Poet Wendy Cope in conversation with Stephen Grosz
Venue: Archway Methodist Church, Archway Close, London, N19 3TD
Date: Saturday 26 June 2010
Poet Wendy Cope, well-loved for her humorous and poignant take on life, relationships and the literary world, discussed her work with psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz. They explored the relationship between psychoanalysis and creativity, the concept of poetry as psychotherapy and the effect of Cope’s psychoanalysis on her writing.
Afternoon Tea with Wendy Cope
Prior to the conversation, Wendy Cope Wendy charmed and amused the audience with poems from her compilation of 25 years’ work, Two Cures for Love.
Wendy Cope read history at Oxford and worked as a primary school teacher before becoming a freelance writer. She received the Cholmondeley Award in 1987 and the Michael Braude Award for Light Verse in 1995, and in 1998 was the listeners' choice in a BBC Radio 4 poll to succeed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate. Wendy finished a ten year analysis in 1983. Her most recent book, Two Cures for Love: selected poems 1979-2006, was published in 2008.
Stephen Grosz is a psychoanalyst and writer working in private practice in London. He teaches clinical technique at the Institute of Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory at the Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London.