD!

Socials: @ashleyedge.poet / www.poeticedgepublishers.com / @poeticedgepublishers

No hate will be tolerated. So no racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism. Equality, equity and diversity are not just words.

***PLEASE USE AN AUTHENTICATED ZOOM ACCOUNT (LOGGED-IN) AND DISPLAY YOUR NAME WHEN JOINING THE EVENT. IT MUST MATCH THE NAME ON THE TICKET. ENTRY WILL BE REFUSED WITHOUT THIS***