NOLA Nocturnal is a celebration of New Orleans, of the French Quarter, with its historic bars and twilight mysteries, as well as the bayous and swamps connected to its Voodoo heritage. Sean Woodward has visited the city many times and in 2022 wrote the majority of this collection whilst residing in the French Quarter. This collection also includes a number of other poems related to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, Futurism and visions of landscape, place and love.
The collection is illustrated throughout with 41 linocut-style monochrome images.
"An unmistakable authority" - Glyn Hughes, DH Lawrence Festival Poet in Residence
"Sean Woodward creates an atmosphere of place I have only seen on screen. Whether it is a documentary report or his poems that gives me the picture is immaterial if it brings the isolation of beauty under occupation to my attention" - Ralph Hancock
"There's no denying the strength of his imagery" - Ashley Franklin, Derbyshire Today
"Artist, poet, storyteller and musician Sean Woodward has a wealth of experience exploring the dark and mysterious aspects of being, and translating them into creative media that speak to the inner core of the receiver" - Ellen Simpson
SEAN WOODWARD's first poetry collection, Deja-Vu was published by Dragonheart Press in 1987. Since then his poetry has been published in international magazines and anthologies including Staple, Aabye's Baby, Moonstone, First Time, La Vache, The Rialto, Inkshed, Poetry Nottingham and Quartz. He was a major winner in the DH Lawrence Festival Competition and Derby Evening Telegraph Poet of the Year Competition. He has appeared at the Wirksworth and Chesterfield festivals and been a guest speaker at the Writing Industries Conference, Leicester Haymarket, Nottingham Playhouse, Nottingham Fringe Festival, Derby Community Arts, PM Poetry, Fagins Bookshop, Second Wednesday and Derby City Live festival. He has also adjudicated poetry competitions for Nottingham Poetry Society, Nottingham Writers' Workshop, Derby Writers' Guild and Derby University Forums of Faiths.