The Church of the Sunday Jazz
Geoffrey Smith

.

and well done Dorothy - another prize!

Geoffrey, one of our newest members, has just published a booklet of poems, which you can get from him direct
Geoffrey Smith
Available now from Wilde Words:
30 Waters Meet, Warwick  Bridge, Carlisle, CA4 8RT
At £5 00 post free
 
Or order by e-mail

One of the poems in the book is featured on our home page

Dorothy Crowther won second prize in the Society of Medical Writers spring short story competition. Congratulations Dorothy

More dates for the diary

November 15th is the date of our next open mic performance at Theatre by the Lake entitled "Half and Half". Dates for rehearsals are:-

July 3rd, July 31st, August 14th, September 4th, October 2nd. More dates will be needed. Sue Bannister asks that we will start choosing poems now and give names to Sue as soon as possible.

June 12th

Geraldine Green

What a fascinating session we had with Geraldine. She suggested a number of writing exercises. Then we were given a postcard to write about. Next she produced a number of objects. She then suggested a number of writing topics for us to take away with us.

First Day at School.

First time in love.

Age remember getting drunk for the first time.

I want to fill my mouth with moss.

In an envelope of unnamed wishes.

The wind has lost its echo on my skin.

The main problem with the session was that we did not have enough time. She gave us a handout written by Alice Oswald about what poetry is and getting started. If anyone who was not there would like to have it emailed to them please let Dorothy Crowther know.

The Summer Programme

This term's dates are 3rd and 24th April, 8th and 29th May, 12th and 26th June and 10th and 24th July. Angela will tutor up to and including 29th May.

We are delighted that

Geraldine Green

has agreed to tutor our session on 12th June. Most of you will know that Geraldine is a well known Cumbrian poet whose work has won numerous prizes - please click on her name for more details

Mike Smith

will be joining us on 26th June.   Mike has just won first prize in the Crichton Dumfries-based Kirkpatrick Dobie Poetry Awards, with a long poem called The Flickering (last year he got to 2nd with Ullswater Requiem.)   He writes both poetry and short stories and this workshop will concentrate on short story writing. It is called Whose Story is this anyway?    It seeks to examine the ways in which the character and identity of the narrator, the choice of 1st, 3rd, or the more unusual 2nd person voice, affects how the story is told, and received.
It explores the different relationships that an author may set up, between the narrator and the reader, and the narrator and the characters in the story.
 
You are asked to bring a piece of your own fiction with you, finished, or unfinished, of which you would be prepared to read the first 50-100 words.
(If you would like to write a piece specially for the session…Mike would suggest you begin with an arrival, involving at least three character.)
 

Sue Allan

is Project Officer for Eden Arts and a member of the National Asociation for Literature Development. She will be with us on 10th July.    Sue has been enormously helpful to us and guided us through grant applications enabling us to continue to develop as a group.  She has agreed to come and help us find our way through the publicity and marketing aspects of promoting ourselves - news releases, launch parties etc.     Please make sure you come to her session. It could have very important repercussions for the health of the group!  

I can now also confirm that

Janni Howker

a well known and much loved local author who has written several award-winning adult and children's books is coming to tutor us on July 24th.   Janni writes for Walker books and has won several awards for her work. She has also adapted her work for the screen and worked across the UK running creative writing workshops for adults and children.

Make sure you mark up your diaries for all these dates.  

If you would like to bring a friend to any of these sessions, please check it will be OK by email.   We need to be certain we don't overload our guests with extra numbers but these sessions are a valuable way of introducing possible new members

Summer Homework

Angela writes:  For those of you who were not there last week, I was taking my InterArts project, Touching Wood  as an example of the creation of a poem/prose piece around a Process.  I have been working this winter with a wood turner, and you may have seen something about it in The Cumberland News. The work - bowls, wood, shavings, tools and poem + my notebook is all on display at an exhibition at Senhouse Roman Museum for a few weeks and then will move to another gallery. I have found it very inspiring and one of the reasons I have been exploring these ideas is to pass them on as part of my Creative Writing work.

Thus, homework for the summer is to seek out an artist in any medium, watch them at work and then write a poem or a short prose piece about the Process. That may even be a short, short story. Technical detail woven into the text in a non-threatening way can give a richness and a new 'take' both on prose and poetry as I have found with my own poem Turning Ripple Ash. I also learned so much about wood turning, although I don't think I would ever be any good at it! If your bent is in that direction, you can take photos, make sketches and save some of the raw material for a future display...I still have some of the ash shavings by my desk, with their faint scent of ash. It's up to you!
Please don't be intimidated by the idea of seeking out an artist. A pavement artist or a grandchild with a box of paints, a silversmith, a wood carver, or whatever takes your fancy....all that is grist to the mill. The idea is to enter into another discipline and to bring that to your writing.

Unfortunately, our efforts to win the Mirehouse Poetry Prize were unsuccessful this year but congratulations to the winner Denise McSheehy for 'Swans drinking at midnight'. 

Dorothy Chalk would like to collect all your contributions, submitted for the competition or not, on the subject of "Flowing" so she can produce our next Reflections from Mungrisdale.   These should have been to Dorothy by 13th March if you did not manage in time please contact Dorothy and ask if she can take any late entries.

Dorothy Crowther who entered via the Cumbria Literary Group, reached the short list of the Square Dog Radio Competition and was on a list of specially commended writers.   Winners' stories were read on Radio 4 at the 3.30 pm slot during the week beginning February 18th.

Dorothy won second prize in the 2007 Cumbria Literary Group competition for her short story and for open poetry.

She also won second prize in the Spring 2007 Society of Medical Writers' short story competition.

We have decided that as there are so many competitions and courses that we want to tell you about, we will create a special page for them.  

To access this page, click here

Queen's English Society Awards for Excellent English

Congratulations to Angela who has won an award as one of the six finalists in the Queen's English Society Awards for Excellent English for her article 'A Place of Healing' in Resurgence magazine No 237 August 2006 about the Great Orton Nature Reserve. 
Click here to read a small part of her article

To Vi Taylor.   Vi, who is one of the backbones of our group, has just published a collection of her work under the title

Words

are Thoughts

are Pictures

these poems reflect on a long life and show the changing face of events and landscapes through the perspectives of age.  They are full of insight and show a keen observation and sense of humour.

To Dorothy Chalk, one of our founder members who has just published a collection of her poetry under the title "Listen" (ISBN 0-9550249-4-4). Dorothy's book is full of images of Cumbria, the hills, lakes, weather, flora and fauna and of her faith in God as her, and their creator.

To Sally Dalglish whose poems which have been published under the title "Winter" (ISBN 0-9550249-3-5) have been inspired by changes in seasonal weather and man's behaviour.  

Order any of these by clicking here price £3.50 each.

27th to29thJune

Bowness on Solway Literature Festival

Writ on the Wall

www.writfest.co.uk It looks a very good programme. Speakers include Jacob Polley, Sarah Hall, Chris Pilling, Mary Robinson, Robin Acland  and others. Two day weekend pass is £8.

Cumbria Literary Group.

July 12th 2.30pm

Quaker Meeting House keswick

Dr Malcolm Petyt former lecturer Reading University

"Dialect in Wuthering Heights"

Poetry and Writing Courses

June and September 2008

Loutro - Island of Crete

Loutro is the superb setting for these courses.   It is a small village in a spectacular mountain and sea setting on the southern coast of Crete.    Unreachable by road, the harbour is a haven for small boats and the coastal footpaths take you to many small isolated coves. For further information click here.

Congratulations

To Fenella Davies, writing as Fenella Madoc whose book "La Saison des Mangoustans" has just been published by Presses de la Cite.   We wait for it to be published in English! - the language in which it is written - but in the meantime congratulations to Fenella and her agent for securing publication (and a very good advance!).