Arachne 10th Anniversary – the Authors – a short series

I thought it would be useful to give you all a bit more detail about the authors who have put together our amazing, eclectic anniversary events.

Tonight, our Three Takes on Place, started as three separate event proposals, perhaps given our propensity for what is apparently known as ‘psychogeography’ (not entirely sure what it is, but if the cap fits…).

Diana Melissa & Sherry

We’ve published  all the authors in at least one of our Solstice Shorts anthologies, and Diana is also in our bilingual Cymraeg/English poetry anthology A470. They all have work forthcoming – Melissa Davies’s The Arctic Diaries in April this year, and Diana Powell’s Ravellings and Sherry Morris’s Another Motherland on a promise for our next-but-one funding bid.

The writers live in Cumbria, Wales and Scotland, and Melissa (Cumbria) writes about Norway, and Sherry (Scotland) writes about her native America, Ukraine (where she lived for a while) and her adopted scotland, and Diana writes about Wales. And I don’t mean travel writing, I mean poetry and mythology and humour and that weird stuff that we are so fond of that is hard to categorise. With such a wide ranging spread of places to write and talk about, I asked how they felt about collaborating, even though it would mean whatever fees they made would be shared.

They have put so much work into this event, and decided to make it a donation option, so its as cheap as you need it to be.

There really is something special about our authors, they are so keen to share their ideas and generous with their time.

Arachne10 Anniversary Festival Week 2

Week 2 of the festival, continuing our author-led readings discussions and workshops, and this week we have online events on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and evening and Sunday afternoon and evening.

Please register via Eventbrite to attend!

Fri 13/01/2023
7.30pm
Three Takes on Place
readings and discussion from
Diana Powell, Melissa Davies & Sherry Morris
free/donation details and tickets

Saturday 14/01/2023
11:00-13:00
Tales of Transformation: Bisclavret workshop
Elizabeth Hopkinson
£8 details and tickets

and at 3pm
Joy//us – LGBTQ poetry reading, open mic and discussion
Jeremy Dixon, Rick Dove & Cherry Potts
free/donation details and tickets

Sunday 15/01/2023
11:00-12:30/13:00
14 great pickup lines, a poets guide to sonnets workshop
with Jennifer A McGowan
£10 details and tickets

and at 3pm
Barddoniaeth Cymraeg Gweithdy Cyfieuthu/ Welsh poetry translation workshop
with Lowri Williams
participatory workshop on translating Welsh poetry into English
Nod y gweithdy hon yw cyfieuthu cerdd Cymraeg i fewn i’r Saesneg, drwy trafodaeth/cyfieuthu mewn steil grwp
pay what you can £3/5/8 details and tickets

Arachne Tenth Anniversary Online Festival

To celebrate our tenth anniversary we are having an online festival throughout January 2023, mostly weekends and Thursdays, although a couple of Tuesdays and Fridays have snuck in.

We invited our authors and friends to run the events they wanted to see, to set their own prices and number of tickets. It’s quite an eclectic mix, readings, discussions and workshops for writers, and about writing, or the business of being a writer. We invite you to join us! Visit the Eventbrite Collection

Saturday 07/01/2023 11:00-13:00 Cath Humphris
Why Flash Fiction? (Writing Workshop)
12 places, donation recommended £5
details and tickets

Saturday 07/01/2023 17:00-19:00 Readings from authors
Hiatus eBook Launch
95 places, FREE
details and tickets

 

Sunday 08/01/2023 19:00-21:00 David Turnbull
Longevity In Fiction: Time Bestowed, Time Stolen (discussion)
30 places £6
details and tickets

 

 

Thursday 12/01/2023 19:00-20:30 Jackie Taylor
Writing the Climate: Questions for Writers (discussion)
12 places free/donation
details and tickets

 

 

Friday 13/01/2023 19:30-21:00 Diana Powell, Melissa Davies & Sherry Morris
Three Takes on Place (reading)
95 places free/donation
details and tickets

Saturday 14/01/2023 11:00-13:00 workshop Elizabeth Hopkinson
Tales of Transformation: Bisclavret (workshop)
12 places  £8
details and tickets

 

 

Saturday 14/01/2023 15:00 reading/open mic/discussion Jeremy Dixon & Cherry Potts
Joy//Us LGBTQ Poetry
40 places  free/donation
including 10 open mic spots of 3 mins each – max 2 poems!
details and tickets

 

Sunday 15/01/2023 15:00-16:30 Lowri Williams
Translating poetry from Welsh into English (workshop)
suitable for advanced learners of Welsh and native speakers.
10 places – pay what you can £3/£5/£8
details and tickets

 

 

Tuesday 17/01/2023 19:00-20:30 Kavita A Jindal
Emotion as Ignition (workshop)
20 places £20
details and tickets

 

 

Saturday 21/01/2023 12:00-1:30 Neil Lawrence
Resilient writers (workshop)
10 places £20
details and tickets

 

Saturday 21/01/2023 15:30-17:00 DL Williams, Lisa Kelly, Mary-Jayne Russell de Clifford
Deaf Poetry and BSL translation
20 places Free/Donation
details and tickets

 

 

 

Tuesday  24/01/23 18:00-19:30 The Business of writing– The Society of Authors This is very kindly being run for us by two of the coordinators of the  Society of Authors Poetry & Spoken Word group: Johanna Clarke and Mathilde Zeeman

free tickets

Thursday 26/01/2023 19:00-20:30 Nikita Chadha
The Empire Writes Back: “Space, place and belonging” Interactive lecture/workshop
15 places £10
details and tickets

 

Friday 27/01/2023 18:30-20:00  Seni Seneviratne
Using family history/photos as inspiration for poetry (workshop)
20 places £12-£20
details and tickets

 

 

Sunday 29/01/2023 11:00-13:00 discussion/reading Clare Owen
Cormorants and #cornishgothic: creative ways to write about YA mental health.
15 places £5
details and tickets

 

Sunday 29/01/2023 15:00-16:30 workshop Saira Aspinall
Marketing on a tight budget for writers
12 places £10
details and tickets

 

 

A470 on the Road day 6 Brecon

Video by Dai Powell: Diana Powell, Sian Northey, Siôn Aled, Gareth Writer-Davies, Stephen Payne and clare e potter read under the trees of Brecon cathedral close, hosted by Leigh and Nicki of The Hours bookshop.

The book is back in stock available from our webshop and good bookshops everywhere

audience under the trees

clare e potter

stephen payne

Gareth Writer-Davies

Sian Northey

Diana Powell

Siôn Aled

 

 

 

Ballast by Diana Powell, BSL Translation by Marcel Hirshman

Diana Powell‘s shocking story of casual cruelty and medieval sailors, BSL translation by Marcel Hirshman.

We are currently crowdfunding for this year’s festival and anthology, Tymes goe by Turnes. We have some lovely unusual handmade rewards, and some nice standard T shirt/ Book/ Badge type things, If you felt like supporting us you can do so over on Pay it Forward.

Time and Tide Videos: Sea Change, Holyhead

Uploading the videos from Solstice Shorts 2019, Time & Tide continues. Here is Sea Change by Diana Powell read by Gillian Brownson at Holyhead

Limited edition illustrated book of the festival material available now from our webshop or events only.

We are aiming to get BSL translations of some of the material, and this will also be on the website in about March, to coincide with the launch of the bookshop version of the book.

 

Time and Tide Videos: Sea Change, Greenwich and Oeiras

 

Uploading the videos from Solstice Shorts 2019, Time & Tide continues.

Here is Sea Change read at Greenwich by author Diana Powell, with BSL interpretation by Paul Michaels; and (audio only) at Oeiras read by Margot Walker Dias

Many of the stories and poems were read at more than one of the venues, so there will be an opportunity to compare and contrast!

Limited edition illustrated book of the material available now only from our webshop or from our events .

We are aiming to get BSL translations of some of the material, and this will also be on the website in about March, to coincide with the launch of the bookshop version of the book.

 

Solstice Shorts Line up for Carlisle

Carlisle

NOON – Carlisle The Old Firestation

Poems
After Hours, Stuart McKenzie
An Autumn Noon, Ian Grosz
Arthur Streeton Advises his Students, Mandy Macdonald
By the Obelisk Sundial Drummond Castle, Jane Aldous
Farewell My Father, Anne Elizabeth Bevan
Fire at Midday, Susan Cartwright-Smith
I am not Beautiful at Noon, Elinor Brooks
Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Laila Sumpton
Moon Jellyfish, Ness Owen
Noon Son, Alison Lock
Noon Talk, Graham Burchell
Still No Name, Marika Josef
Sun Beats over New Orleans, Natalie Gasper
Unleashed, Paul Foy

Stories

#Noon, Su Yin Yap
Mother And Child, Barbara Renel
Noon Child Unknown, Diana Powell
On Kings And Falling, Roppotucha Greenberg
Up On The Roof, Lily Peters

Performers

Barbara Renel and Susan Cartwright-Smith will read their own work and Alex Morrison, Becca Roberts, Esther Ridgway and Owain Lewis will read the work of writers who can’t get there.