Word Soup: Jan 30th

Word Soup: Sophie Hannah and Martin Edwards - a discussion and panel event hosted by Jenn Ashworth

Ormskirk Library - FREE

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.

Organised by Lancashire Writing Hub, the literary arm of emergent arts organisation They Eat Culture, 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, Doctor Who scribe Rob Shearman, and Steven Hall, cult author of The Raw Shark Texts.

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.

Sophie is a best-selling crime fiction writer and poet whose books, Little Face, Hurting Distance and The Point of Rescue, have sold over 300,000 copies in the UK and have also been published in a number of different languages around the world. Sophie’s fifth collection of poetry, Pessimism for Beginners, 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, The Octopus Nest. Sophie’s poetry is studied at GCSE, A-Level and degree level across the UK.

Martin Edwards’ latest novel is Dancing for the Hangman, a fictional take on the Dr. Crippen case. His first novel, All the Lonely People, 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 Take My Breath Away.

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 The Times, Good Housekeeping, International Management and Amateur Gardening.

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 The Guardian’s ‘Not the Booker’ Prize last year for her own acclaimed novel, A Kind of Intimacy. A bookseller will also be in attendance, to provide those all-important copies for signing!

Word Soup: Sophie Hannah & Martin Edwards takes place at Ormskirk Library from 1pm-3pm on Saturday 30th January. Entry is free.

Ormskirk Library

Burscough Street Ormskirk

L39 2EN
Tel: 01695 573448

Word Soup-beside the Sea

Better late than never, but here we are (finally) with the write-up, review and film clips of our special Word Soup - commissioned by Blackpool Library Service and delivered by The Preston Writing Network for Word Pool - Blackpool's Literary Festival.

Many thanks go to our star performer - Ann Wilson, who travelled all the way from Barrow and fresh from an appearance on BBC Radio Cumbria - to help us celebrate National Poetry Day. With an engaging, lively performance featuring poems-a-plenty from her collection Synesthetic that stole the show and impressed the library staff as well as the audience, Ann certainly made an excellent impression again.

We're really looking forward to having Ann back in Preston again for a Word Soup Presents... on the 30th October with her colleague Keith Armstrong (more about this soon!). If you can't wait that long (and who could blame you?) you can listen to Ann perform some of her poetry from the comfort of your own front room, by clicking here.

Our other performers were Norman Hadley - poet, writer, They Eat Culture volunteer and the man behind the camera. Knowing that poetry is sometimes risky, Norman opted to impress us all with a reading from his book Perspectives that focused on risky activities...



Norman will be performing at Word Soup #6 on the 20th and launching his next poetry collection Stinging the Sepia in Garstang on the 7th November - for more details on that, please click here.

Ron Scowcroft, former Blackpool Sixth form literature teacher and now poet arrived and read to us, along side Blackburn based poet Paul Sockett (you'll remember him from the open mike slot at Word Soup #5 - he'll be returning to the stage as a booked performer at Word Soup #7 - 17th November).

As always - the real stars of the show were our open mikers - Blackpool natives who came to the library to share their words and work with us to celebrate the day. We were impressed by the variation in style, subject matter and form - and rather than review it, we thought we'd film it... (all film clips courtesy of Norman)









This National Poetry Day the theme was 'Heroes and Heroines' and while we didn't ask our poets to stick to the theme, the nervous poets and experienced performers who got up with us and made some noise in Blackpool Library were the real heroes of the day.

Hooray!

Word Soup on Tour

We always get excited to announce our latest Word Soup offering - but this Word Soup is special because it's our very first touring event. And where better to present an 'away' fixture of Preston's biggest and friendliest live lit night than at the sea-side!

Blackpool Library Service deliver an annual literature festival: Word Pool. This year the opening day of the festival falls on National Poetry Day and we've been asked to kick off the celebrations by presenting a poetry Word Soup at Blackpool Central Library.

The event will be held in the library's main space between 3.30 and 5pm on Thursday the 8th October.

It's FREE to get in and there'll be our usual open mike spots for all budding poets and spoken word performers.

We're excited to meet the local readers and writers in Blackpool, hear their words and tell them all about what we do. For our Preston poets, this is a great chance to come with us, take advantage of an open mike slot and showcase your work to a wider audience.

The line-up of poets we've got booked for the afternoon is a treat.

Our start performer is Ann Wilson - most of you will remember Ann from the splash she made presenting our very first Word Soup poetry special. We had such excellent feedback about her performance that we couldn't wait to get her back - and when better than a Word Soup special to celebrate National Poetry Day?

Annie Clarkson, another previous Word Soup performer, will be comming up from Manchester to share her words and work with us. Her collection Winter Hands will be available for sale - and if you can't wait until the 8th, you can always read her blog. She's a really great performer and we can't wait to see what Blackpool makes of her.

Norman Hadley - our newest PrestonWN volunteer, will be joining us again from Garstang after a fantastic first performance at Word Soup #4. Norman is a poet, author, writer and photographer and his website is well worth exploring - he's also a regular performer at Lancaster Spotlight and a contributor to the Lunecy Review.

Ron Scowcroft used to teach literature to Blackpool Sixth formers and is pleased as punch to return to the town to share his own poetry. A poet, blogger and regular performer at gigs across Lancashire, Ron will also be joining us at Spooky Word Soup #6 on the 20th October with a very special poem.

For more information about Word Soup and how to get involved, email jenn@theyeatculture.org
For more about Word Pool - Blackpool Library's very own literary festival, click here.