Bird calls, feathers and extreme flights of fancy

The Rockhoppers -- left to right: Annie, Jackie, Mel and Maggie.

I’m pleased to be part of the newly formed poetic foursome, The Rockhoppers. We had our debut gig on National Poetry Day 2016 as guest hosts of the monthly poetry event at the famous Dylan Thomas watering hole, The Brown’s, in Laugharne.

The Rockhoppers is a group of four poets based in west Wales. Annie, Jackie, Maggie and Mel are four strong distinctive individual poetic voices. They also work well together and collaborate to produce innovative and sometimes surreal pieces for performance. They have a strange and unexplained affiliation to small penguins.

Here's the link to our intro at the Words& gig on November 30th at Aberystywth Arts Centre:

https://youtu.be/IEJynA8R1Lo

And here are some comments from audience members after The Rockhoppers'  gig at 

The Brown’s:

‘Surreal, musical, sublime!’

‘They play off each other very well’

‘Excellent, varied’

‘Lovely mix of styles, very amusing’

‘Fantastic combination in the last piece, great evening.’

Annie Butler

Born and educated in Cardiff, Anne Marie Butler worked as a civil servant. Her career took her to west Wales where she also studied Fine Art and Design. She now works as a landscape artist, book illustrator and writer.  Her written work fetes the everyday. She shares a natural awareness of the rural landscape and relies upon nature and people to inspire her.  Her poems reveal clear observations, together with exploration and experimentation with the surreal.  She is currently working on her first collection of illustrated poems.

Jackie Biggs

After a successful career as a journalist and editor, Jackie Biggs started writing poetry five years ago.  Her first collection, The Spaces in Between was published in September 2015 by Pinewood Press (Swansea). She has also had poetry published in many magazines and anthologies. She reads her work at spoken word events all over west Wales – and anywhere else that will have her.

contact:  jackienews@hotmail.co.uk

Maggie Harris

Maggie Harris writes poetry and prose. Caribbean roots and Kentish shoots now growing in west Wales. Proper jobs have included teaching Creative Writing and an International Fellowship at Southampton University. Maggie has won the Guyana Prize twice for poetry and the Commonwealth Prize for a short story. Now loiters in gardens and cafes and anywhere that accepts poets. 

Mel Perry
Mel is a writer and spoken word performer from Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire, and is a frequent visitor to the north Wales island of Bardsey. She is a regular performer at spoken word events and is a member of the Coracle- Kultivera residency in Tranås, Sweden through which she is co-delivering writing workshops on line for Swedish young people.  Her poetry and short stories appear in a range of publications including Two Thirds North from Stockholm University. In 2016 she collaborated with Carmarthen Symphonic Wind Band to perform her Bardsey poetry to music.

Mel is now also studying for an MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes.

to contact the Rockhoppers please email Jackie:

jackienews@hotmail.co.uk