Category Archives: partners

Independent Bookshop Week 2023

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We’re really pleased to be joining forces with Brixton bookshop, Round Table Books, for a week of events in celebration of Independent Bookshop Week 2023, and of the brilliant community of independent publishers, booksellers, readers and writers in South London.

Independent Bookshop Week, which takes places from 17 – 24th June, is a Bookseller’s Association campaign, designed to celebrate and promote indy bookshops and all they do to keep the UK book trade diverse, eclectic and engaged with local communities.

We love getting know our local independent bookshops (as well as those further afield!) so we’re delighted to be hosting four events at Round Table Books during Independent Bookshop Week, showcasing recent and forthcoming Arachne Press titles. All the events are free to attend:

Sunday 18th June, 6.30pm: Writers from Arachne Press anthology, Where We Find Ourselves: Poems and Stories of Maps and Mapping from UK writers of the global majority. Nikita Chadha, Farhana Khalique, Lesley Kerr, Emily Abdeni-Holman, L Kiew and Mallika Kahn will read their own and one others’ work from the anthology, discussing what inspired their own piece and why they chose the other to share. Book now.

Monday 19th June, 6.30pm: Writing LGBTQ+ Joy with poet Jeremy Dixon. Ahead of the submission deadline for Arachne Press’ LGBTQ+ poetry anthology, Joy//Us, (October 11th) join poet and co-editor Jeremy Dixon for a workshop on writing queer joy. Suitable for all levels of poetry experience, this is an opportunity to explore the theme of queer joy, and perhaps produce a poem to submit for the anthology. Jeremy Dixon’s latest collection, A Voice Coming From Thenwon the Wales Book of the Year English language poetry category in 2022. Pre-booking essential, book now.

Tuesday 20th June, 6.30pm: Poetry reading with AJ Akoto. Debut poet AJ Akoto gives a pre-publication reading from her forthcoming poetry collection UnMothered (13 July 2023), followed by a Q and A session with Round Table Books Co-Director, Meera Ghanshamdas. Inspired by a desire to break the silence surrounding difficulties in mother-daughter relationships, UnMothered uses storytelling and myth to capture the complexity, and contradictions, that define the mother-daughter bond. Book now.

Thursday 22nd June, 8pm: poet Rhiya Pau reads from her award-winning debut collection, Routes. Exploring the routes taken by Rhiya Pau’s parents and grandparents across multiple countries to arrive in the UK, Routes lays bare the conflicts of identity that arise from being a member of the East African-Indian diaspora. Book now.

Free tickets to all the events can be reserved on Eventbrite and books will be available to buy, and get signed, at Round Table Books.

Meera Ghanshamdas of Round Table Books said:

‘We are delighted to be partnering with Arachne Press for Independent bookshop week, not only are they really local to us, but we are on very much the same page (pun deliberate) on the importance of inclusive publishing. Arachne’s focus on LGBTQ+ and disabled writers, as well as their championing of Global Majority writers, sits really well with the aims and ethos of our organisation. I’m really looking forward to meeting all the authors who will be reading or running workshops with us.’

We are really looking forward to being involved in #IndieBookshopWeek and hope to see you at one of the above events. And remember, a bookshop is for life not just Independent Bookshop Week! 

Dusk Partner Rossendale

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Our partner in Rossendale (between Manchester and Lancaster, Halifax and Preston, for those who don’t recognise it!) is the Whitaker,  a community run Museum, Art Gallery & Cultural Hub which houses everything from Victoriana, clogs, and taxidermy (in the shape of a baby elephant and a tiger & snake tableau), to pots and musical instruments. They also have an exhibition space for contemporary art, and a café bar and restaurant.

Amongst the many things they do are: live music, mini theatre, spoken word nights, acoustic nights, small weddings, art-house mini cinema, and outdoor events (the museum is in a park.)

Carl Bell who is one of the directors was approached on our behalf by local writer Aziz Dixon, and has risen to the challenge. Excited by our idea he is planning to have a much bigger Solstice event, of which our DUSK readings and music will form just the aperatif.

WE ARE CROWDFUNDING

Dusk Partners- Aberdeen

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Our most northerly partners (though I was talking to someone yesterday at the Poetry Book Fair about Fairisle as a possibility!) are Intuitive Music Aberdeen, who have found us a lovely bookshop in Ellon for a venue.

Intuitive Music Aberdeen (IMA) is an ensemble specialising in music created by the performers in response to text or graphic scores or unconventional notations. Its current members are Haworth Hodgkinson, Colin Edwards and Mandy Macdonald.

All three are active, published writers and musicians in a variety of musical genres. — Haworth’s 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. His music can be heard on his own High Moss label.

Colin has a background in traditional music and song and long experience performing on the UK folk club circuit and in composing and arranging. He is active in community media development, running the production and technical aspects of the SHMU Wednesday Session, a live broadcast folk music show available to listeners worldwide via internet.

Mandy is a mostly classical singer of long experience and a member of three choirs in Aberdeen and one in London, and a harpsichordist. Listen to her poetry.

We are CROWDFUNDING

Dusk: A Wave of Words Across the UK: North Devon

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Our North Devon Partners are Courage Copse Creatives, a woodland enterprise based in Warkleigh, near Barnstaple. The enterprise operates completely off-grid using solar power and rain water harvesting. They manage the woodland and make their living from the products they produce. They also run community educational and arts events as well as hosting training courses.

Both owners, Katy Lee and Vince Large come from a creative background. Before setting up CCC Katy devised and delivered site specific performance for both professional and community artists receiving funding from ACE.

We are CROWDFUNDING

Dusk – A Wave of Words across the UK: Aberdeen

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Our latest partner is:

Intuitive Music Aberdeen

(IMA) is an ensemble specialising in music created by the performers in response to text or graphic scores or unconventional notations. Its current members are Haworth Hodgkinson, Colin Edwards and Mandy Macdonald.

All three of us are active, published writers and musicians in a variety of musical genres.

Haworth‘s 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. His music can be heard on his own High Moss label; see in particular the Dundee Ambient series, two parts of which are inspired by the winter solstice. — Haworth ran the Wordfringe / New Words Festival in Aberdeen from 2006 to 2014.

Colin has a background in traditional music and song and long experience performing on the UK folk club circuit and in composing and arranging. He is active in community media development, running the production and technical aspects of the SHMU Wednesday Session, a live broadcast folk music show available to listeners worldwide via internet. For his collaborative composition work see https://soundcloud.com/bonnybluehare/sets/share-my-music-projects

Mandy is a mostly classical singer of long experience and a member of three choirs in Aberdeen and one in London, and a harpsichordist. Her poetry is recorded at https://soundcloud.com/user-700481362/grimes-graves-mandy-macdonald-haworth-hodgkinson and https://soundcloud.com/haworthhodgkinson/emerald-earrings/s-jmTvO

Dusk: A Wave of words across the UK: Nottingham

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Our Nottingham partners for DUSK, The fourth Solstice Shorts Festival, are Nottingham Writers’ Studio, a membership organisation for professional writers. They offer space, networking, and creative and professional development opportunities for writers in the Nottinghamshire area. They are hosting and providing the venue at their centre, and will be promoting the call out to the writers they know (in the 200’s)

Nottingham Writers' Studio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Writers’ Studio have lots of experience organising events: they run a year-long programme of courses and workshops, book launches, away-days and external hire events, and also participate in city-wide events such as Light Night, Festival of Literature, Poetry Festival, Being Human, States of Independence and Lowdham Book Festival.

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