A Leg Fell Off A Chair And Walked Off
These wonderful, magical, rich, surreal, strange and personal short pieces of writing were written by a group of young people and adults at a family creative writing workshop, part of Huddersfield Literature Festival 2007.
All the work was inspired by an exhibition of the work of sculptor Carl Plackman. Plackman’s work, it’s use of ordinary everyday objects in unusual and challenging ways, was a firm inspiration for the group, who used the exhibition as a springboard for their own creativity. Examples of work: Barrington, Bird, Cautionary Tale, Fluffy Clouds, How I Met The Queen, Lowry, The Bench, Wiggly River
Published online: www.litfest.org.uk 2008
The Space
A fun, friendly, creative space to explore words, stories, poems, songs, drawing, painting, arts and crafts. Sessions are kept at little,low, or no-cost and provide an informal place for young people and their families and carers to enjoy arts and crafts and learn together.
Get Arty!
Saturday 21st June 2008 11.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.
Saturday 19th July 2008 11.00 a.m. - 1.00 p.m.
Come and join us for the following big, fun, arty summer sessions. Get creative: with writer Rommi Smith and visual artist Rebecca Newbould. Get your hands stuck into glitter, collage, paint and words. Be part of a forthcoming exhibition in Huddersfield Art Gallery in autumn 2008. All adults must be accompanied by a child!
Rebekah Newbould works as ‘The Forty Winks Experience’ offering an exciting range of participatory arts workshops, in both visual and performing arts. With each project specifically developed for the people who are taking part, whether it’s a one off workshop, or a series of activities. Working with community groups from varied social and cultural backgrounds, of all ages and abilities, The Forty Winks Experience uses over 10 years of experience to actively encourage arts projects as a medium for, education, stimulation, relaxation and enjoyment.
Please wear old clothes and clothes that you don't mind getting paint on. Plastic aprons will be provided.
We work together in Huddersfield Art Gallery for most sessions, but try and organise guest authors, artists,trips out and visits to places such as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Crosby Beach andTate Liverpool. Sessions are run by writer and creative writing projects officer,Rommi Smith, plusguest writers and artists.
"We made musical instruments from vegetables! I made a flute from a carrot. We wrote lyrics and sang them whilst people in the group played tunes on the vegetable instruments. It was fun!"
Sarah, aged 8
"I like the fact that I learn so much from my kids. I always worry about spelling as I'm dyslexic.I'd never written a story in my life, but when we sit down and imagine stories together, there's just so much to share."
Maureen, Mum to Lottie aged 5 and Joe aged 11
Dates of Sessions
Please assume that unless stated, the group will meet at
Huddersfield Art Gallery (upstairs from Huddersfield Library)
Princess Alexandra Walk
Huddersfield
HD1 2SU
21st June 08 – 11.00 a.m. - 2.00 p.m.
19th July 08 – 11.00 a.m - 1.00 p.m
These sessions are FREE. Light refreshments provided (donations welcome).
Huddersfield Carnival 2008
The colourful and vibrant Carnival comes to Huddersfield again on 11th and 12th July 2008. Check out the e-flyer to find out more Flyer 08
Come along and see the amazing costumes and be part of this very happy, fun event for all the family.
The Huddersfield Carnival is managed by a partnership between the Huddersfield Carnival Committee and Kirklees Council.
coffee-house poetry at the troubadour
…announcing the second annual troubadour poetry prize
judged by: jo shapcott & stephen knight
1st prize £1000, 2nd £500, 3rd £250, plus 20 commendations @ £20 each and a coffee-house poetry reading for all prizewinning and commended poets with jo shapcott & stephen knight on monday 1st december 2008
Submission deadline: Friday 10th October 2008
Judges
Jo Shapcott has won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Forward Poetry Prize, and the National Poetry Competition (twice) with poems which appear in Her Book: Poems 1988-1998 (2000), selected from three previous collections. She has worked with musicians & composers, presented ‘Poetry Proms’ on Radio 3, translated Rilke and co-edited Emergency Kit: Poems for Strange Times (1996). She now teaches on the MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway College, University of London, is a Visiting Professor at University of Newcastle and at University of the Arts, London, and is President of the Poetry Society.
Stephen Knight reviews fiction & poetry for the Times Literary Supplement and Independent on Sunday as well as teaching on University of Glamorgan and Goldsmiths’ College (University of London) Creative-Writing courses. Novelist (Mr. Schnitzel, 2000) and freelance theatre director, his poetry collections include Dream City Cinema. He has received an Eric Gregory Award, has had his work shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and has won both the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award and the National Poetry Competition.
Both judges will read all poems submitted.
Rules
General: Entry implies acceptance of all rules; failure to comply with rules may result in disqualification; competition open to poets of any nationality over 18 years; no competitor may win more than one prize; judges’ decision is final; no individual correspondence may be entered into.
Poems: Poems must be in English, must each be no longer than 45 lines, must fit on one page of A4, must be the original work of the entrant and must not have been previously broadcast or published (in print or online); winning & commended poems may be published (in print or online) by the Troubadour Poetry Prize and may not be published elsewhere for one year after 10th October 2008 without written permission. No limit on number of poems submitted.
Fees: All entries must be accompanied by fee of EITHER £5/€7/$10 per poem if less than 4 poems OR £4/€5/$8 per poem if 4 or more poems submitted; payment by cheque or money order (Sterling/Euro/US-Dollars only) payable to “Coffee-House Poetry” with entry name (and/or e-mail Entry Ref) written on back.
By Post: No entry form required; each poem must be typed on one side of A4 white paper showing title & poem only; do not show author’s name or any other identifying marks on submitted poems; include a separate page showing Name, Address, Phone, E-Mail (opt), Titles and Number of Poems EITHER @ £5/€7/$10 OR @ £4/€5/$8; no staples; entries are not returned.
By E-mail: No entry form required; poems must be submitted in body of e-mail (no attachments) to CoffPoetry@aol.com; entries should be preceded by Name, Address, Phone, Titles and Number of Poems EITHER @ £5/€7/$8 OR @ £4/€5/$8; acknowledgement will be sent to entrant’s e-mail address showing Entry Acknowledgment Reference; send payment by post quoting Entry Acknowledgement Reference; e-mail entries will be included only when payment received.
Acknowledgement/Results: will be sent to all e-mail entrants, and to all postal entrants who provide an e-mail address; other postal entrants should include stamped, addressed postcard marked “Acknowledgement” and/or stamped, addressed A5 envelope marked “Results” if required.
Deadline: All postal entries, and postal payments for e-mail entries, to arrive at Troubadour Poetry Prize, Coffee-House Poetry, PO Box 16210, LONDON, W4 1ZP postmarked on or before Friday 10th October 2008. Prizewinners will be notified by Friday 21st November 2008. Prizegiving will be on Monday 1st December 2008 at Coffee-House Poetry at the Troubadour.
The Saturday Writers' Group
Saturdays: 21st June 2008 & 19th July 2008
Written for years and never shown it to anyone?
Want to have a go at writing for the first time?
Looking for inspiration?
Searching for feedback on your work?
Meet with other people interested in words: short stories, poems, lyrics, songs, novels etc. A friendly, supportive and productive writing space with sessions facilitated by Rommi Smith, writer and creative writing projects officer, plus guest writers. Feel free to bring up to one poem, or page of prose to each session for feedback.
Please come to the main University reception, on Queensgate (the Hub) and let security staff know that you’re here for the writers’ group. Staff will show you where the group meets. Car parking is available at the University for Saturday Writers' Group Members.
Room WG/13
Huddersfield University
West Building
Queensgate
Huddersfield
HD1 3DH
4.30 p.m. - 6.30 p.m. Donation for each session: £3.00
Drinks and biscuits provided
To book a place/s for these workshops, please email Rommi Smith at: r.smith2@hud.ac.uk
or call (01484) 471 895
Click HERE to read participants' feedback on the workshops
Saturday 19th July 2008
This month's session will be led by Simon Murray.
CONFESSION AND THE ART OF MEMOIR MAINTENANCE
“In choosing the adjectives you can decide the tone of the paragraph, the tone of the event and eventually the tone of your own life. So if you change the way you tell your own story you can change the colour and create a life in Technicolor” Isabel Allende
Memoir offers us a chance to tell our own stories, to settle scores, and to tell life as we see it. It is an opportunity for us to leave a legacy and to tell people who we really are. Memoir gives us power.
This workshop will explore different techniques and approaches to memoir. It will provide examples of different approaches to memoir and engage participants with writing and creative reading exercises with which they can take into their own writing.
The session is open to anyone interested in writing, regardless of experience. You do not have to be currently writing a memoir to participate, just come with an interest in writing and a desire to tell your own stories.
The workshop will provide useful booklists and resources for memoir writing as well as looking at various examples of memoir including Simon’s own work in progress: Kill Myself Now, The True Confessions of An Advertising Genius.
As preparation for the workshop please jot down the facts of your life for the following phases (this can just be a list at this stage, no need to go into too much detail) :
- The first seven years of your life
- From age 7 to 12
- From age 13 to 16
- From age 17 to 21
- From age 21 to 25 etc
And remember - if you don’t tell your own stories, voice your opinions, or document your thoughts then somebody else will – worse still – they may not!
Simon Murray (symurai) is a Pomfretian of Bajan heritage (depending on who’s asking...). He is part of the ‘FWords: Creative Freedom’ project – a response from Yorkshire writers and artists to the theme of Freedom in the Bicentenary year of the Parliamentary Act to abolish the Atlantic Slave Trade to Britain.
Simon is a published writer and poet, an artist, and regular performer of spoken word. He also runs his own graphic design company, Liquorice Fish, working with a select number of innovative, creative and progressive clients. He has appeared alongside such diverse artists as Dorothea Smartt, Jack Mapanje and El-Crisis at numerous venues both nationally and internationally and recently at the Sable Litfest in The Gambia and as a finalist in the Mo Juice poetry slam, Barbados.
He is currently working to complete his first book, Kill Myself Now: True confessions of an Advertising Man (a novel as memoir detailing his time in the ad industry), together with a collection and CD compilation of his poetry. www.symurai.com <simon@liquoricefish.co.uk>
Writer, Simon Murray, has also been working with artists from AIM (artists in mind) to explore issues of freedom and identity inspired by Amanda Crowther's Beast Market photographs. To read some of the work created by the group, please click here.
http://www.artists-in-mind.org.uk/index.html
Writing Days
Many of you will already know that The Poetry Business is leaving Huddersfield to move to Sheffield this summer. Our office in the Byram arcade will close at the end of June.
We are planning our first Writing Day in Sheffield for 28th June 2008. In the morning there are games and exercises which will inspire poems. In the afternoon workshop we look at poems which people have either brought with them (bring a dozen copies if possible) or have written in the morning session and worked on over lunch.
Price £20 waged. £10 unwaged, students etc.
The Poetry Business, Bank Street Arts, 32-40 Bank Street, Sheffield, S1 2DS
We hope to be able to run a few workshops in Huddersfield in the future, so if you aren't able to get to Sheffield, we hope we'll still be able to see you.
2008 Book and Pamphlet competition
Judge: Michael Longley. Details and leaflets available online.
Janet, Peter and Ann.
