We’re very excited to announce the launch of Iris Anne Lewis’ debut poetry collection ‘Amber’ at the Friends Meeting House in Thomas Street, Cirencester, next Sunday (29th September) at 2.45pm.

She will be sharing the stage with her friend, and fellow poet Gill Garrett, who will be launching her collection ‘The Photo I Didn’t Take.’

Iris was born in the Rhondda, Wales, and her work has been featured at the Cheltenham Literary Festival and the Bradford on Avon Arts Festival. She was awarded 1st prize in the Gloucestershire Poetry Society Competition in 2020 and was highly commended in the Wales Poetry Award 2022. She is widely published in magazines and anthologies, most recently Artemis, Black Bough Poetry, Ink, Sweat and Tears and The High Window.

She is an active participant in local poetry events and open mics. Her journey into creative writing started with a week’s residential course at Ty Newydd, the National Writers’ Centre of Wales. In 2018, she founded the Cirencester Poetry Group and 2020 marked her sixth appearance at the Cheltenham Literature Festival as a prize winner. 

You can buy Amber on Amazon here or at Aspect Design here.

Congratulations to Frank McMahon. Two of his poetry videos, ‘Three Poems’ and ‘Mosaic’ are to be featured in the Wirral Poetry Festival next month. An anthology of poetry videos will be screened as a continuous loop in Port Sunlight’s Lady Lever Art Gallery 12:00 – 3:00 pm on Saturday 5^th October. The anthology will then be made available on the festival’s website. More info is available here.

Iris Anne Lewis has four poems published in the Autumn issue of The High Window. 

Clonycavan Man was inspired by one or the bog bodies found buried in Irish peat and now displayed in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. Closer to home, exhibits in the Corinium Museum inspired The Missing Goddess and Mrs Getty Lies in State at the Corinium Museum. In contrast, An Evening Walk on the Riverbank is meditative in tone, evoking the reflective quietness of a solitary walk along a riverbank as dusk closes into night. You can read the poems by clicking here.

Author and poet Frank McMahon, will be reading at two upcoming events in September.

On-line at the Gloucestershire Poetry Society’s Crafty Crows on September 4th at 7pm; free entry and open mic via GPS website.

In person at Buzzwords, Exmouth Arms,Cheltenham, on September 8th, 7pm start. Includes open mic and creative writing spot.

Frank will be reading from his latest book, The Light will Always Return.”

Congratulations to Graham Bruce Fletcher who will be featured reading his poem ‘Misheard Lyrics’ on BBC Upload with Adam Crowther this week!

The poem will be broadcast on Thursday evening between 6-8pm on BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Somerset and BBC Radio Wiltshire! You can hear it again on Saturday evening on BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Somerset and BBC Radio Wiltshire between 6-8pm. You can listen on your radio or via the free BBC Sounds app.

Congratulations, too, to Frank McMahon, whose poem ‘Reverberations’ was runner-up in the annual Gloucestershire Writers Network Competition. Frank will be reading his poem at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sunday, October 13.

This month’s featured work is an ekphrastic prose poem based on the 1942 painting ‘Nighthawks’ by American artist Edward Hopper.

Alan is a Derbyshire lad, though not so “lad” anymore, who moved south before joining the group in November 2022. He’s often inspired by reading international fiction translated into English as a means of discovering other worlds. He prefers to focus on short stories and poetry and a recent piece was longlisted in this year’s Fish Short Memoir Prize. He works on his writing, music and art from his home in Kempsford where he lives with his wife and cat. He accepts being third in line in a list of priorities. 

He views prose poetry as being akin to the old game of pinning the tail on the donkey.

You can read the prose poem here.

The BBC will be broadcasting ‘In Memorium’ by Frank McMahon this Saturday as part of its BBC Upload programme.

Frank’s reading of the poem will feature in Adam Crowther’s programme between 6-8pm and will be broadcast on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, BBC Radio Wiltshire, BBC Radio Somerset and BBC Radio Bristol. You can listen on your radio or via the free BBC Sounds app.

There will be a chance to hear Frank read more of his work at Cirencester Library this Monday when he is a guest speaker at Writers in the Library from 2-3pm.

It is with great sadness that we have to announce the deaths of two long-time members of our writing group. As a founder member, Steve Goldblatt contributed hugely to its ethos and success. His wit, enthusiasm and pertinent, pithy comments were always a delight, as were his rare but hilarious written descriptions of his life. Steve died suddenly in Spain. In the same week, we heard that veteran member Jim Moeller had died after a long illness. His was a life devoted to literature, both as a teacher and as a skilled and subtle writer of long and short-form fiction. Listening to Jim read his work in his gentle, wry, American voice was one of the great pleasures of belonging to the group. We shall miss them both hugely. You can listen to Graham Bruce Fletcher’s interview with Jim about his life and work here.