Trowbridge Stanza Presents Beth Brooke and Gordon Vells

Join the Trowbridge Stanza at Drawing Projects UK to hear from two poets, Beth Brooke and Gordon Bells, followed by a Q&A on Saturday 6 September at 2pm.

Our first event of the autumn will be a glorious Dorset double-header. We’ll enjoy poems from two fantastic featured poets, followed by a Q&A.

Beth Brooke was born in the Middle East, where she spent the important years of her childhood, but now lives in Dorchester. Beth is the author of four poetry books. Her 2023 pamphlet Transformations is a collection of ekphrastic poetry inspired by the sculptures of Elizabeth Frink, while Chalk Stories, published the same year, celebrates the Dorset landscape. In 2025, Beth was joint winner of the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize for her collection A Long Way Down, which has just been published. The collection explores what it means to return from war, both through her father’s letters, and through Beth’s own memories of a childhood in Germany, Libya and Yemen. A retired teacher, Beth now volunteers at the Dorset Museum and loves to run (when her pesky sciatic injury allows). She has two grown up sons and a beautiful grandson.

Trowbridge Stanza regular Gordon Vells is a writer and translator from Gillingham whose poems tend to focus on nature and landscape, albeit frequently shot through with absurd or quirky tangents. His work has appeared in journals including And Other Poems, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Hooghly Review and Flights, and he has published three full-length collections: Plundered by Lobsters (2019), Wasp Disentanglement for Beginners (2022) and The Stoat–Weasel Interface (2025) which is probably the world’s first mustelid-centric poetry collection.

We’ll have readings from both poets, a Q&A, and plenty of time for a tea / coffee / cake break! Arthaus Coffee at Drawing Projects UK is open until 3pm.

Trowbridge Stanza has no formal membership list, and we welcome everyone to our events at Drawing Projects (by advance booking only please). We pride ourselves on the friendly, encouraging atmosphere at our events, and in order to maintain this, we ask that you read the Poetry Society’s Code of Conduct for Stanzas before joining us for the first time.

The booking fee covers the room booking and Eventbrite fee. If, and only if you can afford to, please also consider supporting our poets by buying a book or throwing some cash in the bucket to contribute to travel costs on the day! Thank you :-)

We look forward to seeing you!

Abut the Trowbridge Stanza : stablished in 2016, it is a Poetry Society Stanza that meets every first Saturday at Drawing Projects UK in Trowbridge. Poetry Society Stanzas are poetry groups run voluntarily by members of the Poetry Society. Although several of the group belong to the Poetry Society, there is no obligation for anyone to join. More information about Poetry Society Stanza Memorandum of Understanding including their Code of Conduct can be found here.

Everyone is welcome to this friendly and inclusive group, a mixture of published and unpublished poets, with an age range of 16+ to 80+, who travel to Drawing Projects UK (next to Trowbridge train station) from all over the south west region. The session starts at 2pm and runs from 2pm to 4pm, please arrive promptly.

Please note this is a back up Eventbrite page as we are experiencing issues with log in to our main account for Drawing Projects UK.