Ian Kennedy &Sarah Lloyd sing Cold Time (from Longest Night)
Katerina Watson reads Threshold from Dusk
Cherry Potts reads an extract from The Midwinter Wife from Longest Night
Join us at Noon this Friday for all-new Solstice material in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Carlisle, Ynys Mon, Cork and London (Blackheath)
If you can’t join us in person at NOON, you can watch one of the events on line in real time, or catch it later.
All uploads are to Facebook.
Ynys Mon: https://www.facebook.com/ucheldre.holyhead/
Carlisle: https://www.facebook.com/tolivarmedia/
Aberdeen: https://www.facebook.com/intuitivemusicaberdeen/
Edinburgh https://www.facebook.com/Old-Creaky-Table-992474250952054/
London (Blackheath) https://www.facebook.com/SolsticeShorts2014/
Cork are not live streaming, but we will share their recorded video later.
Crowd funding. I kind of hate it. Asking people for money goes against the grain. Having to keep on about it so people don’t forget. It is painful. Seven Days to go now.
Plug. Plug. Plug.
Be that as it may, here I go again, with something that you can wear.
Pledge £20 or more
Noon T-shirt
Black T-shirt with our Noon design. Sizes tend to come up a bit small consider ordering a size larger than you would usually.
Available in sizes S to XXL
Badges.
You know we make badges to go with our books?
You usually get one free if you buy a book at an event.
We use them as crowd fund rewards too. You could get one from our current crowd fund to support the next Solstice Shorts Festival: Noon. Just a thought. Eight Days to Go
Here’s what’s on offer right now. We might make some more new ones.
Nine days to go…This is strictly for people within easy reach of South London.
A cake baked for you by Arachne Press baker in chief, Cherry Potts. Delivered personally or you can collect.
Here are some past launch and celebration cakes. They aren’t generally very glamorous but they taste good!
Cake can be dairy (but not egg) free (I’m not that skilled), and/or gluten-free (my gluten free cake is chocolate swiss roll). This is a one-off. Book your cake from our crowd fund
Lop-sided Liars’ Cake
Gingerbread cottage meeting its fate copyright Russell Potts
I hate asking people for money, but at least Crowd funding can be fun, and the generosity of our authors in coming up with novel rewards is a constant pleasure.
We hope to announce our final line up of stories and poems tomorrow, but in the mean time…
This is a fast crowd fund, less than a fortnight to go already, so please, if you are thinking of supporting this year’s Solstice Shorts, Noon, don’t dawdle! We didn’t try to get arts council funding this year (to be honest still recovering from last year’s epic fundraising) so the festival is modest, locally funded as far as possible, and short – Noon, after all, despite how long it takes a clock to strike 12, is only a second long, blink and you missed it. So please don’t blink!
Because we are on 6 sites (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Carlisle, Ynys Mon, London and Cork) there will still be a book, which will be published on 21st March – for the spring equinox, and this is one of the rewards:
If you would like to preorder a copy of this book, or buy one of the previous solstice shorts books
head over to the crowd fund on kickstarter.
Here is the shortlist for Solstice Shorts Festival:
Poems
A Change in the Weather, Colin Dardis
After Hours, Stuart McKenzie
An Autumn Noon, Ian Grosz
Angelus At Noon, Patricia McCaw
Arthur Streeton Advises his Students, Mandy Macdonald
By the Obelisk Sundial Drummond Castle, Jane Aldous
Farewell My Father, Anne Bevan
Fire at Midday, Susan Cartwright-Smith
High Summer at Fionnphort Bay, Seth Crook
I am not Beautiful at Noon, Elinor Brooks
Mad Dogs and English Men, Laila Sumpton
Moon Jellyfish, Vanessa OwenNoon Son, Alison Lock
Noon Talk, Graham Burchell
On the First Calculation of the Circumference of the Earth, Alison Gerhard
Pocket Watch, Catriona Yule
Precarious, Michelle Penn
Ravens At Noon, Paul Waring
Still No Name, Marika Josef
Sun Beats over New Orleans, Natalie Gasper
The Mind is Made to Drink the Sun, Edward Venning
The Sun Suspended, Derek Crook
Twelve o’Clock From The House, Nicholas McGaughey
Unleashed, Paul Foy
Winter Ritual, Sara Elgerot
Winter Solstice, Gareth Culshaw
Stories
#Noon, Su Yin Yap
A Vampire At Noon, Patience Mackarness
Always Noon, James Woolf
And The Phone Went Tick Tock, Ian Richardson
Dinnertime Dance, Cindy George
High Noon, Marka Rifat
Mother And Child, Barbara Renel
Mother Hand, Karen Ankers
Jackdaw, Elaine Hughes
Noon Child Unknown, Diana Powell
On Kings And Falling, Roppotucha Greenberg
Toast Crumbs, Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier
Under The L, Liam Hogan
Up On The Roof, Lily Peters
Veranda, Clare Shaw
Our regional organisers are now picking their set lists which will create our finalists. There is always the possibility, with some venues having performers to read on behalf of the writer, that some work could be performed at more than event on 21st December. We hope to be able to announce the final list of stories and poems soon, but definitely within the next fortnight.
Having published the long list, and while we work on the shortlist we thought it was time for a bit more info about the festival itself.
Solstice Shorts has been going since 2014 in a variety of guises including last year’s epic UK wide Dusk celebration.
There’s something about the dark time of the year that lends itself to storytelling, and because we are celebrating the shortest day of the year, short fiction is a given. We’ve always had music, and have subsequently introduced poetry (partly because the poets were feeling left out!).
So this year, Noon: the highest the sun gets, which in December, isn’t very far, depending on where you are. In Greenwich, home to Solstice Shorts and the accurate measurement of time, Noon on 21st December will be at 11.58. So I guess we’ll be starting a bit before twelve to make sure we mark it appropriately, although of course, in Aberdeen noon isn’t until 12:06, and Cork 12.31!
Our venues:
Aberdeen: Blackwells 99 High St, Aberdeen AB24 3EN
Edinburgh: Summerhall Arts Centre Cafe 1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL
Carlisle: The Old Firestation, Peter Street, Carlisle, CA3 8QP
Ynys Mon: Ucheldre Centre Restaurant, Millbank, Holyhead, Isle of Anglesey, LL65 1TE
London: The Bakehouse Theatre. Age Exchange, 11 Blackheath Village, SE3 9LA
Cork: O’SHO Barrack Street, Cork, Eire
We plan to live stream again, hopefully to the right sites this year!!
Local organisers: Jane Aldous, Ness Owen & Cybi Poets, Cherry Potts (Arachne Press), Anne Bevan, Barbara Renel, Intuitive Music Aberdeen.
As ever some tough decisions, but we have a longlist! congratulations to:
Jane Aldous, Karen Ankers, Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, Darren J Beaney, Anne Bevan, Julian Bishop, Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier, Cath Bore, Elinor Brooks, Zoe Brooks, Graham Burchell, Susan Cartwright-Smith, John Chambers, Anastasia Cojocaru, Seth & Derek Crook, Gareth Culshaw, Colin Dardis, Kelly Davis, Sara Elgerot, Paul Foy, Natalie Gasper, Cindy George, Alison Gerhard, Roppotucha Greenberg, Ian Grosz, Liam Hogan, Elaine Hughes, Sue Johnson, Vivien Jones, Marika Josephides, Lisa Kelly, Alison Lock, Karina Lutz, Mandy Macdonald, Patience Mackarness, David Mathews, Patricia McCaw, Nicholas McGaughey, Stuart McKenzie, Vanessa Owen, Ivonne Piper, Michelle Penn, Lily Peters, Anne Phillips, Bella Pori, Diana Powell, Barbara Renel, Ian Richardson, Marka Rifat, Satania Jade Rowland, Clare Shaw, Laila Sumpton, Edward Venning, Paul Waring, Isabel White, Sheila Williams, James Woolf, S Yap, Catriona Yule.
Shortlisting will be completed by the end of this month, and then the difficult process of working out what will work together in each of the performances, which will be in (almost definitely) Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Carlisle, Ynys Mon, London and Cork.
This year’s Solstice Shorts Festival (21st December 2018) will again be a multi-site affair, and again will last only 45 minutes. But this time will happen at exactly the same time – Noon.
At the moment we are looking at events in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Carlisle, Ynys Mon (Anglesey), and London.
We are looking for SHORT stories no more than 1000 words, shorter is better, (think flash not vignette – something needs to happen!) and poems, also short – up to 40 lines, in English, Welsh or Scots/Gaelic (with a translation please!) On the Theme of Noon – deadlines, midday meals, heat and light – whatever it means to you (We are strict though- afternoon is not noon!) These works are for performance. Other sites may be added.
We are starting this process with no funding, but hope we may have some in time to allow us to pay actors to perform, but if not, we’ll need you to be able to get to one of these sites to read.
Celebrate the shortest day of the year by sending us a story or poem on the theme of NOON.
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 7TH OCTOBER!
A pamphlet (or a very slender book!) of the stories and poems chosen for performance will be produced. Royalties will be paid, together with at least one copy of the book to each successful writer.
Writers who are successful in being included in a performance/ anthology are subsequently invited to submit a collection/novel for consideration.
submission via Submittable only (this is so we don’t lose your submission, and so multiple people can review your work as simply as possible.)
