Word Soup #7 'Home'

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...

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.

Our first performer was Mark Charlesworth - a Preston based blogger and poet who's been featured fairly regularly on the PrestonWN blog by our in-house reviewer Andrew Hurley, 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, In Memory of Real Trees. 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.

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...

Rounding off the first half, we were especially pleased to welcome West Lancashire novelist Carol Fenlon - who read from her award winning debut novel, Consider the Lilies. 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.




After a short break and a wee bit of music from Kevin Wilkinson, we returned to the main stage with a set from Bewilderbliss. 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 her blog - here (clicky clicky).

Bewilderbliss have their own website - do pop over (but please come back) to read interviews and reviews and find out more about their magazine - now open for submissions. 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..

Our final two performers were certainly worth waiting for. Mollie Baxter 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 Before the Rain 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.





Last up we had Thomas Fletcher - Thomas is an accomplished writer and poet based in Manchester, also published by Flax and with his first novel, The Leaping, forthcoming in 2010 by Quercus Books. His editor Nick Johnston has said Tom's work

'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.'

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:




And that's all for Word Soup in November. With, as always, our thanks going to Daisy Baldwin who researched and created our performer profiles, and Norman Hadley who filmed the clips you see here, and the addition clips of the night which you can view at your leisure on the Lancashire Writing Hub YouTube Channel.

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!

Guest Post: Norman Hadley

Today's post is a guest piece from Garstang-based poet and author Norman Hadley. The PrestonWN regulars amongst you will know Norman as one of our star performers at Word Soup # 4. This post was first published on The Lunacy Review.

Were you read to as a child? Magic, wasn’t it? And on the rare occasion when you have the opportunity to recreate that sublime enchantment, you take it, don’t you? Whether it be an audio book in the car or a sneaky listen as a nephew or niece is escorted off to bed.

Dominic Kelly is a professional. Storyteller, that is. He has a business card that says “Storyteller” to prove it. On a sunny afternoon in August he gave a master class in the art in the gardens of Samlesbury Hall. Fear not if that is outside your parish as his home port is Yealand Redmayne near Carnforth.

Lavishly sideburned, waistcoated and wielding a pewter tankard, he looked fit to shoulder centuries of bardic tradition, although he confessed the tankard was charged with nothing more exotic than Adam’s ale. Reciting long tales from memory, he soon whisked his audience off into worlds where all princes were noble, all maidens had long tumbling tresses and vengeful giants marauded the midge-infested marshes. But these tales had levels of complexity, recursions and twists that could satisfy the older members of the audience. For two hour-long stints, he held tot and codger alike spellbound with his consummate pacing, phrasing and inflection.

Here was a man utterly in command of his craft. Each tale was preceded by an eccentric call-and-response routine whereby he would shout “socks” and the audience would bellow ” boots”. This was the vital contract between narrator and listener – the granting of access to monkey around in your mind. He could handle deft shifts of mood from humour to pathos to deadly drama. Agile on his feet, pacing from side to side like a weasel bewitching a rabbit, he stopped the clocks and invited us to soar on ravens’ backs over crumpled rugs of hills.

And I say “boots.”

Dominic does festivals, school readings. Check out his site

Word Soup 4

Word Soup is Preston’s live lit night and this month’s was bigger than ever. Not only was it part of Preston Tringe Festival and recorded for Preston FM and Diversity FM, but it had the biggest turn out so far.

If you weren’t able to make it, here’s what you missed...

The night kicked off with Sally Murray, a musician from Manchester, who wowed the crowd with her beautiful voice and chilled out songs. And when there was a sound issue, she proved to be that rarest of things- a muso with a sense of humour.

First reader of the night was Richard Hulse, a teetotal short fiction writer, who started the evening’s tenuous connections to the booze theme. His funny and original short story charted a man’s brand new relationship, jealousy and break up in the minutes it takes him, and his new girlfriend, to fall to their deaths from a plane crash.

Next was Simon Baker, a teacher and compere of Lancaster Spotlight Club, who read a gritty and angry piece about life in a small town and a night out from hell. His odious protagonist eventually met his match in an equally small town bouncer.

Tim Woodall, a fiction and non fiction writer who claims he writes self obsessed stories around exactly the same themes (his words not mine), read a piece called booze. It featured a journalist with alcoholic tendencies walking through Soho.After the break, Jenn Ashworth, compère extraordinaire in shiny shiny shoes, introduced the second half of the night and the return of the three minute open mic slots.

The brave open mic slot readers were:
* Max Henry, who read Win Them and Wear. He blogs at Tell Me Again About Typhoon Patsy.
* Chris Billington, who read her poetry based on Greek myths and cider. She is an active member of Preston Poets.
* Cynthia Kitchen, who read three poems based on booze and a recovering alcoholic.

* Peter Crompton, read poetry on the theme of booze and violence. Stood out for being a passionate and stand out performer and writes here.
* Terry Quinn, who read his piece, The Asylum seeker. He also works for Preston FM and blogs at Broadgate Is Great.

Mollie Baxter couldn’t make the event but Norman Hadley from Garstang read in her place. He read Poets Anonymous from his third collection, Perspectives. He also read a poem about diving through a sunken village which he read entirely from memory. This really impressed and marked him out as one of the evening's most engaging performers.

Richard Hirst, author of previous Word Soup success, Dear Millipede, and blog I thought I told you to wait in the car provided free postcard artwork for the event and read a piece about the leader of the BNP being captured by slug moles and having to live underground digging tunnels. It was every bit as surreal as it sounds, as funny as his last outing and I’m sure will not be his last.

The final performer of the night was star guest, Nicholas Royle, writer, critic, and blogger who read from his upcoming novel. The first section dealt with airline conspiracy stories and whether the brace position actually works. The second section twisted to become a post modern discussion of the the first in a Manchester Lit Event.

Let us know if you were at Word Soup on Tuesday in the comments box below and what you thought of it.

There is no Word Soup next month because it is the holidays, however it will be back in September. If you are interested in performing in one of the three minute open mic slots email prestonwritingnetwork@gmail.com

All photos have been supplied by James Brunton, 23rd Parallel

This blog was written by Mel who blogs at What do you do in Preston.

Word Soup 4 - The Line Up

After the success of Word Soup #3: The Poetry Edition hosted by Ann the Poet, we’re back to the usual format hosted by Jenn Ashworth, Preston Writing Network’s Co-ordinator.

By popular demand, we’re keeping the three minute open mike spots and have several available to book on the night. Theme this month is: booze

This Word Soup is one of the many events put on as part of Preston’s first Preston Tringe Festival. For more about Preston’s first tringe, go here:

We’re also being recorded for PrestonFM and Lancaster’s Community Radio Station: Diversity FM ‘Words on the Waves’ programme. Volunteers will be live-blogging and twittering the event on the night, and you can join in from home by following us at @prestonwn or searching for #wordsoup

Events space at the New Continental – parking available round the back, and still only £3 to get in on the door. From 8pm.

This is the last Word Soup before our summer break – although we’ll be returning in September with something very special…

Booked writers are:

NICHOLAS ROYLE

Nicholas Royle’s most recent books are two novellas, The Appetite (Gray Friar Press) and The Enigma of Departure (PS Publishing). His short story collection, Mortality (Serpent’s Tail), was shortlisted for the inaugural Edge Hill Prize. He writes regularly for Time Out and the Independent. Born in Manchester in 1963, he has been teaching creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University since 2006.

http://tigergarden.wordpress.com

http://www.nicholasroyle.com

http://www.facebook.com/nicholasroyle

MOLLIE BAXTER

My earliest memory of real writing – the sort that comes from no incentive other than to write – is of feverishly coding text adventure games into a Sinclair Spectrum 48k. Looking back, I can see this provided valuable insight into the frustrations of

telling a good story. I am a prose writer, singer-songwriter, radio presenter and creative writing tutor. Some of my short stories can be found in ‘Before the Rain,’ published by Flax Books.

‘… An abiding characteristic of Mollie Baxter’s writing … is her ability to pull off the unexpected. Rather than the road less travelled, it's a road cleaved through the thicket.’ – Dogmatika, 2008

www.molliebaxter.com

RICHARD HIRST

Richard Hirst was born in Preston and has studied creative writing in Manchester and Liverpool. He maintains a blog called I Thought I told You To Wait In The Car where he passes off other people's jokes as his own, draws pictures of John Leslie, and is the author of previous Word Soup ‘performance’, 'Dear Millipede'.

www.richardvivmeisterhirst.blogspot.com

SIMON BAKER

Simon Baker teaches English in a sixth form college and lives in Lancaster. He is a regular compere and performer of poetry, stories and comedy at the Spotlight Club. As a result he has been recognised in the street twice. His performance passport also has stamps from The Green Room in Manchester and the Sedburgh Literature Festival. Simon was commissioned to blog the Lancaster LitFest in 2006. Shortly afterwards it was accidentally deleted.

Reviews:
http://thelunecyreview.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/the-spotlight-club-20309/
http://thelunecyreview.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/simon-baker-at-the-spotlight-club-17409/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=XibiORi0oHk

TIM WOODALL

Tim Woodall is a writer who refers to himself, pretentiously, in the third person. He has been writing for a long time without getting very far, and has never come close to perfecting his art form. Does he work hard? Well, sometimes. Does he complain about it? Almost all of the time. In 2008 he published his first short story, and followed this minor success with a string of self-obsessed stories revolving aroun

d exactly the same themes. In 2009 he co-wrote a short comedy film called 'HIV: The Musical.' Somewhat bizarrely – and despite his hand in the directorial process – a real-life human film materialised. As yet, you might struggle to find it (anywhere) but it does star the ever-beautiful Martin Freeman and Julian Barratt. Thankfully, these two men are brilliant (they never write or speak about themselves in the third person…) and for the briefest of moments they made me – sorry, Tim – appear professional. It didn’t last long. As you’ll no doubt witness on the 28^th July.

FICTION

RAIN ON FILM (Aesthetica Magazine) - http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/gfx/21Friction.pdf

THE PLAGIARIST http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/2009/01/plagiarist.html

THE SATURDAY BOY http://dogmatika.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/the-saturday-boy/

NON-FICTION

THE ROAD TO BLACKPOOL PIER

http://www.lovemusichateracism.com/magazine/2008/11/21/the-road-to-blackpool-pier-report-on-blackpool-protest-stopping-the-bnp-in-the-north-west/

THE ROAD TO BRUSSELS (A RATHER UNFORTUNATE SEQUEL)

http://www.lovemusichateracism.com/magazine/2008/11/21/the-road-to-blackpool-pier-report-on-blackpool-protest-stopping-the-bnp-in-the-north-west/

RICHARD HULSE

Richard Hulse’s short fiction has appeared in the American literary webzines, Smokelong, Monkeybicycle, and 3AM. In 2004, his short story, ‘Christmas’, won first prize in the British fantasy magazine, Dark Tales. In 2007, he graduated from the University of Manchester creative writing MA, and is currently finishing a novel set in fin-de-siecle Vienna.

Word Soup

Word Soup is a monthly Live Lit night held in the New Continental Arts Space in Broadgate and organised by They Eat Culture and the Preston Writing Network.

If you want to read, act a skit, play music, make short films - or if you do something word-related you think we've overlooked and you want to do that in front of a friendly audience at Preston's newest riverside arts venue, please get in touch.

The dates for 2009 are booked. We work to a theme. Please check it out before you offer your services!


21^st April: RISK (booked up - details to follow)

19^th May: SKIN (booked up!)

23^rd June: POETRY SLAM

28th July: BOOZE (In conjunction with Preston Tringe)

22^nd September: REVOLVE

20^th October: SPOOKY SOUP (Halloween Special!)

17^th November: OLD

22^nd December: HOME