UK Launch of Andrew Jamison's new poetry book: Stay

On Tuesday 24th October, a small crowd gathered at Mostly Books for the UK launch of Andrew Jamison's new poetry book, Stay.  The book has been five years in the making and covers a range of subjects from a commissioned poem for his Andrew's new nephew to some time whiled away in Paris and.

The event was attended by poetry enthusiasts and newbies alike, including a young boy who attends the school where Andrew teaches and is a massive poetry fan.  After everyone grabbed a drink (kindly provided by Jill at Added Ingredients), Andrew captured their attention from the word go as soon as he started to delve into his work.  There is something quite magical about hearing poetry read by the poet himself and Andrew soon had the entire room under his spell.

Interspersing readings from his book with talk about how it came to fruition and the inspiration behind his poems, Andrew took us on a journey across the three sequences contained within the book.

After 45 minutes of readings, Andrew was asked some questions before finishing the formal part of the evening and starting on the book signing.  There was a lovely atmosphere in the shop all evening as people met for the first time and chatted about all things poetry, books and life in general. 

As the evening drew to a close, people started to drift off and we were all left with a feeling of having attended something really quite special. 

A tweet from one of our bookshop regulars who came to the event as a poetry newbie really summed it up: "The ace @MostlyReading strikes again!  Poetry scares me, but @Andrew_Jamison made it good."

A huge thanks to Andrew and his publisher, Gallery Press, for giving us the opportunity to host his UK launch.  After hearing him read, there is no question why Stay has recently been voted book of the week on US poetry website: Poetry Daily.