Poetry Idol
Shortfuse's contest for up and coming poets, performers and writers
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Winners
Liz Bentley She has been performing her own brand of dark-edged life-affirming comedy on the poetry/cabaret circuit for over two years. Her stage character comes from the protagonist of her forthcoming novel Fertile. Her experience as a musician in post punk/psychedelic bands adds songs to a performance accompanied by ukulele and keyboard. She has recently published a book of poems, short stories and songs entitled ‘Tales in the Deep End.’ In December she won the title of ‘Poetry Idol, Rival Idols’ at SHORTFUSE, Camden Head and her Edinburgh show last year with Rachel Pantechnicon, ‘Rachel and Liz get in touch with their feelings,’ earned a 5 star review from "Three Weeks". To contact Liz please email: liz@ebentley77.freeserve.co.uk Rhian Edwards In the past two years, Rhian has performed in over 30 venues in London alone, and has been published in Poetry Wales, The Wolf magazine, Poetic Hours, Unpublished and the Cake Hole. Rhian was recently commissioned to write a poem for National Poetry Day, which she later performed at the Poetry Society in October 2004. In the same month, Rhian had one of her poems exhibited at the Royal Festival Hall over Poetry International Week. She has worked alongside a number of leading international poets and performers, such as Collette Bryce, Dorothea Smart, Simon Munnery and Rob Newman. Rhian is also a talented singer/songwriter, who composes songs for both the guitar and ukulele, and on occasion integrates her musical skills into her poetry performances. At the current time, Rhian is currently studying a one-year acting course at the Academy of Live and Recording Arts, in the hope of her extending her performing and writing talents to theatre acting and script writing. Sarah Kobrinsky - further information to follow Project Adorno - further information to follow To contact S.P. Howarth please email: info@shortfuse.co.uk and we'll pass on all enquiries. Gareth Jones To contact Gareth please e-mail:gareth@nhpub.co.uk Ritchie Scurvey Richard Johnson - further information to follow Suzanne Andrade "Hypnotically brilliant...Reminds me of William To contact Suzanne please email: suzanne.andrade@talk21.com Paul Marshall London born but currently based in the South West, Paul this year took his one man poetry and storytelling show ‘Babble’ to the Edinburgh Fringe to rave reviews. As well as performing in Arthur Smith’s Swan Lake he has also appeared at the Glastonbury festival and most recently the Tip of Your Tongue poetry festival in Penzance. Paul’s work is marked by rhythmic intensity and word-play- a breakneck blast of comic poetry and storytelling, from the profound to the profoundly silly. ‘Paul Marshall is a first-rate performance poet...rhymes of staggering complexity’ - The Scotsman ‘Sparkling poetry performed by a charismatic storyteller’ EdinburghGuide.com ‘These poems are gems….fast and comic…anti-war poems that are actually enjoyable, take note Mr H Pinter.’Three Weeks ‘A brilliant confusion of words and images.’ Arthur Smith To contact Paul please e-mail:paulmarshallpoet@hotmail.com Wayne Smith Kate Fox Contact her on: thekatefox@aol.com Mat Lloyd Widely traveled, having trailed with his family across Europe, he quotes his influence from Gil Scot Herron and Ice-T, to Ray Hollingsworth and Wendy Cope. You can always recognize him by his kinked baseball hat and a Poetry book in the back pocket. To contact Mat please email info@versebym.co.uk or visit http://www.versebym.co.uk Ahren Warner Musa Okwonga Details to follow. Joshua Ehi Edihen Email: lordgokal@hotmail.com Myspace: www.myspace.com/apoeminbetweenpeople Scroobius Pip Details to follow Tim Clare To contact Tim please email: joshureplied@yahoo.co.uk
Liz works as a writer, performer, mother, counsellor, counselling supervisor and trainer.
Rhian only started writing poetry in January 2003, but within this short time, she has established herself as one of the most versatile, compelling and prominent performers on the London poetry scene. As well as establishing herself as the first joint winner of Poetry Idol and frequent performer at Shortfuse.
To contact Rhian please e-mail: rhian_edwards@hotmail.com
S.P. Howarth 
Steven Purbeck Howarth was born in Lewisham, London 1981, and started writing and performing poetry sometime in his mid-teens. Since then he has ranted at dozens of venues in the U.K. and U.S. He has previously been the winner of Poetry idol, The bard of Brixton and a handful of other slams too obscure to mention.
Gareth Jones was born in 1978 in London, spending his formative years there and latterly in Wigan. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, has had poems and short stories published in various small-press magazines and broadcast
on radio, and is a regular on the London poetry circuit.
He is author of "Shed Men" and "Baby¹s Got the Blues", published by New Holland. Gareth lives in South London and works in publishing.
55-year-old alcoholic anarchist Punk Poet Ritchie Scurvey, ex-bassist with earthmoving 70s punk band ‘Dick Scurvey and the Cocksmiths’, lives on a floor in Hackney. Ritchie spits lines like ‘Maggie Thatcher, Maggie Thatcher, from what reptilian egg did they hatch her?’ and alerts kids to the evils of heroin with ‘Socky the Drugs Puppet’ outside schools throughout London.
Eschewing sell-out ‘paid’ gigs (entirely through choice), he makes regular appearances at revolutionary open mic night ‘WORDSSOANGRY’ at the Hammersmith Soyuz, and since winning Poetry Idol has also appeared at Express Excess, ‘Utter’ and the Clerkenwell Literary Festival. For more info
visit his alter ego’s website http://www.richardtyronejones.com.
She cuts up poems she wrote when she was eight years old. She cuts them with a blunt pair of crayola scissors. She sticks them to her bedroom wall with a mixture of salt and milk. She shares her paper cut tales with other people’s Uncles in car parks (after dark) scout huts (As day is dawning) and the patch of wasteland round the back of the bowling alley where butchers constructively criticise her. Her name is Miss Suzanne Andrade. She has come to sharpen her scissors.
Burroughs and his strange stories"
BBC Radio 3
In December 2006 Suzanne also won the coveted SHORTFUSE POETRY IDOL RIVAL IDOLS 2 contest. 
Wayne Smith is young enough to still think smoking is cool, old enough to know better. He’s been writing poetry for a little while and has made a handful of appearances at different poetry venues and has won every performance poetry competition he’s took part in. His friend Anthony describes his style as William Blake meets Chaz and Dave,
“best poetry I’ve seen live - ever!” Hesiod
To contact Wayne please email: averagewhiteboy_66@hotmail.com
Kate Fox is a Newcastle based stand up, poet and sometimes stand up poet. She describes herself as Newcastle's answer to Sylvia Plath but without quite so many bees and Nazis, or as Pam Ayres on drugs, without the drugs.
She's gigged at venues from the Stand Comedy Club in Edinburgh to the Prague Fringe Festival, Durham Literature Festival, Grey Sheep Cabaret in Bradford, Writers Cafe in Stockton and many more. She co directs New Word Order, a project to develop spoken word platforms and artists in the North East (http://www.newwordorder.co.uk) and is a member of the diverse group of performance poets the Poetry Vandals (http://www.poetryvandals.co.uk).
Zebra Publishing recently published her collection of comic poems "Why I" and Sand Publishing have commissioned a collection of poems about serial killers and stand up comedians which she's recently received an Arts Council grant to develop.She's also a radio journalist and has produced and read bulletins for commercial radio stations. She runs comedy and writing for performance workshops for organisations including Northumbria University, HMP Frankland and Gateshead Libraries. 
Mat Lloyd simply tells it how it is and is not ashamed of being a little different from your average Poet. Looking like a Hip Hop throw back you would be forgiven for stereotyping until he opens his mouth and then your view will change. He has been writing poetry since he discovered Ice T and he took his Poetry to the stage in his early twenties and has been there ever since. With short spells in various funk rap acts his first love is poetry and the unaccompanied flow of words.
Ahren was born in oxford in 1986 but has spent most of his life in the deserted plains of Lincolnshire moving to London in 2005 to study a BA in English.
He has been writing for about nine years and has published poems in several magazines in the UK and US. He is one of four poets responsible for the rebirth of New Blood, a monthly night at the poetry café for up and coming writers.
To contact Ahren please email: ahrenwarner@googlemail.comJoshua Idehen is co-founder of the collective known as A Poem Inbetween People, the host and organiser of the spoken word event PoeJazzi, and a spoken word artist himself, perfoming all over london in presigous events such as Onetaste, Poetry N Motion, The Cellar, Shortfuse, and the John Betjmin Festival in Cornwall, to name a few
Tim Clare is a writer and performer. He once flung a joss stick so hard it pinned a hen to a waiter's thigh. In 2005 he presented the Channel 4 series 'How To Get A Book Deal', promoting his first novel, Joshu Replied. Spouting filthy hyperkenetic doggerel from what reason insists must be his mouth, he continues to baffle and appall audiences all over the UK.
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