Somewhere Else Writers Present The Imagined Abbey. Iris Anne Lewis introduces new prose and poetry inspired by the Abbey 900 Festival on Sunday 22nd January at 4.30pm on Corinium Radio.

Congratulations again to Jim and Graham who have both been highly commended in the literary magazine, Graffiti’s  short story competition.

Their stories ‘Saintly Michael’ and ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ will be published in this quarter’s edition. The theme of the competition was ‘Temptation’.

Somewhere Else Writers welcomed William Cooper, from Cirencester Civic Society, to a November meeting to talk about the history of the town.

The group plans to provide stories and poems for a number of events celebrating Cirencester Abbey’s 900th anniversary in 2017 and the talk was a great way of sparking off some creative ideas.

Somewhere Else Writers now have a monthly slot in Cirencester Scene, a community magazine delivered to 12,000 homes. The November issue features ‘Letter to an Unknown Soldier’ by Iris Anne Lewis.

Somewhere Else’s Graham Bruce Fletcher was invited to read at Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sunday 16th October.

He performed his prize-winning story ‘X47B’ at the annual Gloucestershire Writers’ Network  event.

Stephen Connolly’s short play ‘The Gasman Cometh’ was performed (as a script in hand reading) as part of Salisbury Festival Fringe ‘Rough Cuts’ event on Sunday 2nd October in the Pheasant Pub, Salisbury.

Andrew and Frida meet by chance at the Crematorium, each recently widowed, each there for their spouse’s service. But they have met before… in the most horrendous of circumstances. Can they keep their respective families apart long enough for their services to take place?

Sometimes, the one person you least wanted to meet is the only person you can talk to.
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Kerry Stockwell played Frida, Mike Prior played Andrew. The director was Pee Talman.

Somewhere Else writer Iris Anne Lewis, along with fellow poet Peter McDade, will be headlining a poetry gig on Friday 23rd September at Deep Space Works in Charlton Kings, Cheltenham.

All are welcome at this event which is part of the New Bohemians@Charlton Kings programme of events. The evening starts at 7.30. Deep Space Works is a community arts centre, situated in Hamilton Road, Cheltenham, GL63 8HN. There is plenty of free parking within a one minute walk of Deep Space at St Edward’s Prep School, London Road, opposite Hamilton Street.Further information here.

More success for Stephen Connolly, who has made the long list of the Chesil Theatre, Winchester’s, ten minute playwriting Competition. Steve is now waiting to hear if his play ‘Ten Years’ will be amongst those performed at the theatre in October. Writers were asked to submit ten-minute dramas on a theme inspired by the life or lyrics of music legend David Bowie. The ten winning plays will receive their premiere over one weekend in October 2016 at the 10×10 New Writing Festival. They will be produced, directed and performed back-to-back at the Chesil Theatre. Each play will receive at least three performances.

Deborah Edgington, the 10×10 producer, said: “The aim of 10×10 is to discover, promote and produce the very best new writing of 10-minute plays. It has grown to become a national competition attracting entries from all over the UK.”

Stephen’s short story ‘The Fog’ appears in the July/August edition Ripples Magazine.