More live Literature at Brockley Max: Wednesday Poetry night at Ladywell Gallery, Thursday Night 8pm another Story Session with stories and poems about food at The Brockley Deli
Last week we took part in the Word on the Street Literature Festival in Clerkenwell. Here’s some video of our musicians (the wonderful Ian Kennedy and Sarah Lloyd) who accompanied the writing with your ears workshop and then topped and tailed the readings with songs that complemented the stories being read / the exhibition on in the London Metropolitan Archives, where we were.
The Story Sessions are back – for a guest spot, maybe for good, depending… We are doing three events for BrockleyMAX. The first two are both on Saturday 30th May The Ladywell Gallery, (what used to be Misty Moon) behind The Ladywell Tavern 80 Ladywell Road SE13 7HS
Writing Workshop – Festival
5pm – 7pm Free; accompanied children over 10 welcome
Arachne Press presents a writing workshop on the theme of Festival. Get inspiration from the exhibition of photographs from previous BrockleyMAX festivals and write a new short story or poem, with the option to read it at The Story Sessions event in the evening.
7.30pm – 9.30pm Free; accompanied children welcome
A live literature event with stories from Joan Taylor-Rowan and David Bausor, poems from Elinor Brooks (read by actor Miriam Lee) and Jennifer A McGowan on a festival theme. Circuses, Street parties and more. Join in with Flash from the Floor – your chance to read your own festival piece (max 100 words).
And finally, on Thursday 4th June at Brockley Deli 14a Brockley Cross, SE4 1BE
The Story Sessions: Feast Tales
8pm – 9pm Free entry; accompanied children 10+ welcome
Join us for a story set in a cheese shop, Cranberry Sauce as an excuse for an illicit meeting, trying to win friends with cookies and taking tea with a demon, plus poems about oranges and bay leaves! Order appropriate food to ‘taste-along’.
Saturday 9th May 2-3:15 Writing with Your Ears: a workshop
Ian Kennedy & Sarah Lloyd
hosted by Cherry Potts, author and owner of Arachne Press, exploring how fiction and poetry can be inspired and supported by live music, with live music from multi-instrumentalists and folk singers, Ian Kennedy & Sarah Lloyd, who collaborated with us on the same workshop at Solstice Shorts. Come and discover how your own writing can flourish. Option to perform your story with Arachne Press authors later in the day:
3:30 – 4:30 Readings of London-based stories and poems from Arachne Press authors, Inua Ellams, Dizz Tate, Joan Taylor-Rowan and David Bausor, plus participants in the Writing with Your Ears workshop, with music from Ian Kennedy & Sarah Lloyd.
Dizz Tate
London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Rd, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 0HB
We had a capacity crowd at Review bookshop for our PLF event: here are some videos of the readings and an audio file of the Q&A.
Rhik Samadder reading David Bausor‘s O Happy Day: from London Lies, a tale of weddings, street parties and sausages.
Nicky Diss reading Rosalind Stopps‘ How to Survive the Olympics with a Broken Heart from Lovers’ Lies
and Peter Noble (who stepped in at the 11th hour for which we are VERY grateful) reading Alan Graham‘s Zwo from Weird Lies, a stroy of alienation and B-movies.
The Q&A features all the authors plus Cherry Potts and Katy Darby – editors of the anthologies, talking about writing for Liars’ League, having stories read aloud, arguing, editing, Liars’ League attempts to take over the world, and our massive ignorance on the short story scene in Canada!
Thanks to all our readers, authors, audience and especially Evie Wyld (who didn’t even get to hear the stories apart from the monster roars through the floor) and Review Bookshop for hosting.
Three booksThree stories Three authors and three actors
come together to introduce you to new worlds hiding in the everyday. From a movie monster convention in Berlin to a “riotous assembly” on Peckham Rye, via the twin heartbreaks of love and the Olympics, professional actors breathe life into short fiction from Arachne Press’s three acclaimed anthologies of Liars’ League stories. After the readings, there will be an informal Q&A with the writers, performers and editors (Cherry Potts and Katy Darby)
about what makes a short story sing, and what publishers and live events look for in fiction.
With work from Rosalind Stopps, Alan Graham, and David Bausor
Rosalind Stopps
Read and performed by Nicky Diss, Rhik Samadder, and Alistair Lock
Last week marked the start of a busy time for Arachne Press, with the Launch of Stations only days away, we did a pre-publication reading at Clapham books on Wednesday.
Peter Cooper in full flow as Inspector Bucket copyright Cherry Potts 2012
This was my first chance to hear these stories read aloud by their authors and it was an interesting experience. I got so engrossed in Rosalind Stopps’ How to Grow Old in Brockleyhow to grow old in brockley snippet
I forgot to take any pictures – sorry Rosalind!
Peter Cooper‘s Inspector Bucket (stolen from Dickens but taking on an afterlife of his own) foiled thieves on a train, with Peter very much getting into it and doing multiple voices.
and I read Anna Fodorova’s No Prob at Canada Water, pronouncing Kochanie about eight different ways, (it should be Ko’han’ye) she says she’ll do it herself next time!
Jacqueline Downs reading at Clapham copyright Cherry Potts 2012
Then Thursday it was up to Waterstones on Oxford Street for a showcasing of London Lies.
A number of our authors couldn’t be with us, so we had a mix of actors and authors.
Emily Pedder‘s Are We Nearly There Yet? (Set in Selfridges – just across the road – in the run up to Christmas) read for us once again by the multi-talented Danielle Fenemore. (Her loud-drunk-in-a-shop-just-before-Christmas was extremely convincing!).
Still in the reading-on-behalf-of vein we had Katy Darby reading an extract from the excellent East End cautionary tale Thieves We Were from Simon Hodgson (who is based in San Francisco so unable to join us) and me reading a section of the delightful and witty portmanteau love story Made for Each Other by Nichol Wilmor (who was stuck the wrong side of a flood in Somerset).
Reading their own work we had Joan Taylor-Rowan with Renewal, a touching story of death on the railways and realising there’s more to life than playing safe, David Bausor exploring the British love of sausages and Royals with O Happy Day, and Liam Hogan giving us a single sentence from the hilarious Rat, followed by an extended and dramatic segment of Palio, in which some bankers are played at their own game.
Thanks to everyone who came along to make both evenings a success (and bought books!), and to the staff at Clapham Books and Waterstones for making us so welcome (and in the case of Waterstones running to the pub for more wine glasses!).
Waterstones have a small stock of signed copies of London Lies at the front of the shop, so pick one up for a loved one for Christmas!
Stations is now in the shops, and you can come and get a signed copy from us at either of this week’s readings: Canvas & Cream (nearest Overground Forest Hill) on Wednesday at 7pm, or Deptford Lounge (nearest Overground New Cross) on Thursday at 7pm.
Or you can come to the Launch! Brunel Museum, Sunday 2nd December, 12:30-14:30
Book your FREE ticket for the local launch of Stations. 29th November, Deptford Lounge Giffin Street SE8 (Please note, booking online seems to be a bit tiresome. Strongly recommend use of the phone! 020 8692 4446)
An evening of short sharp bursts of fiction.
Loads of local authors – lots of excerpts from local stories.
Think of it as a metaphorical 100 metre relay as we sprint down the Overground line dropping in on Stations as we go.
And the Prize? You get to buy a copy of the book, and we get to meet you – what more could we ask?
Joan Taylor-Rowan has several stories being performed in Central London TOMORROW
and Joan (again!), Rosalind Stopps, Cherry Potts, Clare Sandling, David Bausor and Bartle Sawbridge have stories being performed in Ladywell, South London on Thursday 7th June
Here are some videos of our Festival themed
