Phil Collins, who has written numerous sketches, short plays and a couple of pantomimes, often taking to the stage himself, was the ideal choice for our latest speaker. Members and guests enjoyed his very entertaining illustrated talk on comedy writing and were challenged to tackle the exercises he set on different aspects of the genre. A question and answer session followed a break for refreshments.
As regular attenders at ‘Swanwick’, the Writers’ Summer School, Phil, Maggie and Cathy are old friends. Phil, who has performed many roles there over the years, including serving as Chairman, is once again a member of the Committee. All three are looking forward to meeting up again in the summer. Why not join them?
This year’s ‘Swanwick’ will run from 9th-14th August and some places are still available. https://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/
The subject of our latest workshop was ‘keys’, when Maggie encouraged everyone to explore the different meanings of the word, delve into a box of actual keys for inspiration and then pick up their pens. The first task was to write a few lines about a key selected from the box; the second to write a piece of flash fiction beginning with the words, ‘I turned the key in the lock and was amazed when…”
During the refreshment break, we celebrated Joe’s birthday with cake and (optional) wine. Tea and coffee were on offer as usual.
The final task of the evening was to begin work on a longer piece of writing with the focus on a key or keys (in any sense of the word) of particular significance in one’s own life. This could be polished up to submit for publication and/or presented at our next open manuscripts evening.
Just a reminder that this year’s Ripon Poetry Festival is imminent. We shall be co-hosting the open mic event on Thursday with Write-On! Ripon.
This link will lead you to the official website and all the information you need. https://riponpoetryfestival.co.uk/
We welcomed Mary-Jane Holmes as our adjudicator this year. She had obviously put a great deal of thought into the task and did a very thorough job. Before announcing her decision, she read out each of the poems submitted and gave a detailed critique. A written version was also attached to each entry for the poet to peruse at leisure later on.
Charlotte Wilson (pictured above receiving the trophy from Mary-Jane) came first with ‘Pond Life’. Sheila Whitfield was in second place with ‘Inland Dreams’ and Kate Swann came third with ‘On the Scales for Grandad’. Mary-Jane congratulated everyone who had entered the competition. With a high standard overall, the great variety of themes and styles had made choosing the winners difficult.
After the adjudication, Mary-Jane answered questions about her own work and poetry in general.
From her bio: Mary-Jane Holmes wanders and writes in the wilds of Upper Teesdale. She has garnered many awards including winning the Bridport Poetry prize, the Writer’s Digest poetry competition, the Live Canon Poetry Pamphlet Prize, Bath Novella-in-Flash Prize, , Martin Starkie, Dromineer, Reflex Fiction and Mslexia Flash prize as well as the Bedford Poetry competition. She has been shortlisted for the Beverley International Prize for Literature and longlisted for the UK National Poetry Prize twice. Mary-Jane’s poetry collection Heliotrope with Matches and Magnifying Glass is published by Pindrop Press. Her pamphlet Dihedral is published by Live Canon Press and her novella Don’t Tell the Bees, is published by AdHoc Fiction. Her Lockdown poem ‘Letter from Baldersdale’ joins 20 other poems in the National Poetry Archive on their 20th anniversary. Her collection of Flash Fiction was published by V press in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Eyelands Literary prize in 2023.
Her work appears in a variety of publications including Aesthetica. Magma, Modern Poetry in Translation, Mslexia, The Lonely Crowd, Prole The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, and in anthologies including Best Small Fictions 2014/16/18/20 and Best Microfictions 2020.
She has an MA (Distinction) in Creative Writing from Kellogg College, Oxford and has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Research Council studentship to complete a PhD in poetry and translation at Newcastle University. UK.
New Collection of Short Fiction: Set a Crow to Catch a Crow
Our final event of 2023 featured a buffet, a literary quiz devised by Peter, a Secret Santa and a wide variety of Christmas readings. As well as examples of our own work, there were chosen pieces by members’ favourite authors.
The star of the show was Sheila, a clear winner of this year’s President’s Cup, which Joe was very pleased to hand to her.
NB This was our last evening at the St Wilfrid’s Community Centre. From Wednesday 10th January 2024, our fortnightly meetings will be held in an upstairs room at the So! Bar at 6, Old Market Place. (Many will remember it as the former Black Bull public house.) Details will follow when this website is updated over the holidays.
If we don’t get takers for this event, it certainly won’t be for want of a good title. Sheila has excelled herself.
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