World Poetry Day & Kirklees Events

Happy World Poetry Day everyone.  Speaking of poetry, Diane Green, Reader Development Officer for Kirklees has sent me the following information on forthcoming events:

·         Tuesday 19^th March, 7.30-9.00pm   Rod and George spin Yorkshire Yarns and humorous monologues. Lindley Library.  Tickets £2 from the library. 01484 222172  lindley.lic@kirklees.gov.uk or from any Kirklees box office 01484 223200 or on line at  http://kirklees.gov.uk/townhalls

 http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/events/eventdetails.asp?evID=17797&evDtID=116196

 

·         Wednesday 20^th March:  Write Out Loud Open Mic Poetry.  At Marsden Library from 7.30-9.30pm  and then on the 3^rd Wednesday of every month.  Cost £2  An open-floor poetry evening, open to all to read a poem, your own or a favourite. Also open to short story tellers, singer/songwriters, etc.
Beginners encouraged and all welcome. This is a friendly and supportive club

 

 

·         Thursday 21^st March, 7.30-9.30pm  Goosewing;  In 2011 Christine McMahon was commissioned to produce an original work of storytelling.  Goosewing is her resulting creation.  Told with Christine’s characteristic wit and warmth, Goosewing is a bittersweet tale of loss, hope and redemption.  And there are mice involved….You may even discover what use is a goose!  Storytelling from Christine McMahon with Paul Roberts on the violin at Holmfirth Civic Tickets £3/£2 from Holmfirth Library, Holmfirth Tourist Information Centre, from any Kirklees box office 01484 223200 or on line at  http://kirklees.gov.uk/townhalls

http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/events/eventdetails.asp?evID=17803&evDtID=116192

 

 

·         Wednesday 3^rd April, 7.30-9.30pm   Jodi Picoult at Huddersfield Town Hall. A joint event from Kirklees libraries and Huddersfield Literature festival. Tickets £4/ £2 Kirklees Passports available online at http://kirklees.gov.uk/townhalls, email to: huddersfield.information@kirklees.gov.uk, By phone: 01484 223200, or in person at Huddersfield Visitor Centre in the library.

 

·         Wednesday 3^rd April, Storytailors; a friendly storytelling club for all

 at Marsden Library. 7.30-9.30pm and the 1^st Wed of every month

Join us for STORY TAILORS,
Come tell a tale,
Sing a song,

Play a tune….

Or just come along and listen.

£2 including refreshments  For further information email diane.green@kirklees.gov.uk

 

·      Wednesday 10^th April meet author Judith Barrow at Slaithwaite library from 7.30-9.00pm.  Judith has written 2 books Pattern of Shadows and Changing Patterns. Two books set in Oldham during and after the 2^nd World  War.  Pattern of Shadows: Mary is a nurse at a Lancashire prison camp for German POWs. Work is difficult but fulfilling, home just difficult. The only light on her horizon is a friendship with one of the German doctors  Changing Patterns: The war is over but Mary still has to keep her relationship with Peter, a German ex-POW, secret. Sister Ellen & best friend Jean expect Mary to fix their troubles too. A vivid story of austerity  Tickets £2, including refreshments, available soon from Slaithwaite library 01484 222500 or from Kirklees Booking Offices on 01484 223200 or on-line http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/townhalls

 

 

·         Saturday Author Events 13th April  Alison Lock launches her new book of short stories Above the Parapet  11-12  Huddersfield Library.  Look beyond the every day and invoke the magic of the imagination with characters balanced at the edges of life. Enter the slipstream where ordinary events become unusual happenings. Tickets 50p include refreshments. From Huddersfield Visitor Centre in the library  and any box office. 01484 223200/222444 or on line at http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/townhalls/boxoffice.shtml

 

·         Saturday Author Events  11^th May at Huddersfield Library from 11-12  Gavin Extence author of The Universe versus Alex Woods which tracks wilful teenager Alex, who has a fascination with science and astronomy came about after he was put into a coma by a falling meteorite. When he breaks a window in next door's greenhouse, his mother insists that he offers to help out his elderly neighbour. A remarkable friendship develops the youngster and the reclusive Mr Peterson, Vietnam veteran, amputee, dope smoker and dedicated fan of Kurt Vonnegut.  Tickets 50p include refreshments. From Huddersfield Visitor Centre in the library  and any box office. 01484 223200/222444 or on line at http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/townhalls/boxoffice.shtml

 

·         Tuesday 21^st May watch out for Mandasue Heller  at a venue and time to be arranged.

 

 

Kirklees libraries are taking part in an exciting national initiative called ‘Reading Regional’ which promotes the work of northern writers.

Several local libraries are holding events where audiences will have the opportunity to listen to the author reading from and talking about their books, discuss the books with their authors, buy books and have them signed.

 

The project is in its third year and is organised by ‘New Writing North’ who are funded by the Arts Council.  Kirklees library service receives 100 books, reading guides and marketing material for taking part.

 

The first of many planned sessions took place at Marsden Library on Peel Street on Wednesday March 6, at 6.30pm with Cassandra Parkin, author of ‘New World Fairy Tales’ and Susanna Meese storyteller.

 

Further planned events include:

 

Mirfield Library, Easthorpe Lodge, Mirfield Wednesday April 24, 7.30pm

Featuring Annabel Pitcher a local author from Holmfirth and creator of ‘My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece ’ which deals with the tragedy of a family torn apart by a terrorist attack.

 

Huddersfield Library, Alexandra Walk, Huddersfield, Thursday May 2, 7.30pm to 9pm

Pauline Plummer published her first collection of poetry in 1992 and since then other collections, readings, broadcasts, residencies and publications have followed.

 

Shepley Library, Marsh Lane, Shepley, Huddersfield, Thursday May 9, 7.30pm to 9pm

Alison Gangel is guest author and will be talking about her memoir ‘The Sun hasn’t fallen from the Sky’ which depicts skilfully, and without being sentimental or bleak, the dysfunctional family life into which she was born.   Tickets £2 at the library, or from Kirklees booking office (Huddersfield Library foyer) or by contacting 01484 223200 or visiting the website at  www.kirklees.gov.uk/townhalls.

 

 

And from Batley Writers; we have a Poetry in the Park at Crow Nest Park, Dewsbury on Saturday, April 13th at 1.30. The theme is Love, Life and Leisure.

This event will be followed up later when Batley Writers theme the seasons on Saturday, May 18th (1.30),  Saturday, July 13th (1.30), and Saturday, October 5th (1.30).

Competitions entered and Boroughs 2013 Novella Contest deadline 31 May

Yesterday I entered three competitions.  I entered the Hebden Shorts competition with my short play 'Bottle,' the Arvon made-up word competition with my poem 'A room full of shmuggles' (anyone want to hazard a guess what a shmuggle might be?) and the Writers & Artists flash fiction 'alienation/quest for belonging' competition with my flash fiction 'Adrift' - full details of the Writers & Artists competition can be found on my previous post (18/3/13) as there are still a few days left to enter.  Fingers crossed that one or all of them are successful.

Speaking of competitions, I have been emailed the following information from the Boroughs Publishing Group:

BOROUGHS 2013 NOVELLA CONTEST

Has the title of a song ever inspired you to write? We’re betting it has…and that you can take that title and make it your own.

We invite you to submit your 25,000-40,000 word, completed novella based on the title of a song – any song – that you adopt as the title of your story to: Submissions@BoroughsPublishingGroup.com no later than May 31st 2013.

For all the details go to: http://www.boroughspublishinggroup.com/about/enews/february-2013-e-newsletter

 

Cleckheaton Writers Group Meeting 18/3/2013

Another good meeting last night where D, P, D, L and I were in attendance (despite my bad back trying to thwart my good intentions).  We discussed the Leeds Trinity Writers Festival that D, P and I went to and the Joanne Harris author talk that D and I went to on Saturday night.  P and D discussed writing pitfalls and how easy it is for we writers to be parted from our cash via nefarious means.  We decided that if anyone wishes us to pay to publish our work, it should set off warning alarms and we should run away rapidly in the opposite direction.  P also recommended a writing blog that has an excellent Excel timeline programme  www.wendyswritingnow.blogspot.co.uk

P shared some of her poetry and D shared a play she has sent off for a competition (she promised to let us know how it fares).  We gave feedback and then discussed what we were working on at the moment.  D updated us on TSC which has now been reworked for what she hopes will be the final time.  L shared some of her new ideas that she may work on now that she has come to an impasse with the novel she is working on.  We agreed that they were great ideas and that she should definitely explore them - if it is good enough for Joanne Harris to work this way, it is more than okay for us to copy her fine example.

It was agreed that D would send a sample of her manuscript to the members and I agreed to send some of my work to D and inform her of the details of an autobiography/memoir competition I had come across.* 

As the next meeting falls on Easter Monday and the Library will be closed it, was agreed that we would meet next on 15 April 2013 at the Library (though an in between meeting may be arranged in the pub on Easter Monday if enough members wish to do so) and that D would set a writing challenge for the 15th should members wish to rise to the challenge.

Looking forward to hearing the various pieces crafted at the next meeting.


*

Crocus Memoir/Autobiographical Writing Competition 2013

The search is on to find the best budding memoir or autobiography writer in the north of England. Organisers Commonword are looking for the best opening three chapters from a previously unpublished memoir or autobiography. The winner will get £150 and their own writing mentor to help them get their autobiography/memoir to publishable standard. Six other promising writers identified through the competition will be provided with significant assistance with their writing. Deadline for submissions: 30 June. For more information, see www.cultureword.org.uk/commonword-memoir-writing-competition.

Writers & Artists flash fiction competition, deadline 25 March

Found the following competition information on the Writers & Artists website:

Flash Fiction competition 2013

 

Can you write a story in 200 words or less?

To celebrate the continuing rise of the short story and following on from the huge success of last year’s competition, Writers & Artists and Bloomsbury are delighted to announce another Flash Fiction challenge.

For this year’s competition, we’d simply like you to write a story of no more than 200 words based on the theme of ‘alienation’ and/or ‘the quest for belonging’.

And to tie in with this theme, we've asked Roshi Fernando, author of Homesick, to judge all of this year's entries.

The lucky winner will receive not only a bundle of all our short story collections published from this year and 2012, but also two tickets to see George Saunders discussing his new collection Tenth of December. 

Jon McGregor (IMPAC Award-winning author of Even the Dogs and If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things) will be chairing the event, which takes place onWednesday 29 May.

Prizes:

 

1st prize: Bundle of short story collections plus two tickets for George Saunders and Jon McGregor’s event at the Southbank Centre
2nd prize: a signed copy of books by Jon McGregor, D W Wilson & Roshi Fernando
3rd prize: a signed copy of Roshi Fernando’s Homesick

Competition details:

Our competition will run from today and the closing date is before midnight on Monday 25 March. The winner will be announced on Monday 15 April.

To enter, please email your story of no more than 200 words to writersandartists@bloomsbury.com by Monday 25 March.

The subject line of your email should read ‘FLASH FICTION 2013’.

Joanne Harris author talk 16/3/2013

Had a very informative evening at the Huddersfield Literature Festival last night.  D and I were very excited to listen to Joanne Harris and learn about her writing processes because her writing is so evocative.  We arrived early and admired the cakes in the Bake Off and perused the Waterstones book display.

James Nash, (local writer and Poet) introduced and interviewed Joanne, started by informing us that she not just writes short stories and novels, but is also a bass guitarist.  Joanne has always written.  When she was young she thought books were unfair because they ended, so she decided at seven that she wanted to be a writer.  She was a teacher for a long time (her Mum, Dad and Grandma were also teachers) and when her Mum learned she wished to be a writer, she took her to look at the shelves of books in their house and explained that all of those writers died penniless.

Joanne feels that because she writes differently each time, she is hard to brand, but she is lucky because her readers are okay with that.  She always has a head teeming with ideas, the problem is deciding which she can live with for 1-2 years in order for her to write it.  This is why she writes short stories so she can go on to the next thing.  A novel takes 2 years or more and she works on 2, 3 or more projects at once and eventually something gets finished.  This was music to my ears as this is the way that I work.

She compares writing to the Red Shoes because it is something that you have to do.  Joanne explained that she started out with a cult following (which she said equates to being largely unread) and then her third book, Chocolat, caused her career to take off.  She does not know what it was about the book that caused this as her book was unfashionable for the time (she felt it was indulgent, full of adjectives and stuck in time) as most books were up-to-date, sparse and realistic then.  She revealed that she got a lot of rave rejections but then someone took a punt on it.  It reached people and they voted with their feet.  She wondered if it was because they were ready for a change or just chocolate-obsessed. 

Joanne revealed that Vianne Rocher is not based on her, but there is a connection in motherhood.  She feels it is a love story between a mother and her child.  Vianne is on an adventure and it is a journey that interests her as a writer.  She deliberately set it in a place that could be anywhere at any time, but the second book is in a modern Paris.  The third book, Peaches, is in a specific present day, 2010 during Ramadan in France before they banned the veil.  She feels the village it is set in is almost a character in itself and that change is what drives a story.

When Joanne starts writing she is never sure exactly what will happen.  She knows more or less what is going to happen, but not what comes in between (again music to my ears).  She likens it to a walk in the woods, but not knowing what animals she is going to see. 

Handing over the novel to a film company did not feel like handing over her baby, she feels they took some aspects of the book and made a film she liked.  This is good as she knows other authors who have hated their books being adapted for film.  Joanne felt Juliette Binoche was perfect for the role.  She revealed that at first they were wanting Whoopi Goldberg and setting the book in America in the late 1800s (the colour chocolat), then present day New York with Gwyneth Paltrow, but when they chose Binoche, Joanne felt they had understood the character and setting it in France kept the spirit of it.

Her short story collection A Cat, A Hat and A Piece of String was inspired by a radio interview when she was asked what she would take with her to a desert island.  She had lots of fun taking three objects and making different stories about them and the many ways in which she could use them.  James revealed that two of her characters from her previous short story collection Jigs and Wheels, Faith and Hope, feature in the new short story collection.  Joanne told him that they even receive fan mail, which is unusual because although Loki from her Runemarks books receives it, and Roux (but mostly because of Johnny Depp), she was surprised that her two old lady characters got some.  But she feels she is not done with them yet and they may even get a whole book to themselves one day.

James said he was fascinated that her Runemarks books are norse tales as he has always thought they were better than the Greeks and Romans.  Joanne agreed in that the Vikings left a lot of themselves here but she felt the norse tales had the worst cliffhanger ever in that the world ends, as does mankind, with just a vague prophecy that maybe the world will be remade.  She wanted to create an alternative reality where the Gods might have survived and the world is not destroyed, just turned around.  She first wrote about it at 18 in school exercise books 2k words long and every chapter ended on a cliffhanger.  When her daughter got to age 9/10, she pulled the manuscript out and she liked it, so she wrote something different using the world she had created.  These books reach a different readership (fantasy, younger readers) but this evolved because of her daughter.  She wrote 500 pages and was surprised to realise it was a book; her publishers were surprised too.  She enjoys writing these and has the most fun, but if she hits a block, she can move onto another.

Joanne believes that she has themes she returns to - things that interest her and family relationships, particularly mother/son, children growing up lonely and isolated or people who feel they don't belong, freakish or eccentric and about food.  She thinks you can tell a lot about someone by how they eat.  You can explore someones personality without labelling through food.

Joanne then read from Peaches for Monsieur Le Cure explaining that from the beginning Vianne does not want to go back to Lansquenet-sous-Tannes as she is afraid and running away from it, but Armande (who is based on her great grandmother), the diabetic elderly woman in mourning, who wears red petticoats under her black dresses, was the only character who could persuade her to return.

James then opened the floor up for questions.  When asked if she is influenced by other authors and whether they get in the way, Joanne felt that we are all products of authors we have read but she does not feel that it gets in the way now.  When asked about the controversial veil theme, she felt she was not trying to address the issue, just looking at one particular little community and certain people who use them to define themeselves, hide or make a statement.  She admitted her publishers were worried (the original title of the novel was Peaches for Ramadan), but she has had nothing but good feedback from Muslim readers.

She revealed her ideas start with characters and the characters find their way into stories pretty fast. Asked which was her favourite of her own work, she feels she is not objective.  Some she thinks are better written, but not fun to write.  She revealed that blue-eyed-boy divided her readership and was tough emotionally to write.  She was flattered that someone on Amazon felt that it was ghost-written because Joanne was not sick enough to write a story like that. 

She personally does not distinguish between what is real and what is imagined as she feels anything that is imagined is real on some level, real on an emotional level and she believes that this is what authors mean when they say write about what you know.

When the event came to a close, Joanne kindly agreed to answer any other questions people may have and sign her books.  A long queue formed immediately.

It was a fantastic evening with a lovely warm, personable and accomplished writer.  I hope she returns to Huddersfield again soon.

2013 Newcastle Writing Conference Saturday 4 May

The fabulous Nicola Morgan is appearing at the Newcastle Writing Conference.  Please find the details below, which have been given to me via her website update:

Are you a "new or emerging" writer of fiction? Interested in how to become published and wanting to know as much as possible about the business as you bash down its doors? then you might be interested in the The 2013 Newcastle Writing Conference on Sat 4th May.

Saturday 4 May, 9.30am-5.30pm, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne

"New Writing North presents a conference for new and emerging writers of fiction that explores trends in publishing, identifies new markets for writing and supports authors to make connections with each other and with industry experts. The conference is presented in conjunction with Northumbria University.

"The Newcastle Writing Conference is a must-attend event if you are an aspiring writer at work on a first novel, are approaching the publication of your first novel or are an early career writer looking to find new ways to promote your work and to understand more about the industry that you are now working in.

"If you’re studying creative writing at university the conference will also be a useful introduction to the industries of writing and publishing and a chance to learn from experts and writers."

Nicola's panel is at 10.45am:

Breaking into Writing: Agents and publishers

"A panel giving the lowdown on how to break into the writing industry with author, blogger and self-publisher Nicola Morgan, literary agent Juliet Mushens, and Hodder & Stoughton publisher Lisa Highton. The panel will cover how writers engage with and identify suitable agents and publishers, how best to make approaches, and how to manage relationships in the writing business."

Other panels are:

·         Market Focus: What’s hot and what’s not?

·         Selling Books

·         Digital Writing

All the details and booking instructions are here. Prices range from £49 to £99, including lunch and refreshments, which is remarkably good value for this packed day.

Nicola will be signing copies of the BRAND NEW edition of Blame My Brain in Waterstones in Newcastle that day and would be absolutely delighted to see you.

Divine Poetry Competition 30 April deadline

Just been sent the following competition details via BlogAboutWriting:

Divine Poetry Competition c/d 30th April (UK & Northern Ireland only)

This one is FREE to enter and there’s a big bag of choccie goodies and £30 of book tokens for each winner in the three categories (7-11, 12-16 and 17 and over).

The theme this year, for what will be their 11th poetry competition, is “Chocolate is something to cherish.”

You can read and listen to last year’s winners here.