Category Archives: Readings

Lockdown reading: The Cormorant by Clare Owen

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Collateral damage from Covid-19 has been having to delay the publication of Zed and the Cormorants, by Clare Owen. It was a tough decision but, it turns out, the right one; and next year we will be able to put together a really strong campaign to support the book.

In the meantime, here is Clare reading her short story from An Outbreak of Peace, The Cormorant which was very much a calling card for Zed, sharing, as it does, a location and character names, although not characters, unless you count the cormorant!

 

clare’s food labels for reading in Lostwithiel
The ACTUAL boathouse
Cover Image copyright Klara Smith
An Outbreak of Peace
Clare reading at Housmans
Clare Owen
The Cormorant

 

Lockdown readings: We Dig the Pig

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Poet Angel Warwick reads his poem from Time and Tide, ‘We Dig the Pig’

You can buy Time and Tide, and other Arachne books, from our webshop, we will post them out to you.

If you would prefer eBooks, all these books are available from your usual retailer, now VAT free! We recommend Hive for ePub.

Lockdown readings: ‘Here’

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Samuel Wright reads his short story, Here.

So you all know we don’t publish horror, right? This is as close as we get. It’s fairly horrific, but the quiet way the story is told is what matters. when this file arrived I responded to Sam immediately, saying this sounds exactly like it does in my head.

Published in Dusk, (one of our Solstice Shorts anthologies) Here was performed live, in Carlisle and Rossendale, at dusk, on 21st December 2017.

You can buy Dusk from our webshop, we will post it to you.

If you would prefer eBooks, all these books are available from your usual retailer, now VAT free! We recommend Hive for ePub.

Audio File: Tymes goe by Turnes read by Math Jones

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Math Jones has very kindly recorded for us the poem Tymes Goe by Turnes by Robert Southwell, which is the starting point for this year’s Solstice Shorts Festival.

Math Jones - Geoff Robinson, photographer

Lovely, isn’t it!

Find out more about this call for submissions, and please tell your musician and writer friends.

 

 

 

Human Rights Day 2019

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Can’t let this go by without a little something.

Here are some videos of readings from our anthology, Liberty Tales.

 

Story Cities at Old Royal Naval College day 2

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Rather delayed (by crowdfunding mainly) here is audio of our second outing at ORNC’s bowling alley. A little echoey!

Readings from Nic Vine, Rosamund Davies, Cherry Potts, Shamini Sriskandarajah of their own stories and some by other people too – Catherine Jones, David Mathews, Rob Walton and Steven Wingate.

Rosamund reads You Stand in the Secret Place by Steve Wingate

Cherry Reads Backwater by David Mathews

Shamini reads Coffee

Nic reads Go Directly to Go by Rob Walton

Cherry Reads Lost and Found by Catherine Jones

Rosamund reads The Right Place

Cherry reads Foundation Myth

Nic reads Tech Down

Halloween/Samhain

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You all know we don’t do horror at Arachne.

The closest we’ve got is Math Jones‘ The Knotsman, which has quite a bit of distressing material in it, but does it from a position of compassion – ‘this is awful’, rather than ‘oooh, isn’t this awful‘.

So if you fancy something to get the ice running down your back, Math’s your man.

It would please Math mightily if you were to celebrate Samhain with his book seeing as he is a pagan.

you can buy a copy here… and if you buy it BEFORE halloween the postage is still free. we are going to have to start charging UK customers after that.

If however, your tastes run to the more traditional halloween fair, there’s a live lit gig, Frightful Yarns, at Honor Oak pub, St Germains Road SE23 on the very night, at 7.30, raising money for our local festival, Brockley Max. Arachne authors Cherry Potts and Neil Lawrence are among the readers, with dark tales of revenge and paranoia. tickets £5

Solstice Shorts – be quick

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Here’s Marika Josef reading her poem, Still No Name from last year’s Solstice Shorts Anthology, Noon. As you can see, there is a book, and there are events, nearly six months after the festival. It’s not just about the shortest day of the year.

If you haven’t already sent us something there are only days left to submit… 21st June 23:59 BST.

MAX 2000 words, and make sure it’s to theme. (Time and Tide – historical, set by the sea, strong female characters)

Shuffle over to Submittable to get all the gen. You too might be reading in a brewery come this time next year.

Hidden Corners for Brockley Max

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Tonight, Friday 7th June, Arachne Press authors, Bartle Sawbridge and Cherry Potts are taking part in Hidden Corners, the WooA event for Brockley Max at the Talbot pub, corner of Tyrwhitt Road and Lewisham Way.

Two stories each, and a silly writing game after the interval. 7.30pm

bartle saf

Cherry and Julian small

#RefugeeWeek

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It’s Refugee Week.

Many of our authors address the refugee experience in their writing, and have contributed to charity anthologies to raise money for refugge charities.

Here are a few videos of relevant material

Cherry Potts Queues at Asylum Tales for The Story Sessions (Published in Refugees Welcome which doesn’t seem to have a website anymore)

This England by Oscar Windsor Smith, read by Alix Adams at Asylum Tales  for The Story Sessions (also in Refugees Welcome)

They Said there were Pirates by Kirsty Fox read by Grace Cookey-Gam (In Dusk, out 21st June)

Four Beaches by Rob Schofield read by Mary Hooton and Marion Cox (In Dusk, out 21st June)

If you enjoyed these videos please consider a donation to Praxis, a refugee support project in London which is also being supported by Vocal Chords Choir at their concert tomorrow at Conway Hall.