Author: somewhereelsewritersblog

Celebrating Poetry Together

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Writer Frank McMahon is celebrating a fantastic couple of weeks after appearing on ITV’s This Morning show as one of the winners of the national Poetry Together initiative. 

He performed his winning poem ‘Pomegranate’ in front of an audience of 500 in a live show at Manchester’s Aviva Studios. 

The event was compered by Gyles Brandreth, who originated the idea for the prize. 

Poetry Together is in its seventh year and is designed to bring young and old closer through the joys of poetry. Supported by Queen Camilla, it has seen over 1000 care homes and schools participate, from as far afield as Aberdeen, Bradford, Bristol, Blackpool, Caerphilly, Cambridge, Cornwall, Glasgow, Huddersfield, Hereford, Dover, Llandaff, Londonderry, Liverpool, Leicester, Portsmouth, Sussex, and dozens of other locations around the UK. Last year, schools in Greece, Romania, Dubai, the UAE, Nigeria, and the USA signed up 

The audience in Manchester was made up of teachers, students and grandparents and was followed by workshops and performances by some of Manchester’s finest poets, including Matt Goodfellow, Ruth Awolola, and Nicole May.  

Frank, who, as well as being a winner, has been working on the project with schools in Gloucestershire, said, “It was a day of great energy and creativity, a joy from start to finish.” 

If you would like to hear Frank read ‘Pomegranate,’ it will be broadcast on BBC Upload with Adam Crowther. It can be heard tonight (Thursday, November 27) on BBC Radio Gloucestershire & BBC Radio Wiltshire from 6pm, and again, on Saturday evening on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Wiltshire and BBC Radio Somerset between 6-8pm. You can listen on your radio or via the free BBC Sounds app. 

In other news, Frank also heard that his story ‘The Quay’ has been published in an anthology of novellas by Tim Saunders Publications, under the title of the Paul Cave Prize for literature. His entry made the top four. The anthology is available on Amazon on Kindle for £9.99 or in paperback for £25.00 
 
 

Poem of the Month

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This month’s poems are by Norman (Jock) Smith, who has been voted chair of the group for a second year.

Norman’s writing records thoughts and feelings that result from life’s experiences. He captures fleeting moments, distilling human reality into poetry, focusing on the dark and light of existence.

You can read two of his haiku here.

Poem of the Month

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This month’s poem is Graham Bruce Fletcher’s verse, “An Ode to Wednesday.” It’s a sort of in-joke as Wednesday is the day Somewhere Else Writers gather to share examples of their work and discuss the craft of writing. 

The poem is also a clever play on the way different languages find their own means of describing the same things, often illuminating something of the character of the people who speak that language. Where English often uses words ‘borrowed’ from past invaders, such as the Romans, the Vikings, and the Normans, the Germans call Wednesday ‘midweek’ (Mittwoch) and the French name it after Mercury (Mercredi). You can read the poem by visiting our site and clicking on the Poem of the Month icon on our webpage, or by clicking here.

Writers in the Library

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The next Writers in the Library will take place on Monday, 13th October. Writer Christine Griffin will be the speaker, and there will be refreshments and an open mic. Christine has been writing poetry and short fiction for many years and is widely published both nationally and internationally, including in Acumen, Graffiti, Poetry Super Highway, The Dawntreader and Writing Magazine. She has performed her work at the Cheltenham Poetry Festival and the Cheltenham Literature Festival. The event runs from 2pm to 3pm at Cirencester Library and is free to all.

Pomegranate

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Frank McMahon will be reading his prize-winning poem ‘Pomegranate’ at the National Poetry Together Event at the Aviva Studios, Manchester on November 14th. The national competition, initiated by Gyles Brandreth, aims to bring children and the (slightly) more elderly together through sharing poetry. Frank will be publishing a new poetry collection, ‘Joining the Ring,’ later this year. A wonderful review of his previous collection, ‘The Canticles of Spring,’ by poet and reviewer Nigel Kent can be found here.

Secrets and Lies

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Robert Hart is the newest member of the group, joining us with two full-length novels already published and available through Lulu online.

“Rebecca’s Secrets “ – What Happens When a Boy Starts Asking Questions? – his first autobiographical novel was inspired when he lost his memory following a stroke. On recovery, he decided to write his memoir lest he should lose his past again. He realised that all memory is fiction, so his novel became a story about Tommy Angel, a boy growing up in the East End of London in the Fifties.

You can read edited extracts from 11-year-old Tommy’s adventures with his gang of street friends and his curiosity-fuelled exploration of his family seeking his childhood’s secrets here. The paperback or e-book version of the novel can be found on the bookshop at Lulu.com by searching for Rebecca’s Secrets, where his second novel, “Twice Born” is also available. Alternatively, you can find links on our Publications page.

Story of the Month

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Last August, this website published lifelong writer and longstanding member Linda’s poem, ‘Sunset in the Golden Valley’. This year, you can read her short story – ‘Nice Bike’. Linda has lived in several countries, is an accomplished linguist, and still teaches modern Greek to many students. She has also broadcast programmes for adults and children on local radio and run children’s writing competitions.

Somewhere Else Writers are always eager to encourage people to enjoy writing and reading. Frank McMahon and Iris Anne Lewis are both widely published poets who take part in the ‘Writers in the Library’ group, which welcomes public participants at two pm on the second Monday of each month to the Bingham Library, Cirencester, to read and listen to both poetry and prose, either self-written, or by favourite authors. The event lasts an hour, and no charge is made to attend.

Read ‘Nice Bike’ here.

How I wrote a poem

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Iris Anne Lewis was thrilled to be featured in the prestigious Poetry Wales series How I wrote a poem. Interviewed by Jake Dorothy about her poem Inundation, Iris talks about how her poem sweeps through time from the prehistoric to our modern times, and through space to the Netherlands and England. She also discusses the poetic techniques she used to convey her message in the poem.  It explores ‘Doggerland’, the land bridge that linked Britain to Europe in the Stone Age until a massive tsunami formed the North Sea, flooded it, and wiped its inhabitants out of existence. Iris says: ‘It was a great experience to carry out the research needed to write the poem, as it covered geology, archaeology and folk legend. It was also sobering to reflect on the transience of life and human existence within the forces of time and nature.’

You can read the poem and the interview here.

Iris is also celebrating being highly commended for her poem ‘When I think of my mother’ by the judges of the International Welsh Poetry Competition. The biggest and most respected poetry competition in Wales is now in its 19th year and attracted 3,000 entries from 40 countries around the globe.