This page contains news and information about poets who have presented their poetry at a meeting of the East Coker Poetry Group. 

Catherine Simmonds

Catherine Simmonds' poetry has been published in journals in the UK and USA. We Have Heard Ravens (2008, Flagon Press) is her collection of prose poems drawn from the diaries of Dorothy Wordsworth.

Catherine recently read new poetry inspired by Thomas Hardy at Max Gate in Dorchester along with Paul Hyland, Kate Scott and Pam Zinnemann- Hope. This was part of the Poetry Society's Centenary, the event being called 'Who’s In The Next Room?'

Jo Waterworth

Jo Waterworth lives in Glastonbury and is regularly involved in local poetry events and readings. She performs with the trio 'Strange Sisters', whose collection on climate change and transition is still available for bookings and in booklet form. Jo has been published in a number of small press magazines and has won prizes in poetry competitions. She runs courses in Glastonbury called Poetry for Personal Growth, and a monthly Poetry Workshop at the Library of Avalon. She gets excited about accessible modern poetry.  

Jo can be contacted on jmwaterworth [at] hotmail.co.uk.

Jane Williams

Jane Williams leads the 'Poetry at the Fountain' meetings in Wells.  These are an opportunity for local poets to read their own work in the relaxed atmosphere of a group.  Meetings are held on the first Monday in the month, upstairs in the Fountain Inn, at the bottom of St. Thomas Street, in Wells, 7.45 for 8pm. £3   Meetings are held during the Autumn, Winter and Spring months.

Jane also recently brought together the poetry group 'Dragon Poets' to read for the second time at Wells Cathedral School.  Entitled 'Hartsongs', the evening was a successful mixture of poetry and music.

Paddy Hughes

Paddy Hughes is a published and recorded poet.  From being a Fast Jet Pilot in the RAF, Paddy went on to become a freelance writer and film director making over 600 corporate and government programmes, TV commercials and documentaries.

Many of his poems are about Richmond Park in London and have been published in two volumes as Richmond Park Reflections.  Now living near Wincanton in Somerset he has read at events all over the South West of England and in London and can be contacted on 01963 370323 or 07785 263037.

Katrina Porteous

Katrina was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and grew up in County Durham. She graduated from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, with a double first in History in 1982, studied at Berkeley and Harvard Universities in the USA on a Harkness Fellowship, and has lived in her grandparents’ house on the Northumberland coast, working as a freelance writer, since 1987. Her poetry has won many national awards, including a Gregory Award (1989), an Arts Council Writer’s Bursary (1993) and an Arts Foundation.Northumberland and the local inshore fishing communities has provided much of the inpiration for her poetry. 

Anthony Watts

Anthony Watts has been writing ‘seriously’ for about 36 years.  He has had many poems published in magazines and anthologies in addition to three published collections: Strange Gold (KQBX Press, 1991), The Talking Horses of Dreams (Iron Press, 1999) and Steart Point and Other Poems (John Garland, 2009).  He has won many poetry competitions and also ran the Fire River Poets in Taunton for many years where he is still a member. Rural Somerset has been his home for most of his life and he has no plans to leave it. His main interests in life are poetry, music, thinking and doing nothing in particular outdoors. Anthony was the adjudicator in the 2009 East Coker Poetry Competition. Two of his collections are currently on sale at the Brendon Bookshop in Taunton.