Online Festival for Cornish Poet Charles Causley

My roots go back to Cornwall.

One of my poems, which will appear in my new book Walking Underwater, explores my search for my Cornish connections: “Walking My Name Back Home.” My name belonged along those flinty strands and mouse-hole harbours, I felt; but I did not. Some of the poetry in me began there, though, it seemed, along those shores where they roll their Rs and keep a weather eye out. Another poem, “Wrack,” also in Walking Underwater, explores both longing and belonging in a small Cornish town.

Cornwall has known many writers, and one of them was the poet Charles Causley, who died at 86 in 2003. Causley, one of the great poets of the twentieth century, lived his whole life in letters in Launceston. A poet of place: of that place, in particular. The Causley Trust curates his memory and runs residency and other programs in the Launceston house where Causley lived. Each year, the Causley Literary Festival celebrates place and literature—poetry and drama, in particular—in his name. This year, the Causley Festival, in the wake of the pandemic, will be run online, 24 to 26 July. Which means we can all get along, no matter what our surnames. Check it out and sign up to attend here: https://causleytrust.org/causley-festival/going-digital/