Truth Be Told: Journalism & Poetry

Sam McBride and Angela Graham in conversation: fact and fantasy; rhyme and reason – can there be common ground between journalism and poetry?

Angela Graham’s poetry collection EXPOSURE: war, media democracy centres on the role of the imagination, opened by journalism and photojournalism, especially in coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine; the Israel/Gaza war and conflict within democracies, including our own.

Journalism and poetry are seldom considered together yet both use words to access the reader’s interior life. How does each go about that task and can they learn from one another? In the service of truth, what is the role of the imagination for the poet and the journalist?

Join us at Belfast Exposed for this Book Launch and In Conversation event on 6:00pm, Thursday 15th October. You can book your free ticket below!

Sam McBride, Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph and the Sunday Independent, Northern Ireland Correspondent for The Economist, and winner of multiple awards, has authored a work of forensic journalism, Burned, and his For and Against a United Ireland (with Fintan O’Toole) won this year’s Christopher Ewart-Biggs Award. Of the latter he says, ‘We were seeking not to change people’s minds, but to open them…’

Angela Graham’s award-winning career (Foreign-language Oscars entrant, BAFTA Cymru Awards et al) has been spent with the moving image, as a documentary maker, a producer in TV and feature film and a university tutor in documentary practice. She is also a poet. Exposure: war, media, democracy (Culture & Democracy Press) is her third collection.