Kona Macphee and Sophie Cooke appeared at the Lviv International Literary Festival in September 2011.

In a visit generously supported by the British Council in Ukraine, Kona and Sophie spent a week in the historic city of Lviv, working with Ukrainian poets Ostap Slyvynsky and Halyna Kruk and appearing in various Festival events.

There's a showcase of the poets' work here, and a brief piece about it here at the KyivPost.

I'm honoured and delighted to announce that my second collection Perfect Blue has been has been awarded the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for 2010.

The judges were Kate Kellaway, Bernard O'Donoghue and Stephen Romer. They commented:

"We looked at over 30 submitted books, and we reduced their number in stages, first to 14 and then to a final six. The writers ranged from a number of established figures to some who were entirely new to us: a variety that made the reading very absorbing. In the end we agreed to award the prize to Kona Macphee's Perfect Blue.

Her compassion, seriousness and technical accomplishment were all evident over a wide range of subjects and forms. She can also describe moments of vulnerability directly and with courage. It was a book that we found ourselves returning to. What impressed us most of all was the way that Macphee's work combined clarity and depth with a surprising and sometimes unsettling view of the world."

More information about the award is available in the Faber press release.

I'll be reading at 'The Shuffle', a monthly event at the Poetry Society's Poetry Cafe, on Saturday June 25th, 2011.

The event kicks off at 7.30pm and features an exciting line-up including Rachel McCarthy, Martin Figura, Helen Ivory, Ashok Bery, Katy Evans-Bush and Tiffany Anne Tondut.

Until the official flyer's out, further details can be found in the Facebook event listing.