Iris Anne Lewis was a guest reader at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival alongside Derek Healey and Isabel Galleymore. Something Old, Something New featured Gloucestershire poets, each of whom read a selection of their own work plus a poem from a Gloucestershire poet from the past. Iris’s set included poems on the theme of mothers and daughters, the Faroe Islands and her home village, Kempsford. She finished by reading a poem by William Hayward, who served in the Boer War. His poignant poem Kempsford Bells tells how he longed to hear the sound of Kempsford church bells when he was far away from home.

Iris said: ‘It was a lovely experience to be reading to a packed audience at the prestigious Cheltenham Poetry Festival and to listen to Derek and Isabel’s talented work.’

Fish Publishing, based in County Cork, Ireland, have been running prestigious annual writing competitions which have drawn international attention for many years now. Winners’ work appears in its annual anthology. Somewhere Else member Alan Passey’s work appeared in the 2020 Anthology, and he was Longlisted this year in the Short Memoir Prize with his piece “Luigi and The President” about the loss of a childhood friend on the same night that JFK was assassinated.

“I was reflecting on how the adults around us at the time were distracted by this great world event when to us children, the great smaller world, our small world, event was the loss of Luigi,” Alan said, “Fish have a great reputation, and I was delighted to make the first cut, at least.”

‘Luigi ..’ is currently submitted for possible publication but as an appetiser you can read a shorter memoir piece on Alan’s blog here.