Massive congratulations to Frank, Iris and Graham for their success in Graffiti magazine’s issue 27 competition.

Frank was runner up with his poem “Fingerprints”, Iris was commended twice for her poems “Monastery of Geghard” and “Votive”, and Graham was commended for his prose piece “Withheld”.

The full results are:

Poetry Winner : Marilyn Timms – The Shepherd’s Two Pocket Abacus

Runners up: Elizabeth Horrocks – Penelope Speaks

Frank McMahon – Fingerprints

Commended: Iris Lewis – Monastery of Geghard

Christine Griffin – Still Life

Judith van Dijkhuisen – Visiting the Hospice

Iris Lewis – Votive

Prose results

Winner: Joy Mawby – Journal of Mary Hughes

Runner up: Christine Griffin – Playing Piano at Joe’s Bar

Commended: Graham Bruce Fletcher -Withheld

Maggie Goddard – The Novice Deceiver

Marilyn Timms – Witness Statement

Sue Johnston – Eggshells

This month’s featured writer is Graham Bruce Fletcher, who was born in Leeds, Yorkshire and brought up between Yorkshire and Cirencester.  He has written for as long as he can remember, and hopes to continue to remember for as long as he can write. He has worked in many different fields, several offices (and other indoor locations), and travelled around Europe as a Marketing Director in the medical industry until he stopped inflicting himself upon employers to focus on writing both fiction and music, having retired at the age of fifty due to the opportunity he found in having survived cancer.

He is interested in almost everything, except reality TV shows, fashion and fast cars. He is a keen observer of other people’s behaviour, and an eavesdropper on private conversations with the intention of stealing ideas for his writing. He is particularly eager to hear the strange details of other people’s lives, a task he finds much easier now that people do not hesitate to hold intimate personal conversations loudly and in public on their mobile phones.  Any resemblance between real people and events and his stories is likely to be intentional.

Graham’s short story ‘The Way Ahead’ is featured in this month’s Cirencester Scene. You can read it by clicking on the story of the month logo on the Somewhere Else Writers’ website, or here

Iris Anne Lewis’s poem ‘Aberfan’ is published in the Autumn issue of the online poetry magazine ’The High Window’. You can read Iris’s poem here along with a selection of homegrown and international poetry from 34 other poets.

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.