I came here in 2017 to do an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at UEA and stayed. My poems, reviews and prose have been published in a bunch of places, and you can find a selection of writing below. Before the pandemic I was organising New Tricks poetry workshops at the Book Hive, which are free to attend – we’re hoping to get those up and running again in the foreseeable. During lockdown, I was organising and hosting the International Poetry Reading series with Assembly Online. You can find more information on both these projects, and more, below. In January 2022, Broken Sleep Books will publish my first little book, SPRUNG, with further titles coming from indie presses OrangeApple and Bad Betty later in 2022. I work in a secondary school and am training to be a counsellor.
SPRUNG
Broken Sleep Books (January 2022)
What the publisher says: Cai Draper’s SPRUNG is an energetic and invigorating joyride through a few months in lockdown, ‘a tortoise wrapped in blank verse’, where Draper boldly admits ‘I want to take MDMA with my mum / & listen to Everything But the Girl ’. As fresh as a change of shirt, as bright as a newly polished button, this is poetry completely committed to Frank O’Hara’s command to ‘go on its nerve’. SPRUNG is an admirably animated pamphlet from an exciting poet. Order it here.
Indirect Engagement
OrangeApple Press (May 2022)
More info coming soon.
sing & hide
Bad Betty Press (December 2022)
More info coming soon.
International Poetry Readings with Assembly Online.
In collaboration with Assembly Online, I organised and hosted a series of online poetry readings. Featuring writers from New Zealand to Trinidad to the USA to Switzerland to the Philippines, established writers like Rachel Long, Andre Bagoo and avery r. young read alongside exciting new voices like Gboyega Odubanjo, Pratyusha and Isabelle Baafi. The final reading happened in February 2021 and featured Serge Neptune, Cassandra Troyan, Praise Osawaru and Monica Prince. Click here for more information.