Review of March

March was a funny month, I took my first break from writing since the winter. It wasn’t intentional, just happened due to working more hours and needing some time off to relax, read and sleep. I had 5 days off from writing, followed by another week, during this time I missed several events/ performances. Towards the end of March there were 3 events I decided to not attend to enable me to afford the trip down to London. The cost of the 3 events covered my transport costs.

I had intended more writing and reading than performing in 2015, but I thought I would plan it. I feel I need to get to grips with a year that is running away with me.

Our laptop broke and I lost a lot of work in progress, editing that I hadn’t backed up. I didn’t have the heart to deal with this straight away – now in Mid-April (already!) I have started to tackle the lost work. This of course takes extra hours.

Back to March…

BLOGS & PROJECTS

I finally managed to send David Calcutt my Caldmore Garden poetry, fortunately it was published on his website before our laptop broke.

My MOOC Poetry Course online with the University of Iowa was supposed to start, it was delayed and is due to start now on April 13th.

I received some incredibly exciting news from WWM (Writing West Midlands) which I am not yet at liberty to share. Needless to say I AM OVER THE MOON!

I booked tickets for Stratford Literary Festival next month.

I am reading a LOT. Prose & poetry.

The 52ers created a new group ‘MINT’ so we can stay in touch when it is all over, I have tickets for 52 at Wenlock Poetry Festival and have ordered the book, we are also meeting/ performing at Stratford Poetry Festival in the summer.

AND – very excitingly I was invited, by Hark Magazine to perform at 10 minute set in London at the launch for Issue 4.

 

SUBMISSIONS

I submitted to Under the Radar and Paperswans, fingers crossed for those new-works.

I missed a few other submissions as life got busy and deadlines past as they sometimes do. I need to get more organised.

 

PERFORMING POETRY

Permission to Speak

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/poetry-events-in-march-permission-to-speak-4-3-15/

Spoken word at The Ort

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/performing-poetry-spoken-word-at-the-ort-6-3-15/

Malvern Book Promoters

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/malvern-book-promoters-mad-march-book-promotion-events/

Nomad Variety – Martineau Gardens Charity night

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/nomad-variety-at-martineau-gardens/

Hark Magazine Launch – London

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/hark-magazine-launch-reading-in-london/

World Poetry Day https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/celebrating-world-poetry-day/

Southcart Books

Caldmore Community Gardens open day

Sunday Xpress

 

I missed Mouth & Music, SpeakEasy, Poetry Bites, Drummonds 42,

 

EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS

WWM meeting (there were many last month)

Hark Magazine Launch & Reading in London

I had my poem ‘Clench’ published in Hark magazine, issue 2. Back then, it was an online publication, now (Issue 4). The Hark team (Owen Vince, Matt Apperley, Dimitris Tsomokos & Diana Kurakina) have taken the jump into a very handsome print magazine – the sort that looks like a book.

To celebrate this they were inviting readers to take part in the launch. It was a great opportunity to go to London and read (I found out after that some poets performed at Keats house and the Poetry Café on the Saturday, had I known I would have stayed over), as it was I decided that I would make the journey home in the early hours. I only live a few hours from London, but unfortunately the coach broke down at Watford Gap and what should have taken 3 hours, took 7. However, I had allowed a 4 hour window to reunite with London, so I was there in time for the Launch. As soon as I walked in I knew it would be a great night and instantly relaxed.

The venue – The Washington, has an amazing cellar bar, accessed through a secret bookcase door (there should be a joke here on how many poets and publishers it took to open it). It was a great night and as soon as I arrived, I was instantly made welcome and calmed down from LONG my journey.

Hark organised an night of contributors reading in North London.

Zelda Chappel
Jemma Borg
Hazem Tagiuri
Nina Lewis
Andrew Wells
Imogen Forster
Rebecca Bird

It was a delight to meet everyone and it truly was a rich evening of superb poetry.

I was excited to meet people who I knew only by name, to discover new poetry, to meet the editors and see the handsome Hark magazine in print form.

It was definitely worth the 7 hour journey (and of course, I made it back in 2hours)!

ABOUT HARK

HARK is a literary magazine of poetry and short fiction. Founded in 2014 and based between London and Norwich, this small but highly ambitious magazine has built a reputation for brilliant, formal writing that pays close and sustained attention to the imagination and the possibilities of language. HARK is for those writers and readers who take the act of creation through language to be a sublime and, even, ethical act.

With a dedicated team of passionate editors, the magazine’s mission is to find, publish and promote the most exciting new voices, always alongside established writers who continue to challenge their readers with intelligent new work.

HARK is available to purchase either through our online store, or in Foyles (Tottenham Court Road branch), the London Review Bookshop, and the Book Hive in Norwich.

© 2014 – HARK literary magazine

© 2014 – HARK literary magazine: Owen Vince

© 2014 – HARK literary magazine: Matt Apperley

One of the features is asking how the writers write, you can find my explanation here;

http://www.harkmagazine.co.uk/2014/08/26/writers-on-writing-issue-2/

And of course you can buy your own copy of Issue 4

Celebrating World Poetry Day

I spent the day performing in Walsall, first at Southcart Books and later at Caldmore Gardens.

 The last time I performed here was Small Business Saturday, this time Scott and Amy had organised a group of Poets to read to mark World Poetry Day.

 It was a great event and I always love browsing in bookshops. I bought 2 poetry books last time I was here, I bought 2 books this time too.

Then I hotfooted over to Caldmore Gardens to read with David Calcutt (Poet in Residence) and Janet Jenkins at the Open Day. Making my Poetry Day complete.

 

Nomad Variety at Martineau Gardens

David Rees-Jones organiser of Nomad Variety booked me for this charity night last month. The event consisted of fabulous entertainment from two comedians, two musicians and myself, performing poetry.

© Live Brum 2015

Nomad Variety brings together local performers, to entertain in a range of venues across Birmingham, with live solo performances including folk, jazz and blues music, comedy and spoken word. We’re delighted to be hosting the group in our cosy Studio on Friday 20 March, 7pm. Hot and cold drinks available and of course, cake! 

Advance booking for the event is recommended to avoid disappointment. © Live Brum 2015

The studio was a great venue and people had an enjoyable night.

Karl Merrick, a talented musician and also a poet opened the evening with an amazing set. I could listen to Karl all night, he was followed by Tom Christian, who I had seen perform at The Ort before. He had two slots in the evening he treated us to his stand up first.

I performed some of my more light-hearted poetry including some favourite crowd pleasers. Rob Kemp showed us how to deal with hecklers during his routine. David Rees-Jones performed his stand-up in between sets and even told us about his Big Brother secret.

In the second half Karl treated us to more music on his metal guitar, Tom read us some fantastic letters he has genuinely sent to companies and finally Rich Stokes finished the night off with an incredible selection of his music.

I met Rich Stokes at a Gallery event we performed at last year, he headlined Mouth & Music this month (which I missed) so I was delighted to be on the same bill again. Great to catch up with him. He closed the evening with his song ‘Man, Man’ – which I remember loving the first time I heard him play.

I thoroughly enjoyed being on the bill along with comedians & musicians.

Related link:

http://www.martineau-gardens.org.uk/events/

Malvern Book Promoters – MAD MARCH Book Promotion Events

Mad Malvern Book Promotion

I was asked in back in January to take part in this event, organised by Jill Peer.

11 MAD MARCH events organised all over the beautiful tourist destination of Malvern, designed to promote local writers and their books. Many of the events were during the week and I hoped to get to some at the Cake Tin Cafe in The Cube, but work bookings came in thick and fast and I was practically working full time. I plumped for a weekend event, due to roadworks and unlit roads (and being a nervous driver) I went to the daytime event in the Lyttleton Rooms, before moving onto The Hive, in Worcester, to work with the Young writer Group (Writing West Midlands).

The events started on the 3rd March and I am in awe of Jill’s organisational skills in pulling this schedule off.

Tues 3rd March – Zinnia (shoe shop) Live Music

Tues 3rd March – Forget Me Not (Florists) – Live music, spoken word -Floral/Love

Tues 10th March, Cafe H20 Wyche Innovation Centre, (Malvern Hills Geo Centre) – Live music, spoken word -Getting Around

Thurs 12th March – Foley Arms – Live Music, spoken word Life, Mums and Health & a Healing area

Fri 13th March, Cafe H20 Wyche Innovation Centre, (Malvern Hills Geo Centre) – For the KIDS – Word & Songs, Storytelling, puppets, poems & tales

Sat 14th March, Lyttleton Rooms – Spring Craft Fair – Live music, spoken word -Springtime (the event I performed at) ^

Weds 18th March, The cake Tin Cafe, The Cube – Live Music, fun, Lifestyle

Sat 14th & Weds 18th March, Rachel’s Cowleigh Gallery – Live Music/ Mother’s Day/ Love

Thurs 19th March, The Beacon Dentist (not the name of a pub – an actual Dentists) – Spoken Word/ Music – Mum’s/ Springtime

Tues 24th March, The Malvern Book Co-operative Shop – Live Music, Books, Springtime

It was great fun! I love looking for more unusual events. I also enjoy craft fairs, so it really was perfect to perform at the Lyttleton Rooms Craft Fair. I enjoyed it very much.

Thanks for inviting me to participate Jill.

For more information on the local authors and the books promoted follow the link it should let you read the events page even if you haven’t got an account.

My Time in the Wilderness

Wasn’t really in wilderness at all, just poetless and writingless, so, yes… wilderness!

Mid-March I just stopped, completely unplanned and unintentional, muse seemed to have left the building and I was physically & mentally drained, all my energy was used up working the daytime and by the time it came to the evening, I was falling asleep an hour after getting home from work.

I decided to let it happen, rather than push on with my performance agenda. I was feeling sad about not writing, but even typing up previously penned poems seemed too much. At the time I wasn’t worried, knowing this time would pass.

There were 5 submission pieces I had scheduled to work on, three poetry nights (Mouth & Music, Howl & Speakeasy) that I missed and a Stanza meeting, due to an important family occassion (which weeks later led to a new poem being penned). All this went out the window and was swapped for work, sleep, real life mortgage hunting, meetings and TV.

I was activiated after 7 days by Mad Malvern Book Promotion events https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/malvern-book-promoters-mad-march-book-promotion-events/ and working for WWM (Writing West Midlands) – who have sent incredibly exciting news this month. The following week I had another week off, missing Hit The Ode and some submission deadlines. I was performing again by the weekend in a charity event at Martineau Gardens ‘Nomad Variety’. https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/nomad-variety-at-martineau-gardens/

Followed by a celebration of WORLD BOOK DAY with two events/readings in Walsall.

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/celebrating-world-poetry-day/

The only reason I missed a 3rd week of events in March was to cover my transport costs to LONDON, which due to such a hellish journey (a breakdown on the hard shoulder on the outskirts of London resulted in a 3 hour delay, making a three hour journey take closer to seven hours, we were running late as it was) I am hoping to be reimbursed.

I missed Poetry Bites with Jacqui Rowe, particularly sad not to see Robert Harper’s (Barefiction) full set and missed Jayne Stanton too. The following night I missed Drummonds 42 with Andrew Owens. My Caldmore Community Gardens workshop was cancelled – having already turned work down, I treated myself to a much needed writing day and at least sent a backlog of poetry to David Calcutt for his Natural Histories website.

http://naturalhistoriesblog.com/others-writing/

I also worked on a couple of new poems from notes in my writing journals, from previous workshops with Angela France and Jean Atkin.

On Friday I went to London for Hark Issue #4 Launch and reading – very exciting! Once I had slept all of Saturday in recovery of a 22hour day on 5 hours sleep, I found as if by magic, I had woken up with my poetry muse back! We have been celebrating every since.

LINKS TO FOLLOW

Performing Poetry – Spoken Word at The Ort 6.3.15

I haven’t managed to attend Spoken Word with Debbie Aldous for a while, as the dates have often clashed with Stanza meetings. So I was delighted to make it this month and the night proves ever popular. It was originally on a Thursday night and last year they decided to move it to Friday (the Thursday was often shared with lots of other events), since changing the day the crowd has packed the small café.

It was a little awkward standing up for the whole 1st half but I am glad to see the increasing popularity of this event. It was a great night with varied performance; music, comedy, poetry, story telling. Lots of talent on show and as ever, a relaxed atmosphere.

Photographs by Bernard Davies – a selection from the performances.

 Sharon Carr

Joe Smith

 Matt Black

 Andrea Smith a.ka. Swingerella – but for this evening she performed some raw poetry as herself!

 Rachel Mayfield

It was the last event I did for a while as well. Unintentionally I spent the next week doing nothing but work and sleep. I had a dry patch with writing and didn’t attend any of the performance nights that I had intended to support.

Poetry Events in March – Permission to Speak (4.3.15)

I started to catch up with Blog posts last week and then wordpress ate my draft and I couldn’t find it anywhere and then ran out of time to rewrite. Now I have finished a busy weekend of poeting and have time to start afresh (in a word doc.) just incase!

I am backtracking to the beginning of the month. My first event was ‘Permission to Speak’ with Rob Francis at the Scary Canary in Stourbridge. Caution Poet & Dave Halama were the featured artist this month, great sets from them both. Caution has a book out, ‘Fragile’.

The words from Rob Francis himself;

Our next spoken word event hosted by the great Robert Francis includes words from the great ‘Caution Poet’ and musical delights from Dave Halama.

© 2015 Peter Williams

 © 2015 Peter Williams

Caution Poet With a new poetry collection titled ‘Fragile’ available to purchase on the night this writers work reflects life “from his childhood recollections of The Big Brum Estate, to the sobering reality of Tinted Windows To The Soul, Caution Poet slices through life with dark pop poetry precision. As we throw Caution to the wind, accepted reality becomes fragile perception. No-one ever said it was going to be easy…”

 Rob Francis

You can see Caution Poet here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdJ-oXtPMRU

It was a great night! Only the 2nd event and Rob has built up a great crowd of supporters and artists at this event. What made the evening special was Stacey Pilcher the co-owner and creator of the bar, performed behind the mic.

 Photography Peter Williams

Especially as up until then (not that I’d noticed), I was the only female performer!

Next month the featured artist/poet is Dave Reeves, poet in residence from The Black Country Museum and the compere for the evening in Leamington in 2013 when I took my first step back towards the mic, at Julie Boden’s spoken word event. In May, I will be the featured guest.

This event happens monthly and if you are local enough to give it a try, I would recommend it! Rob is a great host and the audience are receptive and warm.

Beyond the event the venue itself is worth a visit, a refurbished site, once a McDonalds with a cafe downstairs and Scary Canary, an excellent venue for entertaining, live events. I love the overuse of lampshades, the homely settees, the leather suites, the coffee tables which were once doors, the MDF drinks mats and the original (maybe) tiled bar area. They also display artworks by local artists, there is always something new on display and it can all be bought!

I have borrowed a recent article to give you a taste.

Stourbridge Venue – Stourbridge News Photographs © James Butroid

Copyright 2015 James Butroid Stourbridge News

Bet You Thought I’d Gone and Left You All! NEVER!

Apologies to regular readers for the radio silence, I took a fortnight off from everything apart from work and sleeping. I didn’t write (except lists), perform or surf blogland for some time. I would love to tell you I have been on a cruise or a desert island… because the ‘nose to grindstone’ story isn’t as riveting!

You will be happy to hear, I am back with you and will spend lots of time this evening updating the blog and sharing all my great news with you…. because even when life enforces a period of hibernation upon you, the world continues to spin, we have had a solar eclipse and everything!

Besides I was not hibernating in reality, just working hard and needing to replenish energy stocks through sleep. Mr G is still working away and time offline enables me to gain realtime with him, which is gold-dust precious at the moment.

Plus we have had Mother’s Day, World Poetry Day, St David’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day (not that I marked either this year with an event), and lots of Birthdays which I have barely had the chance to send social media wishes for.

HAPPY MARCH – hope you have a good one! Watch out for some new posts and lots of EXCITING news!

Review of February – Another Great Month!

‘I cannot believe it is March, but then February is such a short month! This year has been fantastic so far – as you know if you have followed the story – I am now in my 3rd year of the 1st of 4 Olympic challenges… inspired by the Summer Olympics in London, I realised that we hear the GOLD stories and not the 4, 8, 12, 16 years leading up to them. Often athletes may get to GOLD just before they are forced to retire… as writers don’t need to be in peak physical condition (we are only ever warned about the writers saggy bottom), we can (and do) write into our 80s and beyond. So once 16 years has passed I will not lay down my pen, I will carry on, but my beginners strides were to consider my writing life 16 years ahead.

Here is the beginning of year 3 (and considering I rediscovered poetry (my main focus) back in September 2013 I am only 1.5 years in) I read with awe CVs and Bios of writers in their 2nd, 3rd, 4th 5th years of their careers and thought ‘WOW, they’ve achieved that fast’ – and here I am;

Published

Performing and known locally

Headlining events

Mentoring young writers

I  have spent a year working as an assistant writer for Writing West Midlands and now can cover as a Lead writer (with some incredibly exciting news today about my future and this role which matches my hopes exactly)

Work has appeared on the Poetry Trail Wenlock Poetry Festival 2014

I worked on a commission performed at Birmingham Literature Festival (a year after I attended the festival as a wide-eyed gleeful new poet)

I have been booked as a featured act for a Charity event in Birmingham this Spring

I was booked last year (way before the amazing 52) to be 1 of 10 poets on Sarah Dixon’s Quiet Compere Tour 2015

I am working on my first chapbook/ pamphlet

I will be performing on the same night as John Hegley (Poetry God) this Autumn

I have grabbed every opportunity for workshops, tutorials and conversations with writers and publishers

I am supporting Daniel Sluman in the promotion of his second collection ‘the terrible’, right here on the AWF Blog

I AM HAPPY!

Now to February – how did it look?

BLOGS & PROJECTS

As I get more active in reality, naturally I have less time to blog (I still find it amazing to consider the time that goes into such small posts), however the blog is still healthy and full of life, so thanks for popping in for a read.

Literature Festival Season is upon us, I booked all my tickets for Wenlock Poetry Festival 2015, including the 52 Project with Jo Bell and Norman Hadley, my book has been ordered too. 52 was such an amazing project to be a small part of and it has brought the wonders of the publishing world and success to many of the participants.

This year I am seeking to place my poetry in suitable places, rather than spending my life writing to theme (although no doubt I will do this also). I have been a bit slack this month in sending anything out, with Mr G working away from home I seem to have lost some of my precious writing time and the energy needed to flow creatively. Coping to live alone again is a hard, time consuming struggle, just one month to go though and we will be back to normal!

I did submit poetry to Rethink and entered the Corinium Museum competition.

I continued to attend David Calcutt’s Community Garden workshops in Walsall. We have exciting ventures mapped out for March, including a reading event in the garden and more workshops. Some of the poetry I have produced in Caldmore can be seen on his website (link to follow).

I also had my 2nd workshop with Angela France in Stratford-Upon-Avon, which was even more inspirational than the first and has had me mapping out all sorts of ideas and poetry threads in my notebook since!

I also booked myself onto my 2nd online writing course, this one with the University of Iowa.

SUBMISSIONS

I submitted work to;

Rethink Your Mind (Competition)

Corinium Museum (Comp.)

 

PERFORMING POETRY

This year I decided to pull back on the 100+ gigs of last year to allow more time to work on writing.

Permission to Speak, Robert Francis, Stourbridge. Featuring Fergus McGonigal

Mouth & Music, Heather Wastie & Sarah Tamar, Kidderminster. Featuring Lorna Meehan & Kate Wragg

Hit the Ode, Spoz, Birmingham. Featuring Jasmine Gardosi, Rose Condo & MiKo Berry

Drummonds 42, Andrew Owens, Worcester.

 

EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

Stanza

SpeakEasy, Fergus McGonigal & Maggie Doyle, Worcester. Featuring Gary Longden

Angela France – Stratford-Upon-Avon workshop – mapping poetry

Poets at the Hive – Ben Parker, Sarah James, Ruth Stacey and Todd Swift

David Calcutt – Caldmore Gardens Workshop

Caroline Horton – AND TEXT Workshop, Birmingham MAIA Creatives

Writing West Midlands – Assistant writer/ Lead Writer and cover

I was asked to perform in Mad March Events in Malvern, at a Book Launch in April, interviewed Daniel Sluman for the blog promo tour, stocked up on more books;

‘The Forward Book of Poetry’

‘FU Pardon My Tone’ MiKo Berry

‘A Poetry Handbook’ Mary Oliver

‘The Escape artists’ Ben Parker

‘Unfinished Study of a French Girl’ Todd Swift

‘Magnetic Diaries’ Sarah James

and read a ton of writing articles.

 

 

 

© 2015 Forward Arts Foundation

Sonia Hendy-Isaac
© 2014