A night of comedy, music and poetry for the ages, Lost Mythos is a parish council meeting like no other. Fresh from their recent album collaboration, the haunting soundscapes of Mara Simpson and the words of acclaimed poet JLM Morton will take us back to a forgotten Albion. Meanwhile, comic Emma Kernahan guides us through this mythical meeting agenda, blending unruly local folklore and stories from modern rural life. Ideal for fans of history, magic, and neighbourhood Facebook groups.
JLM Morton is from Gloucestershire in the west of England. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry Review, Rialto, Magma, Mslexia, The London Magazine, Berlin Lit, Anthropocene, Bad Lilies, Modron, The Sunday Telegraph and elsewhere. Highly commended by the Forward Prizes, she is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the Laurie Lee, Geoffrey Dearmer and Poetry Archive Worldview prizes. Her first poetry collection is Red Handed, a Poetry Society Book of the year out now with Broken Sleep Books (2024). Juliette has collaborated with a number of musicians, artists and field recordists and held residencies at the Cotswold Water Park, Stroudwater Textile Trust, Corinium Museum and Sladebank Woods. She is currently writing her next book with the support of an Authors Foundation grant from the Society of Authors.
Emma Kernahan lives in Gloucestershire and has a professional background in housing and welfare support. At work, she writes about government policies, and the rest of the time she writes comedy. Now the co-Director of Dialect Writers CIC, she’s been published in places such as The Independent, Bylines, Amplify Stroud and McSweeney’s (US). She’s won the Gloucestershire Writers Network Prize, the Funny Pearls Short Story Prize, has been shortlisted for the Bath Flash Fiction Award and her story ‘Lions’ was selected for the 50 Best British and Irish Flash Fiction. She also writes the newsletter and social media updates for the Stroud Association of Mythical Entities - a 5,000 year old group of genius loci who live and work in Stroud, Gloucestershire. Some of those updates are featured in the book Glos Mythos – and they also occasionally meet in person.
Mara Simpson is a multi-instrumentalist, performing artist, songwriter, producer and composer. Her work seamlessly blends electronic, acoustic and orchestral instruments, exploring her love for tape delays, analogue synths and field recordings. She’s become known for her dynamic live show and genre-defying musical works including scores for the TV series SILO and magical-realist film Blue Hour, as well as her collaborations with Hidden Orchestra, Cerys Matthews, Poppy Ackroyd, and Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres. Her 2019 album, 285 days was included in Rough Trade’s Album Club. Its partner album 285 Days Retold, released later that year, featured remixes by Poppy Ackroyd, AVAWAVES, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, Voka Gentle and Mara herself. In Jan 2021 Mara’s guitar work, field recordings and vocals were included on the release of We Come from the Sun by Cerys Matthews with Hidden Orchestra and features 10 UK poets: MA.MOYO, Raymond Antrobus, Lemn Sissay, Liz Berry, Anthony Anaxagorou, Adam Horovitz, Cia Mangat, Imtiaz Dharker, Kim Moore and Kayo Chingonyi.