Rochester Literature Festival

“In the beginning is the hearing”,  Mary Daly 

The Rochester Literature Festival and Medway Women’s History Month team are proud to announce the long-awaited launch of Unspeakable, the poetry collaboration between Chatham born SM Jenkin, and International writer and multi-disciplinary artist Rosemary McLeish.

SM Jenkin says: “This pamphlet arose from a conversation between the two poets about trying to give an active voice to subjects that were normally unspoken. This raw and honest collection explores the subjects people thought about but felt unable to say, for all sorts of reasons and in particular concerning certain topics which came up again and again – the treatment of women, the effect of religious muffling, the protection of powerful interests compared to the needs of ordinary citizens. We found ourselves coming back time and again to histories of oppression and silence, and knew that these histories were being lost. We felt that they should be shown the light of day.” 

SM Jenkin has performed her work nationally and internationally, and has supported Lemn Sissay, John McCullough and Atilla the Stockbroker. Her work has been published in numerous literary anthologies and magazines including Anti-Heroin Chic, Bloody Amazing, Confluence, Dissonance, The Interpreter’s House, the Mermaid and Please Hear What I Am Not Saying. She was project manager and managing editor for Inspired by Six Women who shook the world, a community creative project highlighting the hidden histories and world-changing impact of six women with a connection to Gillingham in Medway. Her debut collection Fire in the Head is also available to purchase, and she is working on her second solo collection. https://smjenkin.substack.com/

Rosemary McLeish was an outsider artist and poet living in Kent.  She was born in Glasgow, and trained as an artist and writer in Glasgow and Canada. She was a prize-winning author who has published widely in print and on-line in journals, including Strix, Anti-Heroin Chic,  Confluence and the Writer’s Café, and anthologies, including several produced by Grey Hen Press.  Her first collection “I am a field : Poems of Place and Nature” was published by Wordsmithery in February 2019 and her second “Defragmentation”, a response to her terminal cancer diagnosis, in March 2020. Her artwork, combining painting, assemblage and textile components, was exhibited internationally. Rosemary passed away in August 2020, and her family are collating further solo collections.  Further details can be found on her website, www.rosemarymcleish.co.uk

The launch will take place during the finale of the Medway Women’s History Month on Saturday 29th March, from 4pm. For more details and to book tickets, visit here.