Dear Writers and Readers
Dawn choruses, clocks forward, light evenings, and hosts of golden daffodils: we are definitely in England, and springtime is here!
And you probably do not need a reminder about this: the twenty-second
Swindon Festival of Literature, 4th – 16th May.
A little film of its programme launch is here
https://www.youtube.com/embed/v3DkmMRFEPQ?rel=0&showinfo=0 and its website, with full programme details, here
www.swindonfestivalofliterature.co.uk But as for this month, here’s what’s happening in April.
This month's Mum’s the Word meeting, for mothers interested in writing, takes place at 7.30pm at
Lower Shaw Farm on Tuesday 14th April.
For further information, contact Karen at
mattkarensmith@yahoo.co.uk On
Tuesday 14th April, the
Poetry Swindon Open Mic welcomes you to share poems, stories, or songs, for up to 5 minutes each. This month the editors and contributors from
'The Book of Love and Loss' are guest poets. The ticket cost is £3 BG members and £5 to non-members. The evening starts at 7pm to sign up and the new venue is the
The Victoria, 88 Victoria Road Swindon Wiltshire SN1 3BD. For further details, please email Sam Loveless at
sam.loveless1988@gmail.com
At 7.30pm
Tuesday 21st April at
Lowers Shaw Farm the
Artswords Reading Group meets to discuss
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver. He may be an older brother and cool jazz pianist but Edison’s know-it-all monologues and bad diet do not please Pandora. How much should she sacrifice in order to ‘save’ her big brother?
For further details, contact:
matt@lowershawfarm.co.uk For other local
Reading Groups that take place in Libraries, see
HERE On
Saturday 11 April Poetry Swindon have a workshop: Making Poetry Films with Elephant Foot Print film makers Chaucer Cameron and Helen Dewbery There are only a few places left so please enquire at
poetryswindon@yahoo.co.uk for details.
To see the full Poetry Swindon Programme, see
HERE The next
Writers’ Café and Kitchen takes place from 6pm on Thursday 30th April at
Lower Shaw Farm. Cost £2. Starts with pot-luck supper from 6pm. If you can, please bring something to nibble or drink, to share with others. Following acclimatisation with food and friendly chat, we take time to look at our writing. You may simply read your work for up to 5 minutes; or, if you’d like your work to be the subject of helpful comments and discussion, bring 10 copies of one piece of writing. This should amount to no more than 500 words of prose or 40 lines of poetry.
Note. We now also welcome anyone with 5-minute stories to tell. If you have a story, to tell, not read, and ideally a story from your life, please bring it along.
Other News:
The
Richard Jefferies Museum has a programme of Writing Workshops and Literature events for children and families. Please see
www.richardjefferies.org and click Education for full details.
The
Battered Moons Poetry Competition is now open for entries:
www.batteredmoons.com If you want to keep abreast of Literature development projects and festivals that Artswords will be organising or supporting, you can follow us via this monthly newsletter, or updates on Facebook and Twitter (See links below the newsletter)
If you have any news or events for May that you would like to share with other readers of ARTSWORDS NEWS, please let us know by the middle of this month.
Happy reading and writing, and don’t forget to book your Festival tickets!
Matt Holland & Hilda Sheehan
SWINDON ARTSWORDS LOVE LITERATURE! LOVE LIFE!