Artswords: Artswords News July 2015

Suddenly, it’s July, with strawberries, Wimbledon, sunshine, and storms!

But also some summertime reading and writing events.

This month's Mum’s the Word meeting, for mothers interested in writing, takes place at 7.30pm at Lower Shaw Farm on Tuesday 7th July. This month, the meeting will be a Writing Workshop, led by Jill Sharp. A real opportunity to get good guidance and inspiration on good writing. It promises to be productive fun!
For further information, contact Karen at mattkarensmith@yahoo.co.uk

And Poetry Swindon has things happening.

On Saturday 11th July, there is a workshop and reading with Mario Petrucci. ‘The 16 Ways’ is a hands-on exploration of the major pathways into writing, including everything from the 'found text' to Larkin's pickles.
2pm – 7pm at The Richard Jefferies Museum.

The next OPEN MIC is back at The Vic on Tuesday 14th July at 7pm for 7:30pm with guest poets Jonathon Muirhead and Anna-May Laugher. The Vic, Victoria Road, Swindon, SN1 3BD.

The Poetry Swindon Festival takes place 1st-5th October. Bookings are now open for residential places at Lower Shaw Farm. See http://www.lowershawfarm.co.uk/oct-2015#oct-poetry Visiting the Festival this year with poetry and workshops are Jo Bell as poet in residence, Kei Miller, Luke Kennard, Tania Hershman, and Pascale Petit plus many more exciting voices and experiences.

The next Artswords Reading Group takes place at 7.30pm Tuesday 21st July at Lower Shaw Farm. The book is We are all Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Family mysteries are one thing but family experiments quite another. Booker Prize short-listed novel of intrigue and enlightenment, of a kind. For further information, contact matt@lowershawfarm.co.uk or ring 01793 771080

This month’s Writers’ Café and Kitchen takes place from 6pm on Thursday 30th July 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. This month we shall be once again welcoming local storyteller Chris Park to assist with and inspire our story-telling. 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.

If you want to keep abreast of literature development projects that Artswords will be organising or supporting, you can follow us via this monthly newsletter, or updates on Facebook and Twitter (see links below), or on our website here.