tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35127467137594956482024-03-19T04:28:46.541+00:00Central Lancs Writing HubThe blog for readers and writers formerly known as Preston Writing Network.Preston Writing Networkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08292998852855428316noreply@blogger.comBlogger141125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-14806147167722542582010-01-21T16:32:00.003+00:002010-01-21T16:53:26.361+00:00Bye Bye....We're no longer posting new content at this blog. If you want to keep up with us, come and join us at our new website - the <a href="http://www.lancashirewritinghub.co.uk/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Lancashire</span> Writing Hub</a>.<br /><br />We're going to have the same information, news and reviews as always but instead of focusing just on Preston, we're blogging about events and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">opportunities</span> that are taking place all over the county.<br /><br />Our blog posts and reviews are still written by a dedicated volunteer team - but we're looking to expand that team with new writing <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">opportunities</span> for West and East <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Lancs</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">bloggers</span>.<br /><br />Our links list has been expanded to an all singing, all dancing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Lancashire</span> Writing Directory - with a special section for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">bloggers</span> across the county so you can network with other <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">bloggers</span> to your hearts' content. Email us, as always, if you want listing or spot a dodgy link.<br /><br />Our new big projects for the site is the 'Your Writing' area - sign up and in <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">exchange</span> for not one of your English pounds, you can join a community who will read your work and give feedback on it - and be able to practice giving your own feedback and suggestions. This community is moderated by a panel of peer experts drawn from creative writing groups in Central and West <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Lancashire</span> so you can post safe in the knowledge that feedback will be constructive, relevant and useful.<br /><br />Otherwise, you can still contact me at jenn@theyeatculture.org<br /><br />Cheerio!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-35811625122012776632010-01-14T15:15:00.002+00:002010-01-14T15:20:31.978+00:002010 in 2010!Just two months ago, we launched our own youtube channel, Lancashire Writing Hub, featuring a broad and broadening cross-section of North-West performing talent, with novelists, short-story writers, poets and musicians captured in all their stage-strutting glory. The channel is intended as a definitive archive of live-writing performance for the region and will continue to swell with material, including a fresh slice of clips from tomorrow night's Spotlight club up at Lancaster.<br /><br /><script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube.xml&up_channel=LancashireWritingHub&synd=open&w=320&h=390&title=&border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&output=js"></script><br /><br />In those two months, the response has been extremely heartening - I've just looked at the visit-o-meter and it has just passed 2,010.<br /><br />Norman HadleyNorman Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07001118319264028958noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-77240747594442906772010-01-11T13:45:00.001+00:002010-01-11T13:47:41.665+00:00Word Soup: Jan 30th<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGoc_FYzmp0KjR0GxUQOekWMi150NExwIBm0K0lrkhECTog1t-l3CKintFJQ0_ELM-oVE6w8GtcvFkPWNnoInSwySqAuh5pUMbO0R-9h0C68QFoiIktnt6Gg4o2yM9tQ-78IosqP_rJeN5/s1600-h/WS_logo_blue.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 203px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGoc_FYzmp0KjR0GxUQOekWMi150NExwIBm0K0lrkhECTog1t-l3CKintFJQ0_ELM-oVE6w8GtcvFkPWNnoInSwySqAuh5pUMbO0R-9h0C68QFoiIktnt6Gg4o2yM9tQ-78IosqP_rJeN5/s320/WS_logo_blue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425478430839152882" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Word Soup: Sophie Hannah and Martin Edwards - a discussion and panel event hosted by Jenn Ashworth</span></span><o:p></o:p><b style=""><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div><pre style="text-align: center;"><b style=""><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;" >Ormskirk Library - FREE<o:p></o:p></span></b></pre> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">There will be dark literary deeds occurring at Ormskirk Library on Saturday 30th January from 1pm as two leading crime fiction writers visit to read from and discuss their work. The names Sophie Hannah and Martin Edwards should be familiar to many a crime fiction aficionado and this is a rare chance to meet them in person and find out just what makes them tick. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Organised by Lancashire Writing Hub, the literary arm of emergent arts organisation <i style="">They Eat Culture</i>, the monthly ‘Live Lit’ event, ‘Word Soup’, has been a fixture at Preston venue The Continental since last April. These evenings have gone from strength to strength in this time and Word Soup has quickly established itself as one of the North West’s friendliest and most relaxed Live Literature Nights. Past events have featured spots from such luminaries as top crime authors Nicholas Royle and A.J Duggan, <i style="">Doctor Who</i> scribe Rob Shearman, and Steven Hall, cult author of <i style="">The Raw Shark Texts</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">After a successful Word Soup library event in Blackpool last October, Ormskirk Library is the latest site set for a visit with two first rate crime fiction authors in tow; Sophie Hannah and Martin Edwards. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Sophie is a best-selling crime fiction writer and poet whose books, <i style="">Little Face</i>, <i style="">Hurting Distance</i> and <i style="">The Point of Rescue</i>, have sold over 300,000 copies in the UK and have also been published in a number of different languages around the world.<span style=""> </span>Sophie’s fifth collection of poetry, <i style="">Pessimism for Beginners</i>, was shortlisted for the 2007 T.S. Eliot Award, and in 2004 she won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story, <i style="">The Octopus Nest</i>. Sophie’s poetry is studied at GCSE, A-Level and degree level across the UK. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Martin Edwards’ latest novel is <i style="">Dancing for the Hangman</i>, a fictional take on the Dr. Crippen case. His first novel, <i style="">All the Lonely People</i>, introduced the character of ‘Harry Devlin’ to the world and was nominated for a Crime Writers Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best first crime novel of the year. Since then, Martin has published six further Devlin novels, the highly popular Lake District Mystery series, featuring DCI Hannah Scarlet and historian Daniel Kind, and a stand-alone psychological suspense novel set in London called <i style="">Take My Breath Away</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">On top of all this, Martin has somehow also found the time to edit sixteen collections of crime fiction, publish seven legal books, as well as over 800 articles for newspapers and magazines as diverse as <i style="">The Times</i>, <i style="">Good Housekeeping</i>, <i style="">International Management</i> and <i style="">Amateur Gardening</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Martin and Sophie will be reading and talking about their work and answering questions from the audience at the event, which, as with the Preston and Blackpool editions, will be hosted by the Preston author and blogger Jenn Ashworth, who was herself shortlisted for <i style="">The Guardian</i>’s ‘Not the Booker’ Prize last year for her own acclaimed novel, <i style="">A Kind of Intimacy</i>. A bookseller will also be in attendance, to provide those all-important copies for signing! <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="font-family:Arial;">Word Soup: Sophie Hannah & Martin Edwards</span></i></b><span style="font-family:Arial;"> takes place at <b style="">Ormskirk Library</b> from <b style="">1pm-3pm </b>on <b style="">Saturday 30th January</b>. Entry is <b style="">free</b>.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <table class="MsoNormalTable" style="width: 309.75pt;" width="413" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0cm; width: 242.25pt;" valign="top" width="323"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;color:black;" >Ormskirk Library</span><span style="font-family:Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm; width: 67.5pt;" valign="top" width="90"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;" align="right"><span style="font-family:Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <br /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" spt="75" preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:formulas> <v:path extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" connecttype="rect"> <o:lock ext="edit" aspectratio="t"> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style="'width:.75pt;"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.png" href="http://www.locallife.co.uk/blk.gif"> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/ADMINI%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image002.gif" shapes="_x0000_i1025" width="1" height="2" /><!--[endif]--><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style="'width:.75pt;height:3.75pt'"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.png" href="http://www.locallife.co.uk/blk.gif"> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/ADMINI%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image003.gif" shapes="_x0000_i1026" width="1" height="5" /><!--[endif]--><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Burscough Street Ormskirk <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Arial;" >L39 2EN</span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Tel: 01695 573448</span></span><span lang="CY" style="font-family:Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-86862020029024957682010-01-05T15:53:00.000+00:002010-01-05T15:54:11.951+00:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKL59crP0s9xXIy2yiGPJqscjCxMyHIxdNJjpJf0M0CklHwGwfPWH-v4DyIm49ySkYGpjp49M4un5N-x3WQDVglmwAcjmnGYBl_QBwapreF35VHH8CyEVPi7mA3vBYk-zHzDRyWs6GGdfA/s1600-h/Word+Soup+Ormskirk.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 254px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKL59crP0s9xXIy2yiGPJqscjCxMyHIxdNJjpJf0M0CklHwGwfPWH-v4DyIm49ySkYGpjp49M4un5N-x3WQDVglmwAcjmnGYBl_QBwapreF35VHH8CyEVPi7mA3vBYk-zHzDRyWs6GGdfA/s400/Word+Soup+Ormskirk.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423284559886517362" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-56716880071110225572010-01-05T15:48:00.002+00:002010-01-05T15:52:44.765+00:00Free Creative Writing WorkshopAre you interested in creative writing?<br />Here is a great opportunity to work with internationally published, prize winning, professional writer Kevin McCann and get your work published in a professionally produced publication.It is a creative writing project in which original historic documents and archives about Blackpool will be used as the inspiration for new pieces of writing.<span style=""> </span>There will be an introduction led by archive professionals from the Lancashire Record Office exploring the history of <st1:place st="on">Blackpool</st1:place> through archives.<span style=""> </span>The project will also be supported by professional writer, Kevin McCann, who will be on hand to help, guide and advise on the creative writing process.<span style=""> </span>At the end a professionally designed and produced publication of the finished pieces will be produced.When is it?<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The project will run from Tuesday 26<sup>th</sup> January 2010 to Saturday 27<sup>th</sup> February 2010 with a special launch event on Tuesday 30<sup>th</sup> March.<span style=""> </span><b style="">Please note</b> participants will be expected to attend <b style="">all</b> the sessions.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="font-family: Arial;">Where is it?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <table class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" valign="top" width="199"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">6pm-8pm 26<sup>th</sup> January<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153pt;" valign="top" width="204"> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place st="on"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Blackpool</span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> Central Library<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 123.7pt;" valign="top" width="165"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Introductory Session<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" valign="top" width="199"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">6pm-8pm 2<sup>nd</sup> February<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153pt;" valign="top" width="204"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Lancashire Record Office, <st1:place st="on">Preston</st1:place> (help with transport if required)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 123.7pt;" valign="top" width="165"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">A chance to see behind the scenes of the Record Office<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" valign="top" width="199"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">6pm-8pm 16<sup>th</sup> February<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153pt;" valign="top" width="204"> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place st="on"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Blackpool</span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> Central Library<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 123.7pt;" valign="top" width="165"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Advice Session<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" valign="top" width="199"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">11am-4pm 27<sup>th</sup> February<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153pt;" valign="top" width="204"> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place st="on"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Blackpool</span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> Central Library<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 123.7pt;" valign="top" width="165"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Half hour bookable 1 to 1 session with Kevin to discuss final editing<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style=""> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 149.4pt;" valign="top" width="199"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">6pm-8pm 30<sup>th</sup> March<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 153pt;" valign="top" width="204"> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place st="on"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Blackpool</span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;"> Central Library<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 123.7pt;" valign="top" width="165"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial;">Celebration and book launch<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="font-family: Arial;">How much is it?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The project is <b style="">FREE OF CHARGE</b> to all participants.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="font-family: Arial;">How do I get involved?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Places are strictly limited to 12.<span style=""> </span>Places can be booked on a first come first served basis by emailing <a href="mailto:heather.morrow@blackpool.gov.uk">heather.morrow@blackpool.gov.uk</a>.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Please ensure you are available for <b style="">all</b> the session before booking your place.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-34281672572397669432010-01-05T15:46:00.000+00:002010-01-05T15:47:51.447+00:00University programme offers path to literary success<pre><span style="font-family: arial;">An initiative to support emerging literary talent is being launched by</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">the University of Bolton in collaboration with the Chinese Arts Centre</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">in Manchester.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">The Writers' Pathway starts in February 2010 and is aimed at new</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">writers, of Chinese descent. It will provide a 14-week programme to</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">develop the writers' craft through professional supervision and distance</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">learning with the help of a professional mentor.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">The programme opens with a five-day residential workshop at the</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">prestigious Arvon Foundation Lumb Bank Centre in Hebden Bridge,</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Yorkshire, and culminates in a showcase of practitioners' work at the</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Octagon Theatre, Bolton.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Poets, novelists and playwrights can submit samples of their work and a</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">panel, comprising professional writers and University tutors, will make</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">the final selection for the 12 places available on the programme.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Rebecca Albrow, Project Manager, said: 'For someone still in the early</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">stages of their literary career, this programme could be the catalyst</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">that enables their talent to flourish and grow. Those taking part will</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">have the opportunity of working with renowned writers including experts</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">from BBC Writersroom.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">'We're delighted to be working with the Chinese Arts Centre on this</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">project and looking forward to nurturing the careers of new North West</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">literary talents.'</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">For further information about the Writers' Pathway initiative please</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">visit<br />www.bolton.ac.uk/AME/writerspathway/<br />or email</span><br /><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.fastmail.fm/mail/?MLS=MR-**f14308371u903*;MSS=;SMB-CF=14308371;SMR-PT=;SMR-UM=f14308371u903;UDm=49;Ust=1cf85586%21c9b8418b;MSignal=MC-FN*U-1*writerspathway%40bolton.ac.uk">writerspathway@bolton.ac.uk</a><span style="font-family: arial;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">For further information please contact: </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Rebecca Albrow</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Creative Industries Project Manager</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">School of Arts, Media & Education</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">University of Bolton</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Deane Campus</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Room T4-076</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Deane Road</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Bolton BL3 5AB</span><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><br />(T) 01204 903332<br /></pre>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-72019955198464603352010-01-05T10:56:00.004+00:002010-01-05T11:09:07.322+00:00Review of In Memory of Real Trees - by Mark Charlesworth<div align="justify"><em>In Memory of Real Trees</em> is the follow up to Mark Charlesworth’s debut poetry collection and, once again, there is much to recommend. Landscapes familiar to <em>Sunrise and Shorelines</em> are revisited but with a much keener eye. A gothic gauze is once again laid over the world in <em>Dark Forest, Cemetery Song, Bitterest Sin</em> and <em>Anatomising the Killer</em>, but there is progression from the first collection; Charlesworth has moved on from the musings of a younger poet and speaks with conviction about love, desire, hope and fear. </div><div align="justify"><br />In many of the poems, love often fails to thrive, or if it does it is inextricably bound up with despair and death: “Love is a parasite deep in the grave”, says the narrator of <em>Victims of Love</em>. Love brings no happiness, only horror, as the macabre conclusion shows:</div><div align="justify"><br />“There are times in life when we will always feel<br />Just like little dead girls lying on the beach.”<br /><br />Even in the more hopeful love poems – <em>Ghosts #2</em> and <em>How to Stop Time</em>, for example – Charlesworth brilliantly communicates the paradoxically insubstantial and yet permanent feelings of love:<br /><br />“One second’s intensity can burn an imprint on time<br />-fleetingly seen from the corner of an eye-<br />Forge two ghosts together in inseparable binds.”<br /><br />In <em>Attic Room</em> and <em>Heart-Shaped Hole</em>, however, the tone is less embittered, and a yearning honesty seeps out in the end of the latter. Behind all the nightmarish images, lies a simple human desire for companionship, the narrator saying that the simplest, throwaway pleasures<br /><br />“would feel a little more extraordinary<br />With someone else there by my side.”<br /><br />Interspersed with these seemingly personal concerns are sketches of other lives, damaged and loveless. <em>Second Hand Model</em> and <em>Love Song</em> focus on the mutability and superficiality of youthful beauty, while <em>Collateral for the Company</em> tells the story of a lonely man who is literally worked to death.<br /><br />One of the strengths of <em>In Memory of Real Trees</em> is the way in which personal and global hopes and fears are interwoven, as demonstrated in the two poems which bookend the collection. The individual anxieties in <em>Damaged Goods in Transit</em> are writ large for all humanity in the aptly named <em>Decision Time</em>. Individual crises parallel the predicament we face as a species.<br /><br />“Do you feel vulnerable dark and cold?<br />Too tired to sleep,<br />Too empty to weep...”<br /><br />evolves into<br /><br />“And if we settle for a doomsday scenario<br />On whose shoulders will rest the blame?”<br /><br />Like love, a utopian society is possible, says Charlesworth, but not without effort and pain. We first have to walk a road “marked by repentance, recant and repair / or broken bones, regrets and mistakes”. Urban landscapes are as blighted as inner worlds. The city is a dark, bewildering, dangerous place and produces fractured, alienated people, with the opening stanza of <em>Ghosts #1</em> echoic of both Blake’s <em>London</em> and Eliot’s <em>Wasteland</em>:<br /><br />“A multitude of drifting shadows<br />Moving through the city street abyss<br />Forever haunt the same street corners<br />Where unseen ropes bound lifeless wrists”<br /><br />Similarly in <em>Early Morning Commuter</em>, the narrator’s mindscape is mirrored in the world beyond his train window – the “tide of pollution”, the “rain-swept” tower blocks and the “dampness of a disconnected world” all driving him to find escape, both physically and mentally, in “a field of daffodils” where he “begs to be devoured”. </div><div align="justify"><br />Like those in <em>Sunrise and Shorelines</em>, these are complex poems and demand to be read and re-read. Many of the pieces are dreamlike in their structure, making the world of the collection disorientating and obscured. As readers, as in life, we long for the world to make sense and inevitably it doesn’t; something which is captured well in these poems. Indeed, many of the poems are about the almost impossible task of finding a calm, meaningful space amidst the maelstrom. That aside, Charlesworth’s linguistic inventiveness sometimes gets a little lost in the whirling disorder and so, for me at least, the longer poems are not always as engaging as the shorter, crystallised observations.</div><div align="justify"><br />There is evidence, though, of a poet finding his voice. <em>Shipwreck</em>, <em>Bees</em> and <em>Bernese Winter</em> are amongst the best in the collection because there is a more judiciously structured progression of ideas, the reader is drawn into the narrative, and there is a more accomplished control of images:</div><div align="justify"><br />“The frozen green river was picturesque for a while<br />before absent festive ice-skaters left it still.”<br /><br />“...the shop-keeper traipses to a cellar store,<br />cutting spectrums of fabric, lace strands and silk,<br />in burgundy, violet, thunder-sky-scarlet,<br />stoking incense, candles and spices enticing...”<br /><br />Remarkably, Charlesworth has suggested that this will be his last collection of poetry. Personally, I think this would be a great shame as there is obviously so much potential here for him to become an excellent poet. He is clearly prolific and watches the world carefully. If more work emerges from Charlesworth, it would be nice to see a shorter, more thematically-focused collection which will allow the reader to savour the richness of his language and the poet to cut the skin of a particular aspect of human experience sharply. In the meantime, it is well worth reading <em>In Memory of Real Trees</em>. These poems deserve your time.</div><div align="left"><br />You can keep up to date with Mark Charlesworth’s writing at <a href="http://www.markcharlesworth.blogspot.com/">http://www.markcharlesworth.blogspot.com/</a> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-91474242184736566312009-12-14T13:53:00.008+00:002009-12-14T15:29:40.684+00:00Word Soup #8 'Old'<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKC0oNoDnSbtqxXxpmJjLYPgDQq8Fz0ZZ6lVhwCWEMITnBHlhjugO9oHNQ0P6ngMnFdGzMV8ThFhYeDwR7la-YL2OOTq1kVK7PQwUqUxESRK5f9QJLAO08iYOM5gBQdhJXIOIr_GWrZ3Ee/s1600-h/WS_logo_blue.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 127px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKC0oNoDnSbtqxXxpmJjLYPgDQq8Fz0ZZ6lVhwCWEMITnBHlhjugO9oHNQ0P6ngMnFdGzMV8ThFhYeDwR7la-YL2OOTq1kVK7PQwUqUxESRK5f9QJLAO08iYOM5gBQdhJXIOIr_GWrZ3Ee/s200/WS_logo_blue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415092795192182994" border="0" /></a><br />Lancashire Writing Hub is pleased to bring you Word Soup #8 - our last of the year, on the 22nd of December. Come and join us on a chilly winter's evening for an evening of writing, words and music. We start at eight, but if you fancy something warm for tea before hand, come early!<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbQog3Ds6QkSJA7hSWU5Qep8qpCHoACIrvDBTb5bbpXVD4JToCm4VtL29VkV3fiyTKqnmeXhd97m8vHOhBFijLgvunJOC-l-6s-_LUmvmHffCIHy0K1PdX0Dxqj9KuuZ4ZRVLP54i6KzDD/s1600-h/zoepic.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 140px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbQog3Ds6QkSJA7hSWU5Qep8qpCHoACIrvDBTb5bbpXVD4JToCm4VtL29VkV3fiyTKqnmeXhd97m8vHOhBFijLgvunJOC-l-6s-_LUmvmHffCIHy0K1PdX0Dxqj9KuuZ4ZRVLP54i6KzDD/s200/zoepic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415109867087475218" border="0" /></a><br />Special guests include Zoe Lambert<br /><br /><span>Zoe is a short story writer based in Manchester. She is published by <a href="http://www.commapress.co.uk/">Comma Press</a> and her debut collection is forthcoming in 2010. She lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Bolton.</span><br /><br />and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.amhurley.blogspot.com">Andrew Michael Hurley.<br /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFKl12lzjL5mDQGcLMqbvAMBUGD1ycg1WsFKGGHSahmjVTNfEBZRzrn_acggcLF4Fj7Sikhw54C5OqM1e_Ys8KiTnXmfXCfOzQ52LHaFPGc6oiwfcupxUY3aRAOTf8vOOKy_qxhpT-VgG/s1600-h/andy.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 167px; height: 167px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioFKl12lzjL5mDQGcLMqbvAMBUGD1ycg1WsFKGGHSahmjVTNfEBZRzrn_acggcLF4Fj7Sikhw54C5OqM1e_Ys8KiTnXmfXCfOzQ52LHaFPGc6oiwfcupxUY3aRAOTf8vOOKy_qxhpT-VgG/s200/andy.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415106643945440050" border="0" /></a><br /><span>Born in 1975, Andrew was brought up in Preston. After living in Manchester and London he returned to Lancashire where he graduated from MMU with an MA in Creative Writing. He is the author of two short story collections - Cages and The Unusual Death of Julie Christie - and has had stories published in various on-line and print magazines. At the moment he is trying to write a novel about mistletoe, the Cold War and a boy with super-powers, and is a regular contributor to the Central Lancs Writing Hub.</span><br /><br /><br />We'll also be joined by <a href="http://www.scribblepreston.blogspot.com/">sCribble</a>, who'll be treating us to a showcase selection of writing from their members - some of whom will be making their very first forray onto the spoken word stage just for us.<br /><br />Finally, you'll be hearing from poets Peter Crompton and Rachel McGladery. Rachael wowed us at the Word Soup #6 open mike, and we snapped her up for a turn as a booked performer.<br /><br />Rachel has written ever since she can remember. She only began writing poetry early this year, although since she discovered open mike at Word Soup she has become tiresomely prolific and has had three piece published at Pygmy Giant. She also writes a family life column in her local paper and has just completed at 50,000 word novel written in 30 days with NaNoWriMo.<br /><br />Peter Crompton has performed at Word Soup before - both on the open mike and as a booked performer. Peter has <a href="http://www.writeoutloud.net/poets/petecrompton">a profile</a> and a <a href="http://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/petecrompton">blog</a> on the <a href="http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/index.php">Write out Loud</a> site and <a href="http://s262.photobucket.com/home/the_machine_city/index">a photography showcase here</a>.<br /><br /><br />Musical interludes for the evening will come courtesty of the talented <a href="http://www.myspace.com/karimafrancis">Karima Francis: myspace here.<br /></a><br /><br />As always, the doors open at 8pm and we'll be starting shortly afterwards, so come early if you want a seat because (as you regulars will know) we've been getting busier and busier.<br /><br />If you want to sign up for open mike, come and find me when you get here, or speak to Robyn on the door who will be happy to sign you up for your three minutes of spoken word glory. The night will be filmed by You Tube Channel curator and digital archivist extraordinaire <a href="http://www.normanhadley.co.uk/">Norman Hadley</a>, and hosted by me, <a href="http://www.jennashworth.blogspot.com/">Jenn Ashworth</a>. You can listen along at home by following the #wordsoup hashtag on twitter.<br /><br />(Boom!)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-67116834254819204132009-12-11T08:40:00.003+00:002009-12-11T08:50:49.925+00:00Video Channel Expands North<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWU6P5nzVqulxref0Uy2f0q27QZVWa9gefoLIxcwqugBvBjokUIcz_Pxvpp6k7HmxnUNBoF4gwlF9yUk4jQr9xKXC2-DIXuqSSHdLFnGG3iET1Nl_7t9FYCGhhAmnwPaCfPQLO6627OiIO/s1600-h/LWH_LOGO+HIGHRES.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWU6P5nzVqulxref0Uy2f0q27QZVWa9gefoLIxcwqugBvBjokUIcz_Pxvpp6k7HmxnUNBoF4gwlF9yUk4jQr9xKXC2-DIXuqSSHdLFnGG3iET1Nl_7t9FYCGhhAmnwPaCfPQLO6627OiIO/s320/LWH_LOGO+HIGHRES.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413896519189732274" border="0" /></a><br /><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;} span.EmailStyle15 {mso-style-type:personal; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-ascii-font-family:Arial; mso-hansi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:windowtext;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB">You lucky, lucky people. Not only do we provide you with video clips of the finest writers and singers from the Prestonlands, but we will even venture north on your behalf, to gently lower our butterfly net over <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Lancaster</st1:place></st1:city>'s literary luminaries. That's right, the video channel that we set up last month (and has already had nearly 700 views) is expanding to include performances from <a href="http://www.spotlightlancaster.co.uk/">Lancaster Spotlight</a>. The content has nearly doubled and will double again over the weekend - a bit like the National Debt but in a good way.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube.xml&up_channel=LancashireWritingHub&synd=open&w=320&h=390&title=&border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&output=js"></script><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB">If you're an event organiser, you can use this resource as a growing library of performers to fill your stage.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB">If you're a performer, feel free to embed clips in your site and blogs (only please drop in some kind words and some even kinder links about Lancashire Writing Hub).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;" lang="EN-GB">Or if you went to one of these nights and just want to relive your favourite acts, you can do that too. And don't forget to keep supporting both Word Soup and Spotlight because performers need people to perform to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Norman Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07001118319264028958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-22074514400035924442009-12-10T16:52:00.000+00:002009-12-10T16:53:43.849+00:00Intermediate Creative Writing CourseLancashire Writing Hub presents the Intermediate Creative Writing Course<br />- hosted by novelist and short story writer <a href="http://www.jennashworth.blogspot.com">Jenn Ashworth</a>. This short,<br />intensive course is aimed at writers who are working on short stories,<br />flash fiction collections or novels. Learn to structure and edit longer<br />pieces of work, receive feedback and develop your writing process from<br />initial idea to finished product. Three separate 3 hour sessions -<br />Saturday 9th January, Saturday 23rd January and Saturday 6th February -<br />all sessions 2 - 5pm in the Snug, Contintental, South Meadow Lane<br />Preston.<br /><br />Jenn Ashworth is an experienced workshop tutor and has had short stories<br />published variously in magazines both on and off line. Her first novel,<br />A Kind of Intimacy, was named as a Waterstones New Voice and shortlisted<br />for the Guardian's Not The Booker Award. She writes an award winning<br />blog, has just completed work on her second novel and currently hosts<br />the monthly live lit night Word Soup here at the Continental.<br /><br />Cost: £70 for all three sessions (attendance at all three sessions is<br />required - fees are non-refundable)<br /><br /><br />Initial expressions of interest to <a href="mailto:jenn@theyeatculture.org" meorighref="mailto:jenn@theyeatculture.org">jenn@theyeatculture.org</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-60754001793015936442009-12-01T13:40:00.000+00:002009-12-01T13:41:12.048+00:00Free Event from Chorley Writers' Circle<p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Writing Group Members! <span> </span>-<span> </span>Join us for the launch of Chorley Writers’ new book + </span></b></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Entertainment from Poet Ann Wilson &</span></b></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 108pt; text-indent: 36pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A great opportunity to meet other local writers</span></b></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Tuesday 8<sup>th</sup> December 2009 @ 8pm</span></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">New Continental, Preston</span></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Free entry <!--/*SC*//*SC*/defang_FONT size=3/*EC*//*EC*/--><span style="font-size: medium;">(<span>but you need to </span>book <span>your </span>place)<!--/*SC*//*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*//*EC*/--></span></span></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;" align="left"> </p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Chorley & District Writers’ Circle would like to invite members of local writing groups to the launch of our annual publication Aware.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The event takes place on Tuesday 8<sup>th</sup> December at the New Continental in Preston and promises to be a great evening. </span></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There will be entertainment from </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">humorous</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">poet Ann Wilson and her ukulele.<span> <br /></span>We will also be announcing the winners of our Poetry competition as well reading work from Aware.<br />Finally, we are launching a new online resource for local writers funded by the National Lottery.</span></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"> </p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The event is free and open to all writers – it’s a fantastic opportunity for local writing groups to get together. <span> <b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Places are limited so if you would like to attend please email <u><a href="http://www.fastmail.fm/mail/?MLS=MR-**f14308371u653*;MSS=;SMB-CF=14308371;SMB-MF-DR=100;SMR-PT=;SMR-UM=f14308371u653;UDm=49;Ust=b31cf6ff%21c9b8418b;MSignal=MC-FN*U-1*heather%40font57.com" target="_blank">heather@font57.com</a></u> to make a booking by <!--/*SC*//*SC*/defang_FONT color=#ff0000/*EC*//*EC*/--><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">2<sup>nd</sup> December<span> AT THE LATEST</span><!--/*SC*//*SC*//defang_FONT/*EC*//*EC*/--></span></b>.<span> <br /></span>We look forward to seeing you!</span></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB">Regards</span></p> <p class="me51592me14833MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB">Chorley & District Writers’ Circle</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-46948981141455568352009-11-28T15:11:00.004+00:002009-11-28T15:40:29.269+00:00Interview with Mark Charlesworth on the publication of his second book of poetry, In Memory of Real Trees<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOHG_ogqRiyTjwLe2Ak79CQcqXHFUfyYlm548j9-2qwvpSYukXYyuBP7phRNHHcXYw745AbjOqr6jvMF17C_weBZoU5-1yaqKuL4z6Kl4g07nbSlsXF4vsQiW1oieKj-yOOlC_Tz9xeXyk/s1600/mark.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOHG_ogqRiyTjwLe2Ak79CQcqXHFUfyYlm548j9-2qwvpSYukXYyuBP7phRNHHcXYw745AbjOqr6jvMF17C_weBZoU5-1yaqKuL4z6Kl4g07nbSlsXF4vsQiW1oieKj-yOOlC_Tz9xeXyk/s320/mark.JPG" /></a><br />
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<div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's 3pm and I'm standing outside Caffe Nero, waiting to meet Mark Charlesworth, the poet. Mark is also standing outside Caffe Nero, waiting to meet me. The only problem - as we eventually realise – is I am in Lytham and he is in St Anne's. </span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">One quick bus journey later we are ready to start the interview, no real harm done. It's an occupational hazard when there's a ubiquitous Coffee House on every high-street. We chose Nero because Mark is a vegan and here in Suburbia the major chains are the only place you can get soya milk. I say this because it seems typical of the myriad contradictory challenges of Modern Life which so fascinate Charlesworth: where we are forced into making bizarre choices between Veganism and Globalisation, or Fair Trade V Organic, Locally Available V Superfoods. Mark's poetry finds modernity confusing, worrying and often painfully self-aware.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have armed myself with a Vegan-friendly green tea and a serious expression, but within five minutes of meeting, Mark has used the words 'warm and fuzzy' to describe one of his favourite poems, and concludes the interview with a persuasively positive slant on the recession. While grappling with dark and socially aware themes, there is ultimately an irrepressible love of beauty throughout Mark's writing which makes both reading and listening to him a pleasure.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">***</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daisy: The Central Lancs Writing Hub (formerly Preston Writers Network) focuses on the Lancashire literary community. Do you believe specific places can shape and inspire its inhabitants in unique ways and have any places particularly inspired you?</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">To an extent, yes. This latest book really began to take shape after I attended a wedding in Blackpool. After a while the music began to grate a little and my friend and I decided to go for a walk. It's weird because I've always slagged off Blackpool because of its seediness, its tackiness, and the commercial aspect of it, but we took a walk through all that, quite a way out onto the beach, and then we turned back to Blackpool... All the illuminations were sparkling, like Christmas lights, and it looked almost picturesque. We were seeing Blackpool from this whole new perspective. It started to rain then and the lights through the rain looked... fuzzy. [Laughs] - You don't get words like that in the book, 'warm and fuzzy', honest. 'Carnation' was the poem that eventually emerged from the contrast between the tackiness of the golden mile and the original seafront which attracted the Victorian tourists in the first place. It wasn't the first poem I wrote for the book, but it was the one which gave it structure.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I've also always enjoyed going to Leeds on the train, through the hills and the bleak industrial towns. Despite all the crumbling buildings, there's a beauty about them, set into the jagged hills, which Southerners might not get. The poem turns round the clichés and throws them back at the detractors. The picture on the cover of the book is of Fairhaven Lake, another inspiring spot.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daisy: Could you tell us a little about your background?</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm twenty-three, and a Northerner born and bred; I went to college at Cardinal Newman in Preston, before studying English at UCLAN. The course there had some optional creative writing modules, and while at college my English teacher always encouraged us to submit writing to him. I self-published my first book, <i>Sunrise and Shorelines</i> in 2008 and am launching my second book of poetry, <i>In Memory of Real Trees</i>, at The New Continental on the 28<sup>th</sup> of November. I feel the first book gave me the confidence to start down the road of self-publishing, and with the second I've introduced more of a theme and concept to the work.<br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daisy: In terms of poets, who would you cite as influences?</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's hard, I suppose I haven't followed poetry in a linear fashion; Simon Armitage certainly, and Ted Hughes. I'm a big admirer of Baudelaire, especially his poem 'A Carcass' which is about this disgusting cadaver but somehow Baudelaire manages to make it almost beautiful... I think the first book displayed these influences more prominently, it was straight up Nu-Gothic – one reviewer called it that and spelt it that awful 'N-U' way! (Ed. Whoops so did I). Who else? I admire Roger McGough's stark, concise stanzas which somehow manage to contain so much emotion. Then there's our new poet laureate, Carol Anne Duffy.<br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">[The interview here deteriorates into a discussion on the merits of Duffy who still brings back bitter memories of school and forced readings of 'Valentine' for me. Mark suggests I should revisit her as he didn't appreciate her work until he was older, and thinks teaching her in school is a mistake.]</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daisy: I'm interested in the distinction between music and poetry, are there any musicians who have inspired your poetry and to what extent do you think the two forms are interrelated?</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I think certainly the line between poetry and music is blurred at best. I'm a big fan of The Smiths. I remember someone read some of the lyrics out in a presentation while I was at University and it was strange how un-lyrical they sounded read aloud. The magic takes place in the way he sings them, and so I suppose there is a distinction there. I also love Nick Cave - the way he constructs lyrics is so totally idiosyncratic, they almost shouldn't work but they do. I also like The Waterboys, especially their song 'Bring 'Em All In', which is extremely poetic.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In first book two of the poems are actually adapted from song lyrics we'd written, and in the new one the poem 'Bitterest Sin' also. It works both ways too, a friend recently read 'Second Hand Model' from the latest book and called me to say he thought it would work really well as a song. So that's a case of poetry inspiring music.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">To diverge from the question slightly, I went to an exhibition earlier this year at the Tate Modern which looked at the connection between poetry and painting: Poetry is a snapshot of the world much like a painting is; it takes one concise idea and inspires a train of thought and emotion, and I thought that was a nice idea. In the book the poem '11 Self Portraits' was inspired by this.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daisy: Are you PC literate? What forms of so-called 'social networking' do you favour and what have you found most effective in creating publicity and maintaining interest?</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yes I'm certainly part of the PC literate generation. But you have to pick and choose, because there are so many different ways to communicate out there that you can spread yourselves too thinly. I looked into various different options to publicise my first book and at the time the buzz about Twitter was just getting started. But Twitter really didn't appeal to me; I don't like the way it reduces everyone to soundbites, whereas with blogging you can actually construct varying arguments, and people can state their case and back it with evidence. I think this reduction of everything to mere soundbites is dangerous to society actually. To elaborate is in a writer's nature. So yes, I avoid Twitter but I do have a blog (<a href="http://markcharlesworth.blogspot.com/">http://markcharlesworth.blogspot.com/</a>) and I try to promote it on forums, link to MySpace, Facebook etc. I've found though that sometimes the old-fashioned ways work best. Last year while I was publishing the first book I asked anyone interested in hearing more to scribble their email addresses down – I ended up with a mailing list of over a hundred people. So I use that to update people and I've had a surprising level of responses – sometimes I think there's so much out there that things can sink and get buried. Communicating with people directly can be more successful. Obviously this wouldn't be possible for bigger writers, but I feel privileged to be able to respond to people individually. <br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daisy: You've self-published your first two books, why did you make the decision to go down this road to publication?<br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Originally it was partly because it's much harder to pitch poetry to mainstream publishers. There's a lot of cliché surrounding poetry; people see it as dark and arty and they don't want to go near it. I think there's less of a commercial aspect. At the same time I think there's becoming more of a market for it. I also wanted to some extent to create and control my own reputation by self publishing poetry as a way to progress towards publishing a novel. One step at a time, you know, but I am trying to increase exposure and I have quite a fixed plan. The next book is going to be a concept book dealing with issues very close to my heart and so naturally I would like a wider audience for it. That will be my last book of poems. I don't want to be in danger of repeating myself...</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daisy: That's a very intriguing idea; the attempt to avoid repetition as a writer. Many of our best writers seem to return time and again to the same preoccupations. Some writers (and readers) embrace that and some try consciously to avoid it – do you think it's even possible to do so?</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">To go back to the previous question, Nine Inch Nails are a big influence, and I read an interview with them recently after their final tour –which was amazing- and they said they had bowed out because they wanted to end it while they were at the peak of their game. I'm hoping I have the willpower after this next book to say that's it for poetry and I'm moving onto prose. I'm not saying I won't return to it at some point in the future but I would want to put a lid on it for the time being. But I'm getting ahead of myself! I would like to get an agent at that stage anyway. I would want to ease up a bit if I were publishing a novel as I'm a bit of a control freak when self-publishing.<br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Daisy: You talked about the fact that poetry isn't very commercial – and I think the same thing is true of short stories, novellas – do you think the 'credit-crunch' has affected the publishing prospects for writers of these genres and would you advise writers who aren't currently getting offers from mainstream publishers to self-publish or wait it out until the economy has improved?</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The society we live in now can be a bleak place sometimes, but there are hopeful things which come out of there: Although yes, this recession can mean mainstream publishers are clinging to their cash cows, it's possible to see it as a good thing because it leads people to take things into their own hands - not just in publishing, but big business and retail as well. </span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In recent times we've seen a very corporate world in which people have had to ally themselves with a brand, or publisher, and ultimately they compromise their integrity to an extent, just to get their work out there. Now I think people are starting to realise they have to take personal responsibility for themselves and their lives. In a way I think we are witnessing the rebirth of the Age of Independence – not just in terms of writing but in the way people approach their lives; like renewable power, growing their own vegetables, self-sufficiency in lifestyles and business occupations. I think that's a very positive thing. </span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps I'm being too optimistic, but it seems to me we're actually making poetry <i>more</i> commercially viable for the future. I'm certainly seeing more grassroots arts events out there recently [like our own Word Soup!] and then there's the web of course – there's a whole network of tools and resources out there for writers. I think in a way the recession or 'credit-crunch' has led to a widespread feeling of empowerment, and it's this sense of being empowered which will carry us into the next era.</span><br />
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In Memory of Real Trees can be purchased through Mark's <a href="http://markcharlesworth.blogspot.com/">blog</a> and at the book launch this evening (Saturday the 28th) at The New Continental here in Preston.</span><br />
</div>daisy daisyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04033478051847108695noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-43297238618241927212009-11-26T14:44:00.001+00:002009-11-26T14:44:47.244+00:00<p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 14pt;">The 4th edition of ‘Pinhole Camera’ </span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 14pt;">the magazine from the University of Cumbria,</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 18pt;">invites submissions for</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 50pt; font-weight: bold;">‘EXPOSURE’</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 18pt;">Max word length: 2000 words or 40 lines of poetry</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 18pt;"></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 18pt;">Writing can be of any genré or style but there </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 18pt;">must</span><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 18pt;"> be a Cumbrian link with either writer or work. </span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 18pt;">closing date for submissions: </span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 16pt;">14TH JANUARY 2010</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 16pt;">publication in April, 2010.<span> </span></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: bold;">and, as an added bonus why not enter our ‘Flash Fiction’ competition too?</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: bold;">Tell us a story in no more than 100 words.<span> </span>All Flash-fiction entries will be posted on the up-coming website and the stories voted the best by our readers will get copies of the magazine and the opportunity to read out winning entries at our spectacular launch event in April 2010, d</span><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: bold;">ate & Venue tba</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: bold;">go on, you know you want to!</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 8pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 17pt;">Exposure welcomes entries by post or email:</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 17pt;">to submit, or for more information contact:</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 8pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 17pt;"><a href="mailto:pinholecamera4@gmail.com" target="_blank">pinholecamera4@gmail.com</a></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 8pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 17pt;">EXPOSURE MAGAZINE</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 17pt;">C/O 9 CHURCH TERRACE</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 17pt;">STANWIX</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 17pt;">CARLISLE</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 17pt;">CA3 9DH</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 5pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: 17pt;">Tel/Text : 07930 236 122</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-86899290742486416502009-11-23T15:32:00.004+00:002009-11-23T15:43:38.796+00:00Central Lancs HubThose of you who are eager in your wishes to be kept updated with the best and most up to date literature news and events in Preston and beyond will already be subscribing to this blog in a reader... you sensible lot.<br /><br />However, you might want to consider clicking through and visiting us at home just this once - as well as our well-furnished sidebar, offering you the very best in Preston Blog Directories, poetry, performance and literature links for our region and elsewhere in the UK, you'll also want to come in and see our brand new title.<br /><br />Look.<br /><br />Up there. ^^<br /><br />There you go.<br /><br />We are no longer the Preston Writing Network. Exciting things are afoot. We are expanding and extending in our endeavours to bring you high quality news, reviews, events and information. For the time being, we're going to be called the <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Central Lancs Writing Hub</span> - reflecting our tendency to take in events and information that extends beyond the boundaries of the city of Preston.<br /><br />Shortly before Christmas we'll be changing again, and moving house to a brand-new website comissioned by They Eat Culture. The new website, swish, sophisticated and still-in-the-making, will be called <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">The Lancashire Writing Hub</span> and will include <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">The Central Lancs Hub</span> and our new, currently in development, <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">West Lancs Hub</span>.<br /><br />Don't get scared. It sounds complicated, but really it isn't. Stand by to change your feed, subscription or bookmarks, and come with us to our new address - launching just before Christmas. We're excited. You should be too.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If you have any questions or comments or want to join our merry band of volunteer bloggers (especially if you're West Lancs based) email me at jenn@theyeatculture.org</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-10814424708851164462009-11-23T14:18:00.008+00:002009-11-26T16:29:10.369+00:00Word Soup #7 'Home'<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB5Y-Om8eqdBq5K0fob08FWDSOY_lTnrv5DFAWted5oxCNaKnL7NylKlA9EJsd5y23hd1gTCfT063Mj20Io58Lh18jF-PmHNx4p8HP4Jd3Ya67i1UuB3gISAVvKWKWtW2O0qzXG3hvk6-e/s1600/WS_logo_blue.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 203px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB5Y-Om8eqdBq5K0fob08FWDSOY_lTnrv5DFAWted5oxCNaKnL7NylKlA9EJsd5y23hd1gTCfT063Mj20Io58Lh18jF-PmHNx4p8HP4Jd3Ya67i1UuB3gISAVvKWKWtW2O0qzXG3hvk6-e/s320/WS_logo_blue.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407321961754376546" border="0" /></a><br />Our regular Word Soup reviewer, the lovely and talented Mel Webster, had the cheek to go away on her holidays so it's only me this time. Apologies for inaccuracy, misspelling, dearth of good jokes and lack of insightful yet witty comments about shoes in advance...<br /><br />Our seventh Word Soup took place, as did the previous eight, in the Continental Events Space. A slight change to our usual format meant we missed out on our popular open mike section (sorry guys) and instead hosted Bewilderbliss - a Manchester based creative writing magazine. But more about that later.<br /><br />Our first performer was <a href="http://markcharlesworth.blogspot.com/">Mark Charlesworth</a> - a Preston based blogger and poet who's been featured <a href="http://prestonwritingnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-of-sunrise-and-shorelines-by_31.html">fairly regularly on the PrestonWN blog by our in-house reviewer Andrew Hurley</a>, as well as at previous Word Soups. We were pleased to welcome him back for a selection of Home themed poems that acted as a preview to his new poetry collection, <span style="font-style: italic;">In Memory of Real Trees</span>. Mark will be launching the collection here at the Continental on the 28th November - the event is free and all are welcome. We'll also be reviewing the collection here very shortly.<br /><br />Paul Sockett made a much welcome return to our stage all the way from his home in Great Harwood with a collection of poems that examined just what 'home' actually means - emphasising that home is not always a safe sanctuary with a chilling and disturbing poem titled 'One Thousand'. Paul's a confident, charismatic performer and certainly one of Word Soup's best discoveries - an actor by profession, he prefers to be called 'an actor who writes' rather than a writer...<br /><br />Rounding off the first half, we were especially pleased to welcome West Lancashire novelist <a href="http://www.carolfenlon.com/">Carol Fenlon</a> - who read from her award winning debut novel, <a href="http://www.carolfenlon.com/9152/index.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Consider the </span>Lilies</a>. Structured as a series of diary entries from an unusual and isolated woman living in rural West Lancs in the 1960s, her writing had the whole room enthralled - one audience member visiting from south Manchester commented that he really got a sense of a Lancashire voice from Carol's work.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/y5AsnMY142o&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/y5AsnMY142o&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />After a short break and a wee bit of music from Kevin Wilkinson, we returned to the main stage with a set from <a href="http://bewilderbliss.com/">Bewilderbliss.</a> Curated by the magazine's editor Jon Davies, we heard from magazine contributors and Manchester students Holly Ringland, Mathew Hull, Valerie O'Riordan and Jonathan Davies himself. The guests went down a storm, with a varied collection of pieces that showcased the best of Manchester writing. You can read Valeries' account of her first ever live performance at <a href="http://not-exactly-true.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-first-reading_23.html">her blog - here (clicky clicky).</a><br /><br />Bewilderbliss have their own website - do pop over (but please come back) to read interviews and reviews and find out more about their magazine - <a href="http://bewilderbliss.com/submissions/">now open for submissions</a>. They accept poetry and prose and aim to showcase the very best in new writing - it would be great to have a Prestonian featured there... all issues are themed and all submitted pieces should be on the theme 'untruthful' - a theme set by yours truly. So get submitting, and tell them we sent you..<br /><br />Our final two performers were certainly worth waiting for. <a href="http://www.molliebaxter.com/">Mollie Baxter</a> travelled to us from Morecambe. A very experienced musician, writer and performer with pieces published by Lancaster based publisher, Flax - she treated the audience to a short story first published in <a href="http://www.litfest.org/before-the-rain-flax-006.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Before the Rain</span></a> with an alternative ending written especially for the evening - and followed up with an account of a flat that had many members of the audience nodding in recognition.<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ylxSHWDblzg&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ylxSHWDblzg&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Last up we had <a href="http://fellhouse.wordpress.com/">Thomas Fletcher</a> - Thomas is an accomplished writer and poet based in Manchester, <a href="http://www.litfest.org/thomas-fletcher.html">also published by Flax</a> and with his first novel, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Leaping</span>, forthcoming in 2010 by Quercus Books. His editor Nick Johnston has said Tom's work<br /><br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">'speaks for a generation that's got the highest level of university education in history, but has largely found themselves trapped in mind-numbing temp work. He's perfectly captured the fear and violence that lurk beneath the surface of our society.'</blockquote><br /><br />Fear and violence were certainly in the offing for the last story of the night - an uncanny, almost supernatural tale of a woman pursued by a mysterious entity called 'home' - observed by her husband who can watch, but do nothing to help her. This was an unsettling tale - playing with our assumptions about 'hearth and home' and undermining our expectations at every turn. Tom's deadpan, highly controlled delivery perfectly suited the subject matter, and left the audience wanting more. Watch it for yourself here:<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SrFekrUPM7g&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SrFekrUPM7g&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />And that's all for Word Soup in November. With, as always, our thanks going to Daisy Baldwin <a href="http://prestonwritingnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/11/word-soup-7-november-17th-8pm_14.html">who researched and created our performer profiles</a>, and <a href="http://www.normanhadley.co.uk/">Norman Hadley</a> who filmed the clips you see here, and the addition clips of the night which you can view at your leisure on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/LancashireWritingHub">Lancashire</a> Writing Hub YouTube Channel.<br /><br />We'll be back in December with Word Soup #8 - 'Old' with appearances from Zoe Lambert, Rachel McGladdery, Peter Crompton and a showcase spot from sCribble - as well as a return to our much missed open mike section of the night. See you there!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-55487691752397560952009-11-18T22:24:00.003+00:002009-11-18T22:36:09.626+00:00Review of Trades of the Flesh by Faye L. Booth<div align="justify">Following the success of <em>Cover the Mirrors</em> (2007), <em>Trades of the Flesh</em> is the second offering from North West novelist Faye L. Booth and concerns the fall and rise of pauper Lydia Ketch who turns to prostitution and begins to use the lucrative and exploitative trade to her own advantage, effecting her escape from a self-destructive underclass. Her way out comes initially in the form of Henry Shadwell, a young surgeon, who Lydia happens across whilst plying her trade in The Old Bull. Little by little Lydia is drawn into Henry’s world of amateur pornography and, more alarmingly, grave robbery.</div><div align="justify"><br />Writing historical fiction is always a difficult task and it is a skilful author that can make the reader believe they are seeing into a much older world without having to shoehorn in the clichés of the time (to create the 1970s, for example, all you need are Space Hoppers, kipper ties, Smash, Clangers, tank-tops, flares and three day weeks). The problem is that we want to have our cake and eat it with historical fiction. We want characters to have similar concerns to ours, but also be different enough to seem as though they belong to a bygone age. In the same way there are always complaints that the characters in BBC costume dramas seem ‘too modern’, we are hyper-sensitive to anachronisms of behaviour and speech mannerisms in prose that can burst the bubble of plausibility. There is also the problem that as readers we have so many preconceptions about particular historical periods that the writer, in creating an authentic past world, has to walk a fine line between tapping into those ideas we already hold and challenging them.</div><div align="justify"><br />For the most part Booth deals with these issues deftly. Despite the dark and often tragic events, the story is told with gallows humour, the characters are engaging and familiar without being stereotypes, and there are some weird and wonderful originals – like the beggar who tries to trick Lydia and Mary into thinking he is diseased by making weeping scabs out of soap and pigs’ blood and the strange bunch of trainee surgeons Henry instructs using his purloined corpses. </div><div align="justify"><br />But although the novel is clearly well researched (Booth admits to walking the streets of Preston - so to speak - and scrutinising old maps to understand how the city might have looked and felt in the nineteenth century), I found myself wanting this dark Preston to be rendered a little more tangibly. Though this may have been because I am a native Prestonian and I wanted from the novel the same pleasurably disorientating sense of familiarity and otherness I feel when I look at old photographs of a city I know well. Booth has simply chosen subtlety when it comes to describing place, making the characters and their lives the focus. Lydia’s world is, in fact, fairly small – her employment restricting her to the main thoroughfares of Friargate and Fishergate.</div><div align="justify"><br />Lydia and Henry’s lusty exploits would not look out of place in <em>Onan</em> and <em>The Gentlemen’s Review</em>, but there is more to this novel than just trashy erotica. It is about female empowerment as much as it is about sexual liberation. While many of the men come across as either violent, arrogant or with sexual tastes way beyond weird (see the man who is aroused by girls pretending they are consumptive) women, on the other hand, are nearly all strong willed and intelligent. Kathleen Tanner who owns the brothel where Lydia works and Mrs Bell, her landlady later in the novel, though worlds apart, both run successful businesses. Lydia teaches herself to read and write well enough to publish a ‘gentlemen’s’ paper of her own – <em>The White Flowers Reader</em> - and as a result of her business acumen is eventually able to move out of the ‘introductions house’. She outgrows the need for Henry’s financial assistance and becomes truly independent.</div><div align="justify"><br />The corset on the book cover will probably mean that <em>Trades of the Flesh</em> is stacked on the shelves in Waterstones with the Black Lace Quickies and bondage anthologies, but don’t be shy, go over, take it away from all that and put it with the literature.</div><div align="justify"><br />Faye L. Booth was interviewed by <a href="http://prestonwritingnetwork.blogspot.com/2009/10/faye-l-booth-interview.html">PWN last month</a> and has already completed her third novel, which is set at the turn of the century. You can follow her progress on book number four by reading her <a href="http://fayelbooth.blogspot.com/2009/04/welcome-to-fayelboothcouk.html">blog</a>.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-61846057157506747102009-11-18T08:25:00.004+00:002009-11-19T15:43:19.417+00:00LancashireWritingHub - New Youtube ChannelThis week sees the launch of Preston Writing Network's shiny-new adventure in multimedia webtertainment. We've set up our very own youtube channel called Lancashire Writing Hub, where the writerly folk of Ribbleland can have their performances captured for the grateful benefit of posterity. <br /><br /><script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube.xml&up_channel=LancashireWritingHub&synd=open&w=320&h=390&title=&border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&output=js"></script><br /><br />We've already uploaded some archive clips from Word Soup on Tour and Word Soup 6 so it's far from an empty jam-jar. As today progresses, new clips should waft in from the floatier recesses of cyberspace, depicting the brave souls who read, sang, strummed and hummed for us at last night's cracking Word Soup 7.Norman Hadleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07001118319264028958noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-35386011167706905972009-11-15T00:06:00.007+00:002009-11-16T19:10:31.913+00:00Blog RoundupIt's time for us to take a stroll once again in the land of local blogs. With winter drawing in, bringing with it its cold and its rain, this is an apt time of year to remind ourselves of the more positive aspect of nature, wildlife and the great outdoors in general.<br /><br />First up, is <a href="http://save-the-ribble.blogspot.com/">Save The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Ribble</span></a>, a blog whose aim, in the words of the blog itself, is to preserve 'the beauty of the River <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Ribble</span>, and opposing the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Riverworks</span> 'vision' to build a barrage on our River and develop on our riverbanks, floodplains and green spaces, causing damage to wildlife and the environment and increasing the risk of flooding to our homes.' Active locals and regular visitors to the blog will know it has already been <a href="http://save-the-ribble.blogspot.com/2008/04/south-ribble-riverbanks-green-belt.html">successful</a> in preventing the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Ribble's</span> riverbanks and South <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Ribble's</span> Green Belt from being 'developed', and also in <a href="http://save-the-ribble.blogspot.com/2007/12/ribble-is-saved-for-now.html">forcing the council to abandon plans to build a barrage</a> across the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Ribble</span>.<br /><br />Save The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Ribble</span> is part of a wider campaign to protect local nature, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Ribble</span> and the surrounding area in particular. A campaign which includes Along with <a href="http://ribble-cycle-diaries.blogspot.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Ribble</span> Cycle Diaries</a>, a sort of companion blog, which, after <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">contributing</span> to the victories against local council plans, continues to promote <a href="http://ribble-cycle-diaries.blogspot.com/2008/05/river-ribble-pleasantries-on-preston.html">local cycling</a>, currently recommending <a href="http://ribble-cycle-diaries.blogspot.com/2009/10/get-out-ribbling-with-ribble-coast.html">the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Ribble</span> Coast And Wetlands Walking Festival</a>, and features some plain <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">ol</span>' lovely <a href="http://ribble-cycle-diaries.blogspot.com/2008/09/first-day-of-autumn-on-river-ribble.html">pictures</a> of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Ribble</span>.<br /><br />Wildlife pictures abound on Brian Rafferty's blog. Brian is a photographer and uses his blog to showcase his stunning wildlife pictures. It's a truly absorbing portfolio with close-up and crystal-clear shots of all the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">birdlife</span> the region has to offer, with a brief but illuminating accompanying texts. One of the joys is that, although we're currently entering into the grip of bleakest midwinter, you can still see the natural world of the summer: a <a href="http://brianraffertywildlifephotographer.blogspot.com/2009/07/farewell-to-flycatchers.html"> spotted flycatcher</a> here, a <a href="http://brianraffertywildlifephotographer.blogspot.com/2009/08/roeredsand-bittern.html">bittern</a> there. Or, if you like, you can marvel some of the current climate's miracles of the nature, such as this <a href="http://brianraffertywildlifephotographer.blogspot.com/2009/10/starling-roost-marton-moss.html">flock of </a><a href="http://brianraffertywildlifephotographer.blogspot.com/2009/10/starling-roost-marton-moss.html">starlings</a>.<br /><br />Continuing the bird-theme, <a href="http://latinamericabirding.blogspot.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Ribble</span> To Amazon!</a> is another birder-blog, this time taking in the birds of Latin America alongside those found in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Lancashire</span>, as Colin <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Bushell</span> documents his travels through the exotic climes of Peru and Brazil, and through the marginally less exotic climes of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Cumbria</span>. So, as well as our native <a href="http://latinamericabirding.blogspot.com/2009/11/lancs-ribble-coast-marshes.html">Shore Larks and Egrets</a>, you also get to gander at Brazilian <a href="http://latinamericabirding.blogspot.com/2009/11/brazil-spix-fix.html">Red Crested Cardinals</a> and Peruvian <a href="http://latinamericabirding.blogspot.com/2009/11/peru-marvellous-hummers.html">Wire-Crested <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Thorntail</span></a> Hummingbirds.<br /><br />Finally, <a href="http://www.abhaha.com/">African Brew Ha Ha</a>, another travelogue blog, this time beating a path via motorcycle from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Lancashire</span> to Cape Town, South Africa. Although Alan <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Whelan</span>, the author documents <a href="http://inkyfingers.typepad.com/african_brew_ha_ha/2007/11/welcome-welcome.html">customs</a>, <a href="http://inkyfingers.typepad.com/african_brew_ha_ha/2007/10/most-mellow-and.html">cuisine</a> and an unfortunate incident in which he <a href="http://inkyfingers.typepad.com/african_brew_ha_ha/2007/12/2-degrees-south.html">crashed his Triumph</a> and ended up in hospital, the main focus of the blog is the unifying, human powers of <a href="http://inkyfingers.typepad.com/african_brew_ha_ha/2007/05/a_nice_cup_of_t.html">a cup of tea</a>. Although the adventure came to an end last year, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Whelan</span> continues to add posts about all of these <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">topics</span> and <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/African-Brew-Ha/dp/1849530440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258322713&sr=8-1">a book</a> based on his experiences is forthcoming in April next year.Richard Vivmeister Hirsthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07836583573802001736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-55295811324748926652009-11-14T21:29:00.014+00:002009-11-16T18:08:28.388+00:00Mollie Baxter at Word Soup 7 November 17th 8pm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTB1DY-cyiIpeTSUnBFThfH7AejVe7b04fb6DwmE6quRDWYPKXIXTHetl9aKbDOTSRtbdAJhZxWiWqjfRsjEFm76Uecwyvqt7n_ZyvpyhILwy5zMBTvsCvu_CvfrbiY8yeH7wdOn-FoP15/s1600-h/wordsouppic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTB1DY-cyiIpeTSUnBFThfH7AejVe7b04fb6DwmE6quRDWYPKXIXTHetl9aKbDOTSRtbdAJhZxWiWqjfRsjEFm76Uecwyvqt7n_ZyvpyhILwy5zMBTvsCvu_CvfrbiY8yeH7wdOn-FoP15/s320/wordsouppic.jpg" /></a><br />
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Mollie Baxter is a lady with many feathers to her cap; a creative writing tutor at the University of Cumbria, she also manages to find time to be a musician, writer, performer and presenter! Phew! And we here at PWN sometimes have trouble eating breakfast while reading the paper!<br />
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She graduated from the MA in Creative Writing at Lancaster University in 2003 and since then has seen her work published in The Quiet Feather, Scribe, Pitch, Litfest Flax, and on www.the-phone-book.com. She recorded the album Hating Baby in 2000.<br />
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In a recent <a href="http://thelunecyreview.wordpress.com/artists-profiles/">interview </a>with PWN's own Norman Hadley, Mollie discusses what motivates her to write:<br />
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"Most people don't like to be preached at. I do think, though, a lot of writers, myself included, write to work something out – and in both senses – 'work out' as in get out of the system, but also as in to come to a new understanding. I think good writers are generally very good worriers".<br />
As a woman who personifies what the Americans call a 'triple threat', we don't think Mollie has anything to worry about.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_BhpFPvpc3mLchxhH581XJityQFzExz1b1nwEw3PZbC2oHnI9TQkdohITGekkjT_W-zJsGLFFdWdfXQNQYXbSgSgFzHlT90aMKHxOGR57unRHIGBnoLKKpxOG-SdnmjjfLQAUfeFvwW9l/s1600-h/mollie2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_BhpFPvpc3mLchxhH581XJityQFzExz1b1nwEw3PZbC2oHnI9TQkdohITGekkjT_W-zJsGLFFdWdfXQNQYXbSgSgFzHlT90aMKHxOGR57unRHIGBnoLKKpxOG-SdnmjjfLQAUfeFvwW9l/s320/mollie2.jpg" /></a><br />
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Watch this: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOxufB_Blmg">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOxufB_Blmg</a><br />
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Read this: http://www.litfest.org/mollie-baxter.html<br />
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& Listen to this: <a href="http://www.myspace.com/mollbaxter">http://www.myspace.com/mollbaxter</a><br />
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Oh, and be sure to come along to this Tuesday's Word Soup to see Mollie in action!daisy daisyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04033478051847108695noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-10735568289951744152009-11-13T21:15:00.001+00:002009-11-13T21:15:48.520+00:00Word Soup 7: November 17th 8pm<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GoBlxFUfa1c/Sv3MAuH4MBI/AAAAAAAAAP0/OsuP5AmLKX8/s1600-h/WS_logo_blue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GoBlxFUfa1c/Sv3MAuH4MBI/AAAAAAAAAP0/OsuP5AmLKX8/s200/WS_logo_blue.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's almost Word Soup time and this month the theme is: (there's no place like) <b>HOME</b> (sweet home) </span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Joining us will be:</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Carol Fenlon</b></span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Novelist and member of Skelmersdale Writers </span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <b>Paul Sockett</b></span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Blackburn based actor and performance poet </span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://markcharlesworth.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mark Charlesworth </span></a></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Local poet and previous Word Soup open micer. </span></pre><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GoBlxFUfa1c/Sv3LjCi_gaI/AAAAAAAAAPs/KAFEoLVvY0Q/s1600-h/molliebaxter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GoBlxFUfa1c/Sv3LjCi_gaI/AAAAAAAAAPs/KAFEoLVvY0Q/s200/molliebaxter.jpg" /></a><br />
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</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.molliebaxter.com/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mollie Baxter </span></a></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Poet, performer and musician</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.litfest.org/thomas-fletcher.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thomas Fletcher</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A poet and novelist.
Tom Fletcher writes about the dark corners of our lives and environment
with unerring and unnerving authenticity, and a natural gift for evoking
feeling through language. His work is the real deal. </span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.sinfield.org/nicholasroyle/">Nicholas Royle </a></span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Writer, critic and blogger</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AND a very special appearance from </span><a href="http://bewilderbliss.com/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bewilderbliss</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. A
Manchester based magazine with four 3 minute slots from
contributors to the latest issue of their magazine. Copies will be available to purchase on the night</span></pre><pre style="white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<pre style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That date, once again, is November 17th 8pm - 10.30pm. </span></pre><pre style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">£3 on the door or block booking discount for groups of 10 or more - contact robyn@theyeatculture.org for details</span></pre></span>
</pre>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-79942499257694493312009-11-06T10:30:00.002+00:002009-11-06T10:50:57.405+00:00Libraries turned inside out!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOTu8e1k1OHmHfQWwX0Yrij3NSRXgD4kxiLkowHZrgDsyo7d3fmwGEJXo8LHq06UXoR78DinkdGKUOAyYYFBX3VFVvfN0c1_29jtNb58n7QAWzkYuuatlzjiS-HiibA9oXpcddXGG81-H/s1600-h/socmedia+Library+Inside+Out+Poster+copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 271px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOTu8e1k1OHmHfQWwX0Yrij3NSRXgD4kxiLkowHZrgDsyo7d3fmwGEJXo8LHq06UXoR78DinkdGKUOAyYYFBX3VFVvfN0c1_29jtNb58n7QAWzkYuuatlzjiS-HiibA9oXpcddXGG81-H/s400/socmedia+Library+Inside+Out+Poster+copy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400940983063743506" border="0" /></a>Rob Talbothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03038223358522509381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-34007449937816063582009-11-03T15:15:00.001+00:002009-11-03T15:15:00.237+00:00Workshops and Surgeries in LancasterCourtesy of our friends over in Lancaster, here's news of three workshop and surgery opportunities taking place during November.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Words & Music Collaborations workshop.</span><br /><br />10.30am - 4.30pm on Saturday 14th November 2009<br /><br />at<br /><br />The Storey Auditorium<br />Meeting House Lane, Lancaster<br />The aim of the workshop is to enable<br /><br />six writers and six musicians to work in<br />collaboration experimenting with the combination of<br />text and sound -<br />stretching the boundaries of music and using words<br />and sound in abstract/atmospheric ways.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">As places are limited to six writers and six musicians</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">they will be allocated on a first come first served basis.</span><br /><br />If you would like more information or<br />please e-mail:<br />spotlightclub@btinternet.com<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Please note: this is not a 'songwriting workshop'.</span><br /><br />Facilitators: Ann Wilson and Shaun Blezzard<br /><br /><br />Ann is a writer and performing poet based in South Cumbria. Her poetry features on The Resting Bench which is free to download from Earth Monkey Productions at www.earthmp.com Thanks to fabulous sonic artist/producer Shaun (Clutter) Her poetry collection Synesthetic is available at The Tinners' Rabbit Bookshop, Ulverston, Cumbria or direct from Ann at gigs.<br />Check out her website: www.annthepoet.com<br /><br />Shaun is a community based audio/visual artist who lives on Barrow Island in Cumbria,UK. He has worked as an artist, musician, producer, composer and workshop leader for the likes of Sonic Arts Network, Welfare State International, The Sage Gateshead, Youth Music, Whitewood & Fleming, Age Concern, Grizdale Arts, Shoreline Films, The Ashton Group, Connexions, The Word Hoard and Barrow Borough Council. He is also an experienced live sound technician and sound recordist and runs Earth Monkey Productions - a non-profit making net label specialising in experimental electronic music, sound art and spoken work.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Performance Writing Workshop</span><br /><br />Friday November 20th 2.30 - 4.30pm<br /><br />at The Storey Creative Industries Centre,<br />Meeting House Lane, Lancaster LA1 1TH<br /><br />Facilitator: Ann Wilson -<br /><br />Ann is the regular host of the Spoken Word open mic at Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, Cumbria. She has performed her poetry in pubs, cafes, and theatres, on the radio at festivals and on the street since 1992.<br /><br />Fee: £5<br /><br />To Book or for further information email:<br /><br />spotlightclub@btinternet.com<br /><br />www.spotlightlancaster.co.uk<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Writing Surgeries: Work In Progress</span><br /><br />Whether you are just starting out<br />or have been writing for some time...<br /><br />Whether you write for performance or the page...<br /><br />Would you like to get some creative feedback on your writing?<br /><br />Then come to a One-To-One 20 minute Surgery<br />with Spotlight Organisers Ron Baker and Sarah Fiske.<br />@ The Gregson Centre, Moor Lane, Lancaster.<br /><br /><br />The Next Surgery will be held on:<br /><br />Sunday 22nd November 2009 - 7 - 9pm<br /><br />Fee: £5<br /><br />Places are limited and must be booked in advance -<br />To sign up for a 20 minute writing surgery<br />or for Further Information e-mail:<br /><br />spotlightclub@btinternet.com<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Feedback From Recent Surgeries</span><br /><br />Thanks very much for the helpful feedback at my writing surgery. It definitely boosted my morale and made me feel it was worth keeping going (not that I'm in danger of stopping writing, but it gave me the hope that someone other than myself might at some point like to read what I've written!!). Thanks for making the surgeries happen and for the sensitive and encouraging way you commented on what I'd written. I'm plugging away at writing something longer and will edit, edit and edit again when I've got it all on paper.<br /><br /><br /><br />Rob W. - Following your advice last November I sent copies of the first three chapters of my book (and a summary), to several publishers. After two rejections the editorial team of a publisher in London has now asked for the completed manuscript for consideration. Needless to say I am now working hard to complete it.<br /><br /><br /><br />Matt T. - I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you for the constructive and supportive comments you made about my poems and about writing in general. I came way energised and inspired.<br /><br /><br /><br />Peter B. - I would like to thank you for your encouragement and positive advice at the Writing Surgery last Sunday. It is greatly appreciated. I'm sure it will help me in the future.<br /><br /><br /><br />Pamela P. - Let me thank you for the opportunity to have my work critiqued. I found the comments invaluable and greatly appreciated the time spent in giving me feedback.<br /><br /><br /><br />Elisabeth D. - Just a short note to say 'thank you' for your help with my writing. Your comments were perceptive and helpful. I was impressed that you had taken time to read it so carefully. But it was just what I needed. I will take all to task in the New Year. Thank you again for your helpful suggestions, your time and your encouragement.<br /><br /><br /><br />Bill D. - A brief note to thank you very much for your help. I've done a bit of re-drafting and feel stimulated and encouraged to progress my novel, 'Mad World'. It was nice to meet and talk with you.<br /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-39200151127192987302009-11-02T15:23:00.003+00:002009-11-02T15:37:56.845+00:00FREE Adoption Week Poetry Competition<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivh93bcX7ZTez0eZjkjuNf5Y1E2G3vBKN6LKldXxOx7yzxFsuAl0k3nBshhVEy8a6YbjdcLpQMrP0kKvLtyefbBXt_uCdDVTtBV5Ey5hUwB-PRSyPjDgEqQHNDvT5AWqCWSt0NYiXdkjg-/s1600-h/adoptionlogo.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 178px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivh93bcX7ZTez0eZjkjuNf5Y1E2G3vBKN6LKldXxOx7yzxFsuAl0k3nBshhVEy8a6YbjdcLpQMrP0kKvLtyefbBXt_uCdDVTtBV5Ey5hUwB-PRSyPjDgEqQHNDvT5AWqCWSt0NYiXdkjg-/s320/adoptionlogo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399530729923019826" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=""><span style="font-size:12px;"> <a href="http://www.adoptionmattersnw.org/poetry.htm">From Adoption Matters Northwest, some last minute news about a FREE to enter poetry competition for unpublished poems...</a><br /><br /><blockquote>We’re offering a creative challenge for adults and children of all ages across the North West to prepare and submit a poem of 20 lines or less in any format or style on the theme of ‘Family’, reflecting the importance of family and family life.<br /><br />This competition is running across Cheshire, Merseyside, Manchester and Lancashire with the contributions to be judged in two age groups – over 18s and 17 years and younger.<br /><br />Winners for each area and each age group will be chosen for creativity and content by a panel including local representatives for each area such as Cheshire’s current Poet Laureate, W Terry Fox<br /><br />Each lucky winner will win £50 in high street vouchers, get their poems published on our website, and submitted to the local and national media as part of the National Adoption Week (9-15 November) media campaign.<br /><br />Highly commended entrants will also be invited to a VIP invitation-only poetry evening in Chester during National Adoption Week to hear selections of the poems entered in the competition read out by performers and listen to the first public performance of a poem written specially for the event by W Terry Fox.<br /><br />Closing date for the competition is Tuesday 3 November. Entries can be emailed to adoption@dewinterpr.co.uk or posted to:<br /><br />Adoption Poetry competition, De Winter PR<br />Fidelity House<br />12a Stocks Lane<br />Chester CH3 5TF<br /><br />Please make sure that all entries are clearly marked with the writer’s name and contact details and that they are happy to be involved in publicity activity. For further details, contact Emma on 01244 320677.<br /><br />NB Poems can be in any style and should be under 20 lines in length. Contributions must be previously unpublished. </blockquote><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-67068300310579590842009-11-02T14:26:00.002+00:002009-11-02T15:07:59.560+00:00Group Profile: Fylde Brighter WritersSteve Brodie from <a href="http://www.brighterwriters.org.uk/">Fylde Brighter Writers</a> talks to the PrestonWN about his group, and their latest competition - open to all writers. Read on for details...<br /><br /><span style=""> <blockquote>Fylde Brighter writers were formed in 2006 following the closure of a creative night school class we attended the previous year. We still wanted to write and to keep in touch so decided to form our own writing circle. Once we got our own website up and running, other writers contacted us and we have a healthy core of around ten and a number of occasional visitors and affiliates. After a nomadic couple of years wandering from venue to venue, we're now settled in the <a href="http://www.pub-explorer.com/lancs/pub/countyhotellythamstannes.htm">County Hotel pub in Lytham</a> and meet every Thursday evening.<br /><br />Three of our members, Jackie Blake, Lauren Huxley-Blythe and Christine Axon are featured in the latest Leaf anthology, <a href="http://leafbooks.co.uk/New/Books/Ada.htm">'Ada and more Nano Fiction'</a> and Eleanor Broaders has a poem in 'Openings 26', the 2009 anthology of OU poets. Eleanor also has had poems published in many other anthologies. Karen Pailing has won poetry competitions in Writers News amongst many others. Steve Wilson set up the <a href="http://www.blogstoday.co.uk/bloghome.aspx?username=LancashireWriters">Lancashire Writers Blog</a> and his 'Caught in the Act' is on the BBC Lancashire web pages. The rest of us gamely plug away. <br /><br />We've just launched our <span style="font-weight: bold;">latest competition</span>, the snappily titled <span style="font-weight: bold;">'Fylde Brighter Writers Short Story and Poetry Competition 2010'.</span> It's open to anyone anywhere apart from our members and our relatives and it also has an Open theme. The top Prizes are £200 for short stories up to 2,500 words and £100 for the poetry prize and there is no length limit to the poetry. No one has entered a saga yet. There are runners up prizes too and small but beautifully crafted trophies for the winners. It cost £5 per short story or £10 for three stories and £3 per poem or £5 for three. We have postal and on-line entry options and the closing date is 27th February 2010.<br /><br />(<span style="font-style: italic;">if you're interested in entering this competition, there are more details and contact information via the <a href="http://www.brighterwriters.org.uk/">Brighter Writers website, here</a>)</span><br /><br />We ran a successful competition in 2008. We judge it ourselves, gradually whittling down the entries to the top ten which we then read out, debate, argue and champion our favourites over a couple of evenings (with wine) until we arrive at our winners. It's a lot of work but we feel it helps create a proper identity for the writing circle, it shows us the standards we need to reach to win other competitions and it can be great fun to do.<br /><br />Why join a Writing circle? I greatly admire people who can sit down and rattle off fabulous stories in isolation from the rest of the world but I find the support of a Writing Circle invaluable. For natural prevaricators (such as myself) it's a constant dig in the ribs because I need to write something every week to take with me otherwise questions are asked! Constructive critques by the members of work is also useful. We had one member who changed her writing style after being asked to try something different by another member and now writes in a beautiful languid atmospheric way that she didn't before. We all bring hints tips and competition ideas in with us to the meetings and the collective sharing of information is something that you couldn't get on your own.<br /><br />We've also published a couple of books via Lulu. '<a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/girl-on-a-bridge/1331515">Girl on the Bridge', a story of a, well, a girl on a bridge, seen from the perspective of other people looking at her in a park. </a>We wrote a chapter each in this and found it to be a great collective way to get a story written. <a href="http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/coming-around/5939873">We published our anthology 'Coming Around' last year. It contains our competition winners and a couple of pieces - stories or poems - from each of us.</a> It's available, for £3.99, from Lulu.com, via our own website and from Amazon.com in the US. I'm not quite sure how it got there, I think Lulu put it forward!<br /><br />We will be producing another anthology in 2010 following the competition. Lulu is a great way to get your work quickly and cheaply into print. we find, and we're impressed by the quality. A few of our people have produced their own work for family and friends on Lulu and I'd recommend it anyone.</blockquote><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">PrestonWN is always pleased to hear from you about your groups, projects and publications. If you have news about competitions, writing or reading opportunities or you'd like us to promote your group, event, book or workshop, get in touch with us and let us know.</span><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512746713759495648.post-78494967038277892422009-10-31T09:30:00.001+00:002009-10-31T09:30:01.384+00:00Review of Sunrise and Shorelines by Mark Charlesworth<div align="justify"><em>Sunrises and Shorelines</em> is the debut poetry collection from Prestonian Mark Charlesworth, who you may have seen reading at the recent ‘Word Soup on tour’ bash in Blackpool. Arranged in chronological order, the poems span some seven years, from 2001 to 2008, and touch upon a range of personal crises, global events and dark, imaginary tales. </div><br /><div align="justify"><br />In his foreword, apart from confessing the collection to be sincere rather than sophisticated (a noble bit of honesty, I thought), Charlesworth also admits that he was probably too young to fully understand the enormity of 9/11, which was his prompt to start writing. Yet, the first poem, <em>America Under Fire</em>, written when Charlesworth was still at high school, whilst being a powerful, raw response to the events of that day is also well considered enough to see the attacks a crucial moment in American history. Amid the “fire, chaos and tears”, the poet asks “Is the enemy within or on the out?” America is “desperate and broke” after living so long in “false realities”.</div><br /><div align="justify"><br />Many of the poems are based in the natural world – familiar territory for the poet of course, but Charlesworth often leads us through the kinds of lonely, perverse, abandoned places of dark gothic fairy tales – woods, bloody tombs, stormy seas and so on. <em>The Revolt of the Trees</em>, an interesting counterpart to <em>America Under Fire</em>, is a fable about greed and selfishness in which a unscrupulous woodcutter is turned into a tree. The setting of <em>The Magnolia Room</em> wouldn’t look out of place in an H.P. Lovecraft story. And the more light-hearted <em>Tall Tales</em>, blends Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll and Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall – “I saw a cat’s tail / curl round the moon...I saw a tall tree / telling a tale / to a broken man / at his own wake.”</div><br /><div align="justify"><br />Charlesworth seems comfortable speaking with the kind of language you might expect to find in much older poetry and some poems are full of the introspective longing and desperation reminiscent of, say, Christina Rossetti. <em>Possessed</em> and <em>The Wanderer</em> are harrowing sketches of loss, whilst in <em>Alone</em> the narrator yearns for love but finds nothing but emptiness: “I stand in autumn stillness / and strum a sombre tone / I watch the stars, take in their beauty / inertia creeps, division grows.”</div><br /><div align="justify"><br />There are whispers of an earlier Romanticism also in <em>Dead Leaves</em> and <em>A Weary Night</em>. <em>The Final Days of Summer</em> sounds like Keats edited by Emily Dickinson with its stark, often esoteric observations – “The hallows harvest / the fields are still / the black crows circle / the silent hill”. <em>The Forest Awakened</em> is full of landscapes not dissimilar to Coleridge’s Kubla Khan – “The hills in the distance / ran with rivers of ice”, “Somewhere, here and there / blackness crept in / mere shards of light / as though the darkness could sing”. </div><br /><div align="justify"><br />Yet, Charlesworth does not confine his poems to this beautiful and terrifying natural world – there are people adrift in urban landscapes too. <em>End of the Earth</em> and <em>Kendal Castle</em> blend the archaic and modern – “Sirens scream down silent streets / and tear the night apart...figures rise, entombed from the past / the devil’s dance, a raucous laugh.”; “Now shadows fall in Kendal town, / a world weary folk tale as the castle looks down, / where red wine’s split instead of blood long ago, / the bustling streets and the cigarette smoke...”</div><br /><div align="justify"><br />In domestic settings, Charlesworth seems to sense the same kind of futility as Philip Larkin. The objects in <em>Buried Things</em> – like the sheet music in Larkin’s <em>Love Songs in Age</em> – become symbols of lost love and the naivety of youth. <em>Alcoholics’ Corner</em> is rife with gallows humour and <em>Their Home and This House</em> is sad and poignant without being sentimental.</div><br /><div align="justify"><br />It is a brave poet who is willing to publish early work alongside later, more controlled pieces, but in Charlesworth’s case it shows a writer searching for a form and for voices which will speak accurately and powerfully. I’ll admit that some of the more meandering, surrealist poems – <em>Coming Back to Life, Home by the Sky</em> and <em>The Forest Awakened</em>, for example – I found a bit shapeless and in want of a decent pruning, the rhyming a little clunky in places – but then the collection is as much about the learning process of writing as it is about end product. </div><br /><div align="justify"><br />For me, the strongest pieces are those in which Charlesworth writes with economy about the specific rather than the abstract, and some of the later poems such as <em>Sail Away, A Weary Night</em> and <em>Their Home and This House</em> are extremely moving and memorable – “Theirs was a home to a family, but the clocks have all stopped / this house a museum, now that her heart is lost.”</div><br /><div align="justify"><br />This is a collection that is much more complex than it might at first appear and well worth reading as a curious, intriguing anthology on its own and as a prelude to Charlesworth’s second collection <em>In Memory of Real Trees</em>, which he will be launching at <a href="http://www.newcontinental.net/">The New Continental</a> on 28th November. </div><br /><div align="justify"><br />You can read Mark Charlesworth’s blog <a href="http://markcharlesworth.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html">here</a> and purchase copies of <em>Sunrise and Shorelines</em>. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0