June/July Newsletter
Thank you so much to Abeer Ameer who gave a beautiful reading to our poetry group at the beginning of June and to a wonderful audience for such engaged listening, and interesting questions and observations. It was a terrific afternoon and I also loved that there were a few visual artists in the audience who added some fascinating (even revelatory!) notes about the creative process during our discussions. As always, it was a delight to welcome new faces to our group, as well as beloved regulars! Thanks to all who were there.
Trowbridge Stanza is now taking a break until September when Nina Parmenter has generously offered to run a writing workshop for us which I’m really looking forward to. More news about that soon. Further ahead, in the autumn, poets Deborah Harvey, Saili Katebe, Carrie Etter and Claire Crowther are coming to Trowbridge to read for us, and we’ll also schedule an open-mic session so that we can hear everyone’s poems and poems in progress.
Poetry Workshop in Bradford on Avon
Meanwhile, in Bradford on Avon, I’m running a Writing Poetry Workshop on Saturday, 13 July, 2-4.30pm at The Make Space, near to the famous Tithe Barn. This will be a generative workshop with the aim of helping you to fill your notebook with the beginnings of new poems. We’ll read and talk about a selection of work by a diverse range of writers and you’ll be guided through a series of exercises and prompts to write your own poems in response. A few more details about this workshop here, or please get in touch if you’d like to ask any questions or find out more.
Collaboration Opportunity
I’ve been contacted by a Bristol-based postgraduate student, Valentina Culley-Foster, at the University of the West of England (UWE) who would like to collaborate with a poet, or poets, on her project Blue/Gold which explores the qualities and history of the woad plant, used as a dye since the Neolithic ages. Valentina is creating photograph-based images of woad and would like to collaborate with a writer/s to produce accompanying creative text. To find out more, please email Valentina photo@vculleyfoster.com.
Stanza Competition
Those of you who are members of the Poetry Society might like to know about their annual Stanza Competition which is open exclusively to PS members who also belong to a Stanza group.
From the PS website “The Poetry Society is delighted to announce that the 2024 Stanza competition is now open! The competition is open to two unpublished poems per poet of up to forty lines. All Poetry Society members who are also members of a Stanza are eligible to enter for free. The closing date will be 4 September 2024. The theme for this year’s competition, in keeping with the theme of National Poetry Day, is ‘Counting’. Winners will be announced on National Poetry Day. We are thrilled that our judge this year will be Rachel Long.” More details here.
As always, thanks for reading. Do get in touch with any news you’d like to share and don’t forget that there’s a Trowbridge Stanza Facebook page with various notices on it as well as some information/news on my website/blog.