Dylan Thomas

Fire in the Head launched in a Roundabout Way

Performers at Fire in the Head Launch.
Photo by Sam Fentiman-Hall 

It was a dark and dreary winters night...

I'll start that again. It was standing room only at the Poco Cantina at my book launch last night.

Thank you to everyone who participated by reading, listening or by joining in on our #Invicted poem.

Copies of Fire in the Head are available from me at a gig or from the Wordsmithery website.

#Invicted on tour - Once Upon a Mic

The #Invicted collective of Poets from Medway are back on tour

Catch us at Once Upon a Mic, a lively mix of poetry, music and comedy.
Upstairs at the Castle, Whitechapel, last Friday of the month.
£4 online, £5 on the door (CASH ONLY)
Be sure to arrive by 7.30 to guarantee a seat!

We will be performing on Friday, 28 September
The hosts will be the soulful Math Jones & the irrepressible Jah-Mir Early

Details:
Once Upon a Mic
Tickets from Eventbrite
Facebook
 

Big Trouble at Little Roc - Open Mic

A terrific evening of spoken word awaits you at the Little Roc cafe in Rochester. Come and join us, be swept away by the scorching words burned out by the fire in our heads

Turning the tide at Turner

When did it happen? I was convinced that the Medway poets had moved on and for poetry now you had to look to London. But here we are - drowning in a sea of artistic talent in Medway. I was wrong. And now I've discovered the Thanet poets are giving it some.

Image credit: S.M Jenkin

My perception is that the Medway poets of the 70s moved around much in pubs. As much as I can admire pub culture - and frequently do - I've noticed that something has changed. We're being noticed outside of the pubs now.

Among the pub and cafe events, there's a regular poetry gig at the Turner Gallery, run by the extraordinarily energetic Neanderthal Bard. Does this mean we're respectable now? I'm not entirely convinced that poets should be. Aren't we supposed to say the unsayable? Are we anything more than an event that ticks some funding box?

Try the Neanderthal Bard's social media feed - his listing of events is not to be missed. It's one way of holding onto the horses neck on the current merry go round of open mics, poetry slams and gigs.

Either way I'm going to be reading at the poetry gig at the Turner on Sunday, 9 July. The event (please note the new date) will be part of the Margate Festival. The poetry starts at 1pm. See you there...?

  

Where the Medway Delta meets The World....

Coming soon, Issue #4 of Confluence Medway... Where the Medway Delta Meets The World.

Portmeirion Estuary: S.M Jenkin

Issue #4 is shaping up well, prose and poems beautifully illustrated by Duncan Grant.

Submissions for Issue #5 are now open and the deadline is 12 July 2017. There is no theme so you can send any short stories/prose, short plays and poetry on any topic.

Only original unpublished work submitted by the author will be considered. If you would like your work to be considered for inclusion in the next edition, email your submission as an attachment to: confluencemedway(at)gmail.com with ‘POETRY / PLAY / STORY TITLE by NAME’ in the subject line. (Eg ‘6 poems by Wanda Wax’ / ‘Waiting for Charlie by Herbert Berry’.)

In your email please include your full contact details including postcode, and a short biography, no more than 50 words

More details about how to submit work to Confluence are available from the Confluence Blog.

Confluence Launch Party - 28 August

Confluence is being launched soon - where the Delta meets the world...

Come join us for a smorgasbord of verbal delights Sunday, 28 August at Only Connect 32 Cubitt Street, London, WC1X 0LR

It's FREE and with an open mic available on the night ready to be filled.

We'll be using material from our debut edition, but we'll be looking for contributions for our second edition, due October 2016...

Confluence Medway - online
Confluence Medway - Facebook

ROUNDABOUT NIGHTS PRESENTS - The Defamation Of Mickey Two Suits

Come and join the delta poets tonight as they spin the stories of the damned

Barred... Bard?

7.30pm at Poco Loco Cantina, on the road from Chatham to Rochester

An Assemblance of Judicious Heretics, their exciting collaborative litart project this year is underway. I'm waiting with bated breath.... 

ME4Writers

The Heretics on Facebook

Written Worlds, Inspiring Places

Yes, Rochester literature festival is fast coming our way and I'm very excited about it!

The theme this year is Written Worlds, Inspiring Places and I can't think of a more apt description

Is this really the fourth year that the full festival has been running? It doesn't feel like it, but 'tis true Each year following the garden party launch back in July 2012 the theme has been something different, from the first Other Worlds, Other Voices, to the Byronic Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know to the Live'n'Local least year.

The festival will run from Saturday, October 1 to Sunday, October 9 2016 and details of the line-up are available from the festival website here.

Olivetti Typewriter. Image credit: SM Jenkin

Knowing how many people are involved in making sure this is an accessible community event I am sure that details of other events and activities will be added closer to the time

Website rec - Open Culture

Springtime is a great time of year to clear away the cobwebs and to try new things - hey any time of year is a good time for that. But I digress.

So if you want to try something new, or if you're looking for inspiration try the Open Culture website. It bills itself as "the best free cultural and educational media on the web", and I'd agree.

There are thousands of free courses including languages, free films, documentaries and interviews, ebooks. There is free music and lots of random cultural things too.

As a writer I'm loving reading all the writing tips from authors as diverse as Ray Bradbury and Toni Morrison, and the recordings made by authors like Sylvia Plath and  Dylan Thomas. The free audio books include some poems.

Website
Google+

Live'n'Local Rochester Litfest

Live and local, the Rochester Literature festival is back this weekend with a terrific programme of events

On Saturday,  10 October the events are based around Rochester, where you can get your fix of caffeine and culture at the cafe crawl or join the talks and Workshops at the Guildhall museum.

The cafe crawl timetable is on the Rochesterlitfest website here

On Sunday, the action moves to Sun Pier House in Chatham, I have a feeling that the workshops will book out quickly, but if that happens don't worry, there's a good variety of free gallery talks, a local publisher book fair and even an artist on hand who will be recording the day in pen and ink. Or will it be paint? Will she inspire you to try your hand?

The showcase performance for me though will be the play written by local Playwright Sam Hall. My Mind Is Free explores four contemporary stories of human trafficking, all the more shocking as that too is live and local. After having attended one of Sam's workshops, I was surprised at how blatant human trafficking is, once you know what to look for.  

Want to know more? Rochester literature festival: Live'n'Local

Are you ready to be inspired?

How do you feel now that the nights are getting longer? Are you feeling a little flat? Why not try giving a go to an inspirational night like no other in Medway.

Image credit: Acrylic Artist

Inspirational nights are a terrific blend of music, poetry, and anything else you feel inspired to do. Event organiser, Lisa Vigour, always includes one or two practical inspirational exercises to help kick-start a creative idea for people who want to join in.

Some people come prepared to share their music or words, and others write something on the night using the pens and pads scattered generously around the venue. Don't fancy joining in during the open mic? Just sit back and relax, and enjoy a fun evening.

It doesn't matter if you don't see yourself as a creative person, if you just want to be entertained or to try something new come along. Inspirational nights are free for everyone to come and enjoy.

Want to know more? Try the vigorouscreations blog or follow Lisa on Twitter

My interview with Lisa is on the WOW Kent website here.

The next inspirational night is on 29 October at the Good Intent pub, Rochester. 

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Image sourced from Morguefile

Ursula Le Guin - my hero

Ursula Le Guin was recently awarded the National Book Foundation's  Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. I think it's safe to say that her acceptance speech has ruffled a few feathers

"I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries—the realists of a larger reality." 
                                          Ursula K. Le Guin, 65th National Book Awards. Nov 19, 2014.

What is the point of speculative fiction? Why bother writing for a genre still viewed with some disdain? It has long been dismissed as ray guns and ponies, After all, as with other heretics isn't it easier to label and ignore challenging ideas than to listen and engage with them? Other genres, called more "realistic" do still tell stories from a particular viewpoint after all, and speculative fiction is a reminder that this viewpoint is only one of many and can be challenged.

Speculative fictions can be used to challenge orthodoxy of thought, can challenge a narrative that makes people so fearful of their neighbours that they will consider them to be less than human. Speculative fiction can show the possible mirror or progression of that thought, a dystopian world, or an alternative vision of what could be. Given the multiplicity of speculative fiction writers specifically addressing questions of gender, race, economy and class fictions can question everything we think we know about the way our world is shaped. And then, after reading and maybe having your own views challenged, there is the possibility of meeting others who might think the same way. Ursula went on to say

"We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words".

Her words were brave, delivered in a roomful of publishers and powerful people, especially in the economy that we now inhabit. The full speech, far better to hear from Ursula herself, is available on the National Book Foundation website http://www.nationalbook.org/amerletters_2014_uleguin.html#.VHsO1zGsW1