Your Hosts

The Spoken Word is hosted by Rose Drew and Alan Gillott who also together run the Stairwell Books small press. They would host an evening of poetry and politics every night of the week if they could get away with it.

Rose and Alan arrived in York fresh from their previous venture in Connecticut USA only to discover that all the Open Mics in York had foundered. After stirring the local poetry pot they founded The Spoken Word in January 2006. The same pot stirring also gave birth to Speaker’s Corner, another York Open Mic, under the aegis of Aesthetica Magazine.
In October 2010, Rose and Alan were the Poets in Residence for the Malton Literature Festival and in November were the joint feature in Newtown Connecticut..

Rose Drew

Rose is a physical anthropologist with a passionate interest in how we live and how in living we leave a record in our bones. As an anthropologist she is equally passionate about the way we live now and this is expressed in her poetry. Rose is a performance poet who has ‘taken the stage’ in London, Connecticut, Miami, New York, old York and Bloomington Indiana.

Rose, an award winning poet, has been published in anthologies, journals, newsprint, books, and online. She enjoys nurturing other writers and has led successful workshops on performing poetry, and with her husband Alan, runs a small press, Stairwell Books.

Her most recent collection,Temporary Safety, recently listed 9th in the Purple Patch best Collections 2011, is available from the Fighting Cock Press web site.

Contact Rose or call 07914 271871

Alan Gillott

Alan has been writing poetry, of sorts, since he was a teenager, but his poetry first flowered in Dulwich under the stern eye of Alasdair Aston who then ran the local poetry scene.

He went on to read in London, North Carolina, New York and Connecticut where, with his then fauxmari, Rose, founded the Wilton First Tuesday poetry group. After being exiled by the US Immigration service, Rose was left to run the Wilton group while he languished in Croydon. On his return he read in Miami, New York and Connecticut before moving to York and to start, with Rose, The Spoken Word.

Alan’s new collection Beyond the Window is now available from Fighting Cock Press.

Contact Alan or call 07914 271870