This month’s featured writer is Selwyn Morgan. Until five years ago Selwyn wrote only to convey information; often of a technical nature. Nearing retirement, he found that it was fun to write down the stories that were triggered in his head when imagining the life and times of his ancestors. That led to the completion of his first novel, “Going Up Camborne Hill”, available on Amazon here.

Having been born in South Wales, he discovered his Cornish roots through on-line ancestry sites. He used the surnames and locations he uncovered for his novel and researched the history of the Cornish mining communities as a basis to his story.

Belonging to Somewhere Else Writers Group has inspired him to write and direct radio plays for Corinium Radio, have short stories published in Cirencester Scene; and he has even attempted the occasional poem.

Selwyn moved to the Cirencester area seven years ago, having lived and worked in Sussex for thirty years. Prior to that he lived in the Middle East (Kuwait and Jordan). He is now happy to remain here, close to the source of the Thames.

To read Selwyn’s poem ‘The five cent slots’ click on our poem of the month logo.

This month’s featured work is ‘Grace Notes’ by Frank McMahon. Frank, whose first poetry collection, ‘At the Storm’s Edge, was published in 2020 by Palewell Press, has been invited to read at this year’s Cheltenham Poetry Festival and will be performing on July 19^th (tickets available here). He is also featured reading one of his works, ‘A Different Land’ on the Improbable Book Cafe website. To listen to Frank, click here. To read Frank’s story, click on the Story of the Month logo, or on the menu above.

Sophie Livingston is celebrating the publication of two of her poems in Black Bough Poetry’s Covid anthology ‘Dark Confessions’. Black Bough publishes short, image-based micro-poems and the follow-up anthology, ‘Freedom and Rapture’ will be published later this year. To find out more about Black Bough click here, or follow them on Twitter @blackboughpoems. Dark Confessions is available on Amazon here .

Many congratulations to Frank McMahon whose poetry was picked from a total entry field of over 12,500 to make the final 100 in the Erbacce poetry competition. The Erbacce Press is based in Liverpool and the annual competition attracts entries from all over the world. Frank’s work was highly commended and his poems will be published in Journal 68 of Erbacce.

To find out more about Erbacce-Press click here.