Poetry Salon, Tuesday 9 February featuring Maitreyabandhu and our friendly and supportive open mic session! 7pm – 9pm, Ledbury Master’s House in the Panelled Room. Just come along! £5 including a glass of Poetry Gold cider.
Maitreyabandhu lives and works at the London Buddhist Centre, teaching Buddhism and meditation and also teaches at Adhisthana near Ledbury. He has written two books on Buddhism, Thicker than Blood: Friendship on the Buddhist Path (2001) and Life with Full Attention: a Practical Course in Mindfulness (2009), both with Windhorse Publications. His forthcoming book is The Journey and the Guide.
Maitreyabandhu has won many poetry prizes including the Ledbury Poetry Competition the year Billy Collins was the judge.
Maitreyabandhu’s first pamphlet The Bond won the Poetry Business Book and Pamphlet Competition (2010) and was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Award. Vita Brevis, his second pamphlet, won the iOTA Shots Award (2011). His first book-length collection, The Crumb Road (Bloodaxe Books, 2013) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. His latest collection, Yarn, was published by Bloodaxe in October 2015.
He has published articles exploring the relationship between spiritual life and poetry in Poetry Review, Magma, Agenda, Assent, and In Their Own Words: Contemporary Poets on their Poetry (Salt, 2012).
In 2010 he founded Poetry East, a poetry venue exploring the relationship between spiritual life and poetry, and attracting many of Britain’s foremost poets, including Jo Shapcott, David Constantine, Don Paterson and Sean O’Brien.
