When Iris Anne Lewis embarked on making her own poetry film as part of the Swindon Poetry Film Collective, she did not imagine that her film Matryoshka would be shown in events across the globe. Starting off with an show  in Chippenham, the Poetry Film Collective decided to arrange showings of all their work around the South West of England, including Swindon, Bristol and Shepton Mallet. That seemed exciting!

But then the Collective decided to submit their work to the Athens International Video Poetry Festival. All the films were accepted for the Athens Festival. This led to a further invitation to send the films to the Renaissance Festival in Australia. Poetry film certainly has an international reach.

 

Members of Somewhere Else were thrilled to be invited by Wotton Writers to hear Rosie Bailey talk about poetry.

For most of her life RV Bailey was an academic, ending her career as Deputy Dean of Humanities at UWE. She was the life partner of the poet UA Fanthorpe and together they read throughout the UK and overseas, jointly led poetry courses and judged poetry competitions.

In a witty talk at Wotton’s Chipping Hall, she discussed the nature of poetry, which she compared, at times, to an unruly dog. Poets, she described as ‘smugglers.’

 

Her latest collection of poetry is titled ‘A Scrappy Little Harvest’ and is published by Indigo Dreams.

It was an excellent evening and we hope we will be able to reciprocate and welcome Wotton Writers to one of our events.

Somewhere Else member Stephen Connolly has been selected for Bristol Old Vic Open Session Writers 2018. His (first) full length play ‘Parzival’ will receive a year’s worth of development support and workshopping including (potentially) a production in Spring 2019.

More information on Stephen’s blog.

Congratulations to Somewhere Else chair Frank McMahon whose poem ‘Night Shift’ has been published in Brittle Star, the literary magazine for new and up coming writers.

Edition 43, which includes Frank’s work, was launched at the Barbican on Wednesday, 14th November. The bi-annual print magazine has been running for 15 years.

Congratulations to Iris whose poetry film Matryoshka will be shown at the 7th Athens International Video Poetry Festival.

Last year’s festival attracted more than 1,000 visitors.

 

Stephen Connolly has reached the longlist of 22 for the 2018 Retreat West Novel Prize.

His entry (which can’t be named yet as all entries are still anonymous) is a Historical novel originally written for the National Write A Novel in a Month project. There were 77 entries for the competition, which had to be the first 7500 words of a novel plus a 500 word synopsis.

The short list is due to be announced at the end of November, when shortlisted authors will need to submit a complete MS. First prize is a standard publishing contract with Retreat West Books for a paperback and ebook edition of the novel, with a £500 advance.

Retreat West Books is a small independent press with a social and environmental conscience. It publishes novels, memoirs and short story collections. Every year at least one anthology will be donating all profits to a nominated charity and all paperbacks are print on demand to make best use of the world’s finite resources. It’s dedicated to helping new writers bring their words to the world.

To mark the centenary of Armistice Day, Somewhere Else Writers are broadcasting ‘Beyond the Pale’. This radio drama tell the story of Elsie, a child at the time of the First World War, and her brother Ted, a soldier at the Front.

For an unusual perspective of the War and its long lasting effects, tune into Corinium Radio on Sunday 28th October at 4.30pm. The play is will also be available via Corinium Radio’s ‘Listen Again’ feature and our own website.

For further information, see the blog post for October 6th.

Somewhere Else member Stephen Connolly has been selected as one of the ten authors to read at the 17th Stroud Short Stories event.

Stroud Short Stories is a twice-yearly non-profit making event, the aim of which is to encourage, showcase and promote contemporary writing in Gloucestershire.

The event is on Sunday 11 November at 8pm (doors at 7.30) at the SVA (Stroud Valleys Artspace), John Street, Stroud, GL5 2HA. Tickets, priced at £8 (including the SVA’s booking fee), are on sale only in advance and only from the SVA website from Tuesday 23 October.