Watching a Radio Show – Birmingham Literature Festival & BBC Radio 4

BLF Radio 4 Roger McGough, Jo Bell, Ian Duhig and Rachel New 

Photos were taken on my mobile to capture atmosphere and although they are not the sharpest focus they are still covered by copyright.

After the launch (Thursday 3rd October) my next booked event was on Sunday 6th for the Radio 4 recording of Poetry Please (a show that has been running for 30 years) presented by Roger McGough.

I was very excited! I had hoped to post about this sooner (offline issues) as the live recording was broadcast last Sunday (a week later) on the 13th October. With the wonders of the internet you may still be able to access it and give it a listen.

It was a great experience, just being part of a live audience. But the afternoon held far more treasures than just that.

Roger McGough, who I have met before, walked past me whilst I was queuing to get in for a start! He was the host of the show and they had a team of actors  reading many of the chosen poems. They also had Jo Bell (Canal Laurete and featured poet on my National Poetry Day post on this blog) Lifted and the first poem she performed was ‘Lifted’ it was great to hear it live. And I discovered the joys and influences of Ian Duhig’s poetry.

After the first recording I got brave and spoke to Roger and took a few photos of him. Bless him for his time and acceptance of flashing smart phones.

One of the great things was although the majority of the audience were Radio 4 listeners, there were plenty of young people too. I heard a couple of ladies refer to us as Roger’s groupies, I have to correct, we were not. He is such a kind poet, willing to pose for photos and chat to us.

I then got braver and went to speak to Jo Bell. I forget how friendly poet’s are and still expect a bit of a brush off from them…. Fortunately so far everyone has been lovely and genuinely seemed interested in conversing. I hadn’t realised that Jo Bell was the director of National Poetry Day until we started talking. The Director of the Poetry Society was also there and she mentioned the familiarity of awritersfountain blog as she was keeping track of National Poetry Day posts and had seen that I posted Lifted – Jo’s poem on NPD. It is a great honour that someone in her position has fleetingly visited…. On a par with a Royal visit from the Queen (although I doubt she reads many wordsmith blogs…)

I realised Jo was also performing and hosting a workshop and I felt guilty I hadn’t tickets for either… I have kept excel sheet accounts of my expenditure this year and so far the world of writing has cost a monthly salary! I am running low on funds unless I enter and win some monetary competitions soon. Her performance was on a day I was already attending the festival, I thought I might try to go, as it turned out I had to work.

It was great meeting Jo after choosing her as my National Poetry Day Blog Poet (an accolade I am sure she will treasure as much as her Canal Laureate and Directorial role!)

 After a brief chat and another photo (wish I had washed my hair and thought more about wearing make up!) – I snapped a few other website publicity shots – here’s one of Jo and Ian together.

Then went out for the interval between recordings…. and found Mr Roger McGough behind a table handing out autographs! Well signing books mainly.

They (BBC Radio 4) have a new book – which they were unable to advertise (BBC) which celebrates 30 years of Poetry Please, it is a doorstop size volume that would do battle with any winter draft. Roger was signing them. I bought the last but one copy hurriedly and hoped that he wouldn’t have left the signing table. Which he hadn’t but Rachel New (the resident writer for BLF attempting a 10 day sentence – writing 30,000 words over the festival) appeared at the same time to meet Roger herself.

I also wanted to speak with her -I’d failed to find her in the library on the Knowledge floor because in my mind she was in the big circular garden room you can see a few metres away from the entrance.

Roger was busy signing books so I struck up conversation with Rachel first, then he was ready to sign mine and I was still talking to Rachel – I felt really rude about this as I handed him the book and said ‘please sign this’, I also missed out on a personal message as he couldn’t get a word in edgeways to ask me my name as I manically gushed over Rachel’s challenge!

I hope he didn’t think I was going to flog the signed book on Ebay or something. It is on my shelf along with the other publications bought at the Literature Festival. I stood there awkwardly for a few seconds trying to make up for my rudeness, but by then Rachel and Roger were in full flow (talking) and it would have been rude to butt in and only fuel the fire that I was an obnoxious member of the public who at first ignores the great names and then attempts to talk over the top of them! So I withdrew and took this photo –

 which was snapped by crew members for the official BLF website. (I spoke to Lee, the festival photographer on the last day of the festival in the hope that I may be able to use some of the brilliant BLF website pictures, unfortunately Lee was unsure and they have been locked so that we can’t use them, fair enough I suppose.)

The 2^nd recording was With Great Pleasure and The Echo Chamber, with Paul Farley (due for broadcast January 2014.)

The second half was just as fantastic as the Poetry Please recording and the production included some people choice poetry as well. I wasn’t brave enough to introduce a poem – but I did have my chance and could have been on the radio show (Poetry Please) too! I thought I had stepped into the poetry limelight enough today and instead shrank into my seat!

And not mentioned in the programme was the greatest surprise of all. Katie Sultana – an exceptionally talented and confident teen, she won a National schools competition for reciting poetry -she was so talented. I wanted to hire her there and then to perform my poetry for me.

Watch out for her name.

In stars!

The Launch of the Literature Festival

If you have been reading the blog lately you will have realised that I have had a busy fortnight (10 days) with my first Literature Festival of the year! (Despite having noted Literature festivals on a calendar in the Spring.)

I had hoped to post live the daily feed from the festival events and successes. The laptop mouse control put pay to that… but we are back online with a shiny new USB mouse, very well behaved balanced on the armchair arm for most of the time. (I keep trying to use the laptop one and then I remember the new one next to me! Shhhhh, don’t tell him, he might stop working as well!)

My photos were taken from a smart phone with intention of atmosphere rather than clarity and (as with the rest of the photos on the blog) I own the copyright.

The Launch

The launch night of the festival was a great atmosphere to revel in. I have missed most Literature Festivals I planned to go to this year, so I was happy not to miss one held so locally.

 The launch night was also an opportunity to watch performances from the current Poet Laureate Stephen Morrison-Burke and find out who had won the coveted position of City Laureate for 2013/14. Congratulations to Joanna Skelt.

They also announced the Young Poet Laureate – a title I wish they had awarded when I was younger. Congratulations to Lauren Williams.

I went alone, but as I have heard a few times in the past week… the poetry world is a small one and I soon bumped into people I had met at Sarah Leavesley’s book launch (back in September).

As it was National Poetry Day I was delighted to be at a poetry event and I hadn’t been to the new library since it opened, I treated myself to a tour and a browse. Loved it, so new, shiny and exciting… sometimes I have struggled with library modernisation, loved the old system of tickets and stamps, but this new space is incredible and despite size and modern interior, still feels welcoming.

I spent time in the rivers and oceans book areas making a pictorial record for my National Poetry Day effort, the theme was ‘water’.

You can see my poem here

I had another adventure returning to my car, I tripped over on a cobbled street, falling face first onto all fours, trying to catch my glasses, I threw my handbag and all the papers to the floor… a nasty gash on my knee that still hurts and jarred shoulders.

Which was a great shame as I had an epically brilliant night!

The Fear Chronicles: Why I’m not Scared In November

A great article for those preparing for NaNoWriMo. After the 2 camps (Spring and Summer) I am looking forward to this challenge, I also hope to add and write my own NaNo tips and posts, as I did for the Spring and Summer camps!

Today's Author

One of the things I said I would write about for Today’s Author was fear in relation to writing. I mentioned in my introductory post that when it comes to having deadlines, fear takes a backseat. And when it comes to NaNoWriMo, fear may as well be in the trunk. There is something comforting about giving myself a challenge, and leaving no room, none whatsoever, for failure. And yes, I would view it as a failure if I didn’t complete my 50,000 words.

So, to avoid this failure, here are some things I’ve done to help me finish my “novels” in NaNoWriMos past and some things I recommend:

• Turn off the self-editor, and view this month as an extended exercise in freewriting. Freewriting is something I teach to my students in basic writing classes as a trick to just get over themselves. Freewriting lets them initially scrap the things…

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Silf Gives Self – Margaret Silf Seminar

Silf Gives Self

A long time ago now – way back in September I went on a Seminar Day facilitated by Margaret Silf – author of ‘The Other Side of Chaos’. It was one of those events that I was torn between going and not. I knew the Literature Festival was the following week and money spent on this day (although a bargain) equated to 2 shows, or several book purchases. I also knew how much her book had helped me and how the edges of my darkness are still tinged grey. Besides which my mum had invited me and it was one of those ‘meant to happen, meant to be’ moments life throws at you.

 

I was delighted I had said yes (not so much at 8:30 a.m on Saturday when I awoke with a bit of a Friday night head after having friends over, nor an hour later, eating the rest of my breakfast in the car.) But within the first half hour of Margaret’s talk, I knew it was right to be there.

It was a great day and she gave us plenty of time to go off and meditate, think about the questions she had posed, or notes we’d taken.

I also met some new people and this in itself led to new opportunity possibly in the future.

I scribbled pages of notes in my writing notebook (the little one) and was touched by the light fingers of inspiration lots, poetry ideas entered my head one after another. I felt like a vessel muse was pouring into.

Margaret was magical, almost Hawaiian in her laid back attitude and soft speaking. She covered so much in such a short amount of time and felt she could go on and we wished she could also.

I cannot wait to start working through the notebook, I think I will try it as the first part of my NaNoWriMo project. I feel I may rebel again (as I did in the Summer Camp) and write my words across a range of projects.

 

 

 

 

En route home we popped in to my brother and his fiancé in their new house. It was lovely to see them again and hear all about their wedding plans and see the newly decorated rooms. Gave me food for thought for our home. (Not yet started the decorating!) A lovely way to spend a Saturday, I was left on quite a spiritual high.

 

Good for the Soul!

Back in the Fountain – On writing and Catching Up

I am home from work early and for the 1st time in over a fortnight I have time to write! Back in my poetry skin, trying to find a level balance for my soul. I am trying to produce new work for Friday night and sort out my open mic material for next week, as well as checking all the missing links from my writing action plan after not being online!

Due to the laptop mouse dying a death and Mr G having to order a new one (thanks for surplus money in the billing account!) I have fallen way behind on posts.

October has been a truly active month for me – maybe the most active so far. I finally made it to a Literature Festival, performed open mic for the 1^st time in 15years, booked two more open mics one for the end of October and one for November, wrote, attended workshops and bought more ‘Writing’ books and poetry books.

In addition my paperwork having finally been collated and paid for (took 4 weeks) I was able to start teaching on supply. For what is commonly called the ‘dead’ term, where work is scarce I have done okay by one of the agencies. I managed to get a PPA role that secures 4 days a month, this guarantees mortgage payments and in addition to these days I have managed 1- 3 more a week on top. This month I will have made the same as I made in the part time position I had before the summer, which kept me busy 5 days a week and over weekends too.

This is a great success and a weight off my mind.

I have got to grips with balancing this dual life of poet and teacher (note which comes first!) and I am loving the freedom, creativity, positivity I gain from this change I have risked making! Let’s hope it is always this good or better.

I am posting missing threads about the seminars, performances and experiences of recent weeks separately and then linking them back up here;

The Other Side of Chaos Seminar – Margaret Silf

Birmingham Literature Festival – Launch and Laureates

Birmingham Literature Festival – BBC Radio 4 Poetry Please

Birmingham Literature Festival – Art in the Heart Book Launch Ikon Gallery

Birmingham Literature Festival – Benjamin Zephaniah Film Screening To Do Wid’ Me

Birmingham Literature Festival – Postcard Poets

Birmingham Literature Festival – Jane Commane Workshop

 

 

Worcester Literature Festival WLF –

Birmingham Literature Festival –

Birmingham Literature Festival –

Have fun reading the catch up, it has ironically been one of the busiest periods this year and I couldn’t blog about it in real time as I had hoped!

It’s great to be back, splashing around in the fountain!