Favourite memories of Solstice Shorts

Solstice Shorts – our annual celebration of original poetry, stories and music for the shortest day – is rapidly approaching. We asked Solstice regular, poet and writer Rob Walton to share some memories of the festival, and accompanying anthologies, from years gone by. This year’s theme is Words from the Brink – writing and music in response to the climate crisis.

Rob Walton: I count myself lucky to have been included in more than one of the Solstice Shorts books, and fortunate indeed to have had my work performed/read by others. It was a great thrill to hear ‘Words on Paper’, a story of which I’m very fond, read aloud in Carlisle. It’s a story that’s close to my heart, and I’m chuffed it was recorded for posterity and also appeared in print.

Ben Brinicombe reads Words on Paper by Rob Walton, BSL translation by Karen Edmondson

I’ve definitely enjoyed seeing some of my more, er interesting pieces reach a range of audiences – I wonder what the crowds (I’m guessing) in Lisbon and Maryport made of ‘The Dowager Duchess of Berwick-upon-Tweed May or May Be Bottling It’? I’ve written micro-fictions shorter than that title!

This year’s offering, ‘Mr King Has Decided to Pursue Other Avenues’, is inspired by a long-standing commitment to environmental change and, possibly, that time I had to leave my primary school class behind on the beach trip when I was stung by a weaver fish. These things stay lodged somewhere and appear, transformed, years later…

Read an extract from ‘Mr King Has Decided to Pursue Other Avenues’:

It was a liberal and progressive school – some would say slack and lackadaisical – and when Mr King said he wanted to stay at the beach at the end of the trip, they wished him well and happily set off without him. It was almost time for the long holiday, and when he wasn’t there to take registration the following morning they arranged temporary cover, and later replaced him with somebody younger with a similar name and the same tattooist. (Mr Prince would be pleased to get the job because Hokusai’s expertly inked The Great Wave off Kanagawa, which covered all of his back, had been very expensive. And quite painful. Also, he knew it would be a star turn on a staff night out.

Words from the Brink is available to pre-order from our online shop.

Buy your tickets for Solstice Shorts 2021 on Eventbrite.

 

Dusk: Photos – Lancaster

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Photos from the Lancaster leg of DUSK: A Wave of Words Across the UK

Host: Yvonne Felton-Battle of North West Literary Salon, Performers: Mary Hooton, Leo Atkin, Marian Cox, BSL Interpreter: Carol Kyle

Dusk Performer: Haworth Hodgkinson

Haworth Hodgkinson is composer and improvising musician, as well as a poet, playwright, and performer of the spoken word. His work ranges from collaborations with other writers, musicians, dancers and visual artists, actors and storytellers, to solo performances combining words and sound.

His poetry and music are largely concerned with the changing seasons in the landscape of the North of Scotland, and the lives of the people who populate this landscape.

He traces his interest in intuitive and improvised music back to his student days in St Andrews, where he played with an improvising group and began incorporating intuitive techniques in his compositions.

His interest in improvisation was further stimulated in 2007 by a weekend workshop with Fred Frith at the Sound Festival in Aberdeen, and he has since played with Susanne Olbrich’s Strange Little Orchestra in Forres and Findhorn and the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra at the Sound Festival in 2008.

His poetry is published in two collections, A Weakness for Mermaids (2007) and Tractor Bastard (2012), and a wide range of his music can be heard on the High Moss label.

Haworth is reading stories and poems for Dusk in Ellon, and his music will be performed by Intuitive Music Aberdeen.

www.haworthhodgkinson.co.uk

Dusk Performer: Catriona Yule

Catriona Yule lives in Aberdeenshire with her husband, writer Richie Brown and their cats, Frank and Tilly. She is currently researching her first novel.

She has previously had poetry and short stories published in Pushing Out the Boat, Northwords Now, Orkney Writers Course anthology, From There to Here, and Open Mouse.

She has performed with the Blue Salt Collective in Aberdeen, Strontian and Shetland.

Her poetry featured in the National Theatre of Scotland’s community production Granite, which was staged in March 2016.

Catriona joins Intuitive Music Aberdeen as a guest reader for the Dusk: Solstice Shorts project.

www.catrionayule.co.uk

Dusk Performer: Silas Hawkins

Silas Hawkins is an old Christmas ham with wide experience of voiceover, audiobooks, film and stage. Favorite credits include : all the voices for animated children’s series Summerton Mill, broadcast on CBeebies, Bob the talking cyberdog in Scottish Manga animation Rogue Farm, quadrilingual character voices for the computer game Haven – Call of the King and, most recently, a juicy role in a forthcoming audio Dr. Who for Big Finish Productions – a particular thrill given the family Dr. Who connection ( father, Peter Hawkins, provided the very first Dalek voices.)

Silas has been a reader for Liars’ League ( showcase for unpublished short fiction) since its inception some 10 years ago and many of his previous renditions can be heard in its online archive e.g. ( favourite ) My Last Friday Night John Race. This years stage credits have included the monologues Cornet Solo by Ben Francis and I’ll be along D’reckly by Mark Lindow, featuring, respectively, a doleful, Welsh ice-cream-van-man and a bereft Cornish grandad.

Silas will be hosting at Greenwich

Dusk Performer: Neil Bell

NEIL BELL by Michael Pollard

NEIL BELL by Michael Pollard

Neil Bell studied drama at Oldham College and has played character roles in such TV series as Buried, Shameless, Murphy’s Law, Ideal, City Lights, The Bill Coronation Street, and Casualty, and the films 24 Hour Party People (2002) and Dead Man’s Shoes (2004).  He had a regular role in Downton Abbey, and more recently in Peaky Blinders.

Neil is reading stories for Dusk in Rossendale.

Dusk Performer: Susie Hennessy

Susie Hennesy is an actor and writer, who was awarded a doctorate from Loughborough University’s School of the Arts, English and Drama in 2015. Susie has performed in a variety of genres and guises, and roles, to date, have included Sarah, in Harold Pinter’s The Lover; Grusha in The Caucasian Chalk Circle; Masha in Three Sisters; Ma Ubu in Ubu Roi; Lydia in The Rivals; Miss Bell in Fame; and Suzannah in Hair. Susie has recently had her first audio play, To Be There, produced, and is collaborating on a screenplay, Finding Angels, which will be filmed in the New Year.   

Dusk Performer: Kelly Davis

copyright Gordon Rushton

Kelly Davis studied acting and verse-speaking as a child in London, and has appeared in many productions with Cumbrian theatre groups, including the Workington Playgoers and the Theatre Royal Shakespeare Players. She has benefited from mentoring by Royal Shakespeare Company practitioners, via the Open Stages Scheme, and has studied acting with Jennie Buckman (ex-RADA). She has read at the Poetry Cafe (London), Tullie House Museum (Carlisle) and the Old Fire Station (Penrith), and has appeared with Poets Out Loud at Cockermouth Live and the Patchwork Opera at the Carlisle Fringe Festival 2017

Kelly is reading for Dusk in Carlisle

Dusk Performer: Marian Cox

Marian Cox coaches students in preparation for LAMDA examinations. She is an Associate Member of the Association of LAMDA Teachers (AALT) and of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama (ASTSD). Marian performs with the all-female Rose Company, bringing dramatic texts from the past to contemporary life’.

Marian will be reading stories and poems for Dusk at Lancaster.

The Print room at The Storey

Dusk Performer: Jay Bradley

Jay Bradley is an actor and writer, who is a member of both Nottingham Writers’ Studio, and The Actors’ Workshop. Jay’s acting credits include Cinesias in Lysistrata; Gary in Catharsis; Dr Denman in The Last Stockade; John Allen in Redemption; Tony in Letting Go; and, most recently, Anthony Bon Coup in a regional tour of Murder at the Masquerade Ball. Jay is currently in the process of filming two original screenplays, Little Mouse and Finding Angels, which he wrote this year.