How to sprint to the heart of a story was the theme of a flash fiction workshop led by American creative writing tutor Lisa Lutwyche for Somewhere Else Writers.

Poet, author, artist, playwright, and actor, Lisa has been published in anthologies and literary magazines across the US and in the UK, including Mad Poets Review, Falklands War Poetry, Minerva Rising, the cancer poetry project 2, In the Questions – Poetry By and About Strong Women, Fiction Vortex, and Riddled with Arrows. Her full-length poetry collection, A Difficult Animal, was published in 2016 by Saddle Road Press. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2000 and in 2015 for poetry, and has a short story nominated for inclusion in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 anthology.

Over a lively, two hour session Lisa discussed principles of writing including Aristotle’s principles of the dramatic arc.

Exposition & Inciting Incident
Rising Action
Climax/Turning Point
Falling Action
Resolution

The session also included practical exercises which left the group buzzing with ideas.

Lisa is currently an adjunct Professor of English at Cecil College in Maryland, at Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania, and at Delaware Technical Community College in Wilmington, Delaware.

Somewhere Else chair Frank McMahon has just had a story, ‘Grace Notes’ accepted for publication by Scribble Magazine, Stow-in-the Wold.

He sat down slowly and deliberately on the wicker chair beside the bed. A wisp of vapour floated from the cup of blackcurrant tea which sat untouched on the bedside table. Silence seemed to gather from the corners of the room and hover above the counterpane.

A breath of wind stirred the curtains. A thin shaft of light illuminated the brown corduroy pattern of his trousers. He breathed out slowly.

His sister Flora had briefed him before he had arrived and made him repeat it after he had unpacked.

“This is the most important part, Marcus. If you don’t get it exactly right Mother will keep reminding you about it for the rest of the day. So, ready?”…

He has also had two poems accepted for publication. The first, ‘Shoes’ will feature in Persona Non Grata and ‘Universal Credit’ in Fly on the Wall.

Somewhere Else Writers are delighted to welcome Frank McMahon as their new chairman. Frank, who attributes membership of the group for a surge his own creativity, paid tribute to retiring chair Sophie Livingston for her work over the last three years. Sophie said: “I am thrilled that Frank has agreed to take on the role. The group has changed enormously over the six years since it was  founded and grown hugely more ambitious. I am really looking forward to seeing what happens next.”

Iris Anne Lewis was among the poets presenting their poetry films at the charity premiere ‘Adventures in Poetry Film’ in Chippenham on 2nd August. Her film ‘Matryoshka’ was made as a member of the Poetry Film Collective, a group of poets who were invited to participate in an Arts Council funded initiative led by Chaucer Cameron and Helen Dewbery of Elephant’s Footprint.

This event was the start of the Collective’s mini-tour of the South West, with further shows planned for Bristol, Shepton Mallet and Swindon.

Stephen Connolly’s radio play ‘The Destiny Of Shoes’ was broadcast on Corinium Radio last week. The play features fellow Somewhere Else member Grame Bruce Fletcher (playing both left and right of a pair of ageing Desert boots) and was recorded before the play was accepted by Off The Rock Productions in  York.

The play was inspired by a writing exercise from a radio drama workshop given by experienced former-Radio 4 Producer/Writer Paul Dodgson.

As a pair of shoes reach the end of their careers, can they settle their differences, prepare to meet what comes next and answer the greatest question of all: is there an afterlife for shoes?

Iris Anne Lewis is a member of the Poetry Film Collective which will be presenting their films in an event in Chippenham on Thursday August 2nd, 7 – 9pm at the Old Road Tavern.

Poetry film brings together words, images and sound to create a new experience – part poetry, part artwork, part short film. A good poetry film aims to be more than just the sum of its parts… as if somehow the words, pictures and sounds talk to one another and come alive in fresh, sometimes surprising, ways.

The Swindon-based Poetry Film Collective was set up in 2018 as a six-month project funded by Arts Council England to explore how people from different artistic backgrounds might approach poetry film-making. We are all poets. Some of us are also performers, film-makers, musicians and visual artists. Some of us have lots of experience in one area while others are just starting out in another.

All of us have made a poetry film and we’d love to share them with you!

Each film is short-short (around 2-3 minutes) and there’s a real variety of work.

We’ll screen several films, then have an interval to grab a drink and have a chat, then screen several more.

7pm for a 7.30pm start.

We’ll finish by 9pm. You’re very welcome stay and chat / relax / enjoy a drink until pub closing time.

FREE ENTRY. NO NEED TO BOOK, JUST COME ALONG.