A BookBlast 10x10 Tour LIVE event from Waterstones Manchester (08.11.2018) Feat. Michael Schmidt, publisher, Carcanet (poetry) chair. Carcanet was conceived at Pin Farm, South Hinksey, Oxford, in 1969 by Peter Jones, Gareth Reeves and Michael Schmidt. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year.

WITH Poet, Jenny Lewis, who teaches poetry at Oxford University.

AND London-born poet, Jane Draycott, who lives in Oxfordshire and is a tutor on postgraduate writing programmes at Oxford University and the University of Lancaster.

Topics: The launch of Carcanet's new classics series; revisioning the classics through women's eyes; Jenny Lewis describes the oldest written story (in Sumerian cuneiform) loosely based on the historical King Gilgamesh who ruled Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) in 2700 BC; how the epic of Gilgamesh was changed as society and culture became more patriarchal, for example godesses who had huge power were demoted or turned into gods; momentum is a key component of the epic narrative; Henrik Ibsen's version; public readings of the infamous sex scene over 6 days and 7 nights; Jane Draycott describes 'Pearl', one of the poems in the unique manuscript which includes 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'; a meditative, perfected piece with one single narrator; the figure of the lost infant girl, the lost pearl; how the manuscript in The British Library displays it as a work which speaks to us today as a very powerful exploration of the psychology of grief and bereavement; continuum of the idea of the afterlife; readings with audience participation. Title focus: 'Gilgamesh' and 'Pearl' – available from www.carcanet.co.uk

Presented by Georgia de Chamberet | Produced by Ben Fiagbe.

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