I'm always happy to consider invitations to take part in readings, workshops and panels — online and in-person — at festivals, schools, bookshops, libraries, universities & elsewhere! Just drop me a line via the Contact Page of this website.

You can see more about school visits and workshops here.

EVENTS COMING UP:

In late 2024 and early 2025 there is exciting poetry and exhibition news for A Whistling of Birds – to be confirmed in due course!

Saturday 11 May 2024, 8pm (BST), Magdalene Poetry Society, Magdalene College, Cambridge

8pm (British Summer Time), Saturday 11 May 2024
Cripps Court, Magdalene College, 1-3 Chesterton Road, CB4 3AD
FREE and all are welcome.
You don’t have to be a member of Magdalene College or be linked to Cambridge University to attend.
For more information contact Joe Wright on njw71@cam.ac.uk  and also take a look on Instagram @magdalenepoetrysoc

Isobel Dixon will be the May guest reader for the Magdalene Poetry Society in Cambridge and will be reading from her latest collection A Whistling of Birds as well as a selection from her earlier books, and new work.
Magdalene Poetry Society provides an open, friendly space for those who want to share a love of all forms of poetry. The society is based in Magdalene College, but is open to all, so bring along anyone who might be interested!

* TBC for MAY/JUNE 2024 - some South African events *

Friday 12 July 2024, 7:00pm (BST), Poetry Lit, Isobel Dixon & other poets, Zoom Only

7pm - 8:30pm (British Summer Time), Friday 12 July
Zoom room shared upon EventBrite booking
Join Poetry Lit for their monthly online reading series featuring poets from around the world. More details of this event will be released closer to the time.
From Poetry Lit: After the readings, engage with our featured poets in a Q&A session. And don't miss our open mic segment, where you can discover exciting new voices in the poetry world!

New event information to follow soon!

ALREADY BEEN & GONE:

Monday 8 April 2024, 7:30pm (BST), Café Writers, Isobel Dixon & Laura McKee, Zoom Only

7:30pm (British Summer Time), Monday 8 April

Isobel Dixon will be the Café Writers featured poet for April and will be joined by Laura McKee, whose first pamphlet, take care of your hooves darling, was published in 2023 by Against the Grain Press. The poets’ readings will be followed by an Open Mic session. See more here.

Wednesday 27 March 2024, 7pm (GMT), DH Lawrence Society, Zoom Only

Isobel Dixon repeated an updated version of her 2023 Paris Nanterre Conference talk: “Homemaking, Home-breaking & Finding Space to Breathe: D.H. Lawrence in Flight & Creative Flux.” She also read some poems from her new collection A Whistling of Birds, linked to D.H. Lawrence’s Birds, Beasts and Flowers. You can watch the video of the Zoom talk here

Isobel writes: ‘Even to experts and informed enthusiasts, the ground D.H. Lawrence covered in his short life is positively dizzying. It can be hard to keep up, to track the voyages, pin all the sojourns in one’s mind. For many of us, I imagine, this restlessness and seeking is part of the mercurial fascination Lawrence holds, also for the way his travels from both background and lens for his multi-faceted work. I will be looking at (some of) these travels, habitations and transit points in the context of his nature writing in particular, with a significant stop-over with his 1923 collection, Birds, Beasts and Flowers (which in its published form is now just over 100 years old). Along the way I will speculate as to where he may have felt most at home.’

Monday 4 March 2024, 7:30pm (SAST), Off the Wall Poetry, Zoom Only

Join us for a reading by Isobel Dixon.
An Open Mic will follow the reading of our featured poet, so feel free to read your own work, or the work of another poet.

Tuesday 13 February 2024, 7pm (GMT), Launch of Virgula by Sasja Janssen, The Music Room, Great Ormond Street, London

Please join us for the London launch of Virgula, the award-winning collection by Dutch poet Sasja Janssen, translated by Michele Hutchison. Sasja and Michele will be joined by Isobel Dixon.
Made possible with funding from the Dutch Foundation for Literature/Nederlands Letterenfonds (NLF).

Thursday 8 February 2024, 7pm (GMT) St Mungo’s Mirrorball Reading, CCA, Glasgow

CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts), 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD
7-9pm (doors open 6.30pm). 18+ event.
Free to members, guests £7/£5. To find out more about St Mungo’s Mirrorball membership, see here.

Award winning poet Mary Jean Chan will be headlining, live streamed from London, supported by poets in the room: Isobel Dixon, Shehzar Doja, Stephanie Green, Charlie Gracie and Peter Clive.

Tuesday 31 October, 6pm (GMT), A Whistling of Birds Art & Poetry — Live at Churcher’s College, Petersfield
Reading, discussion & exhibition with artist Douglas Robertson

6pm-8pm (GMT), Tuesday 31 October — with canapes and drinks at the interval
Donald Brooks Auditorium, Churcher's College Senior School, Ramshill, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU31 4AS

As part of their year-long ‘Inspire and Create’series, the Churcher’s College Art Department invites you to an inspiring evening of poetry and art. ‘A Whistling of Birds’ is the title of a collection linked to a collaboration project by South African-born poet Isobel Dixon and Scottish artist Douglas Robertson. The resulting collection by Isobel, with Doug’s illustrations, is a work deeply concerned with nature and the paths we track through our environment. It draws inspiration from several poets and artists, and at times the poems and images are in dialogue with D.H. Lawrence’s 1923 collection, Birds, Beasts and Flowers. The work in the book and exhibition are the result of a long-running to-and-fro conversation around the birds, ‘beasties’ and Lawrence’s nature writing.

Isobel and Douglas will be in discussion about the development of their collaboration, and Isobel will be reading her poems from A Whistling of Birds (recently published by Nine Arches Press in the UK and Human & Rousseau in South Africa) and containing a dozen of Douglas Robertson’s beautiful, intricately detailed pencil drawings. An exhibition of the drawings in the book — and some more besides — will be in the foyer gallery of the Goodfield Centre. Please come along for a stimulating evening of poetry and art, and enjoy some drinks and canapes during the interval. And as it is Halloween, we will promise to include some bats, snakes and other creepy crawlies for your entertainment!

September 2023, A WHISTLING OF BIRDS publication by Human & Rousseau in South Africa

‘In this collection, creature-rich, the poems themselves are creaturely – sinuous and revelatory, bearing entire landscapes and architectures. To write them, Isobel Dixon has been near to, in the company of, enchanted by, for a long time, a hoard of paintings, phantasms, writing – animal-besotted and world-mad all – to which she calls us close in these verses. I can almost not breathe for being in their presence.’ – Gabeba Baderoon

Tuesday 12 September, Cape Town launch for A Whistling of Birds:
A reading by Isobel Dixon, & a discussion with Finuala Dowling
5.30 for 6pm, Exclusive Books, Cavendish Square, Cape Town

Time: 5.30 for 6pm, Tuesday 12 September (SAST)
Venue: Exclusive Books Cavendish, Lower Mall, Cavendish Square, Vineyard Road, Claremont, Cape Town.
Finuala Dowling will introduce Isobel Dixon and her new collection A Whistling of Birds, Isobel will read from the collection and there will be a conversation and Q&A, after which Isobel will sign copies.
All welcome! Free, but booking essential. To reserve your seat, please email events@exclusivebooks.co.za
Refreshments will be provided — and of course, copies will be on sale and Isobel will be very happy to sign them.

Friday 8 September, Two Events at Open Book Festival, Cape Town

I’m excited to return to this wonderful festival in Cape Town, always a fascinating weekend. I was happy to launch The Tempest Prognosticator at the 2011 Festival in conversation with the late, great Gus Ferguson, wonderful poet and publisher of my debut collection Weather Eye. My new collection A Whistling of Birds is dedicated to him.

Friday 8 September, Open Book Festival: Writing the Natural World
4pm at the Avalon Theatre, HCC Homecoming Centre, District Six Museum

Isobel Dixon, Pieter Odendaal and Bridget Pitt explore questions of writing, creativity and spiritual connections to the land in the company of Kanya Viljoen. The event coincides with the official publication date of Isobel’s new collection A Whistling of Birds (Human & Rousseau).
4-5pm, Friday 8 September at the Avalon Theatre, HCC Homecoming Centre of the District Six Museum
Corner Buitenkant St & Caledon St, District Six, Cape Town, 8001 | Tickets: R50 — book here.

Friday 8 September, Open Book Festival: Salon Hecate at Open Book
5pm at The Electric (close to the Homecoming Centre)

Join Helen Moffett for a Salon that will switch focus from local authors and creatives to a global line-up. This event will feature Sipho Banda, Isobel Dixon, Sarah Lubala, Athambile Masola and Hilda Twongyeirwe. The event coincides with the official publication date of Isobel’s new collection A Whistling of Birds (Human & Rousseau).
5-6.30pm, Friday 8 September at The Electric, 48 Canterbury St, District Six, Cape Town, 7925 | Tickets: R50 — book here.

Wednesday 6 September, A Whistling of Birds Reading @ Red Wheelbarrow
7.30pm at The Commons, Muizenberg, Cape Town

Thank you to Jacques Coetzee and The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Collective for this invitation. I’ll be reading largely from my new collection A Whistling of Birds (with possibly a couple of poems from earlier collections) for about 30-35 minutes, followed by some Q&A. There will then be an open mic session after the break.
Time: 7.30pm Wed 6 September (SAST). Venue: The Commons, Surfers’ Corner, Beach Rd, Muizenberg, Cape Town, 7970

Saturday 24 June 2023, 3.30pm BST (British Summer Time) — Live
Burnley Words Festival: Isobel Dixon — Finding Inspiration in Nature

Isobel Dixon read from her new collection A Whistling of Birds and engaged in a conversation about favourite nature writers and subjects, also drawing on the audience’s experiences.
Venue: Burnley Words Fest Hub, Market Square, Charter Walk, Burnley
Lyrical, vigorous, inventive, A Whistling of Birds shares points of creative contact with D.H. Lawrence’s iconic collection, Birds, Beasts and Flowers, but also ranges widely through the worlds of other writers, artists and musicians – from Emily Dickinson to Ted Hughes, Albrecht Dürer to Georgia O’Keeffe, in moments closely examined and delicately drawn. Syrian roses, an abundance of apricots in Santa Fe; bats, bees, tortoises, snakes, the generous body of a whale. Threaded throughout is the beautiful complexity and vulnerability of the planet, and the joy and difficulty of making art, also in times of war and displacement.
See more detail on the festival website here.

Thursday 22 June 2023, 7pm-9pm BST (British Summer Time):
Isobel Dixon, L. Kiew, Gregory Leadbetter & James McDermott celebrate 15 Years of Nine Arches at Voce Books, Birmingham

An evening of poetry celebrating 15 years of Midlands-based publishers Nine Arches Press, held in Independent Bookshop Week. It was also publication day for Isobel Dixon’s A WHISTLING OF BIRDS.
Venue: Voce Books, 54-57 Allison Street, Birmingham B5 5TH.
Celebrating their 15th year of publishing some of the most exciting new & emerging poets, the wonderful Midlands-based Nine Arches Press invite you to join us for an evening of poetry exploring all the kaleidoscopic ways human life collides with the natural world. The event will feature readings from the following acclaimed Nine Arches Press poets: Isobel Dixon, L. Kiew, Gregory Leadbetter and James McDermott.

Wednesday 7 June 2023, 7:30pm BST (British Summer Time) — Online Event
Nine Arches Triple Launch: Isobel Dixon, Rishi Dastidar & James McDermott

Join Rishi Dastidar, James McDermott and Isobel Dixon for their online Triple Book Launch, celebrating the publication of their latest poetry books, Neptune's Projects, Wild Life, and A Whistling of Birds. This event (which runs from 7.30-8.30pm BST) will be streamed live through the Nine Arches Press YouTube channel and live captioned. Those who register to 'attend' will receive an event link by email on the day of the event. Each poet will read for approximately 15 minutes. See more on the poets and their new collections and sign up to attend on Eventbrite here. The video will be available online two weeks’ after the event.

Tuesday, 13 April 2021, 7:30 pm BST (British Summer Time):
Three Poets: Simon Barraclough, Isobel Dixon & Rob A. Mackenzie

In April, that poetic month, I'll be reading in an online event with poets Simon Barraclough and Rob A. Mackenzie (on what would have been Samuel Beckett's 115th birthday). Old tunes/poems & new, maybe one or two even a little bit Beckettian.
Free, but register beforehand on Eventbrite here.

Sunday, 21 March 2021, 7pm on BBC4: THE GREATEST POEM OF WORLD WAR I: David Jones’s In Parenthesis

I was delighted to contribute to a television documentary produced by Ian Michael Jones and presented by Owen Sheers about David Jones's great World War I poem In Parenthesis. It was broadcast on BBC4 on 21 March 2021, World Poetry Day and available to UK viewers on iPlayer here, till 20 April.

Information on past events, dating back to the launch of A Fold in the Map in 2007 can be found on the Events Archive page.