Here is Claire Booker’s launch video tidied up a bit.
Claire Booker reads at virtual launch of Time and Tide
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Tag Archives: poems
Inspired by Lady Hale – a Spider anthology for our eighth anniversary
Inspired by Lady Hale I’ve been buying spider brooches (and that T-shirt that’s also supporting Shelter), like a mad thing, and then I thought…
Next August (8th Month) is Arachne Press’s 8th anniversary. What about an eight-legged arachnid inspired anthology?
Get writing, I’ll put a proper call out later in the week but maybe 2000 words-ish, deadline January-ish.
I’m going to make it difficult for you – NO Horror, NO spiders to be killed.
Think Charlotte’s Web for adults, not Arachnophobia. Some sort of homeless connection too? More when I’ve had time to consider properly.
I’ve resisted the temptation to use a close-up photo of a spider here. Imagine one.
Solstice Shorts line up for London
Our London line up:
Stories
A Vampire at Noon, Patience Mackarness
High Noon, Marka Rifat
Toast Crumbs, Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier
Under the L, Liam Hogan
Poems
An Autumn Noon, Ian Grosz
Arthur Streeton Advises his Students, Mandy Macdonald
I am not Beautiful at Noon, Elinor Brooks
Mad Dogs and English Men, Laila Sumpton
Noon Son, Alison Lock
Precarious, Michelle Penn
Still No Name, Marika Josef
FREE TICKETS from Eventbrite
Performers Marika Josef and Michelle Penn will read their own poems, and the excellent Carrie Cohen and Grace Cookey-Gam will be helping us out with work by authors who can’t be there in person.
Music will be provided by regular Solstice collaborators Ian Kennedy and Sarah Lloyd.
Solstice Shorts Festival SHORTLIST for NOON
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.
Mental Health Awareness Week
In case you wondered, our writers and other collaborators are always welcome to talk about their mental health or lack of it with us at Arachne. Mental Health is an important issue too readily ignored. (An organisation I once worked for were doing risk assessments, and put ‘stress’ on the list because
people might make mistakes if they are stressed.
The head of HR and I both rose up and said very loudly, more or less in chorus,
no, stress is a risk in itself.
We didn’t win that one, I like to think that these days we would.
This week we are publishing Erratics a collection of poems by Cathy Bryant, who has several disabilities including ones that affect her mental health.
Here’s a suitable poem for this week that addresses an old chestnut:
Seeing the Glass as Half-full or Half-empty
Cathy Bryant
There are many other possibilities.
The busy homeworker sees more washing up to do.
The cat sees something to knock over.
The lovers see something to share.
The conspiracy theorist sees that the water was drugged,
and the glass had a gun and was on the grassy knoll.
The racist believes that the glass will be stolen by immigrants.
The tv presenter sees (whether it’s there or not) his reflection.
We depressives see something
that we’ll no doubt drop, spill and break.
The musician flicks the note E. Ping!
The child sees a drink, or water for paintbrushes.
The surrealist sees that the glass is made of political bananas.
copyright Cathy Bryant/ Arachne Press 2018
An Outbreak of Peace contributors announced
Subject to confirmation from the writers, issuing of contracts and so on, we have the line-up for An Outbreak of Peace, our anthology responding to the centenary of the ending of WWI, which will be published in November.
They are:
Ellery Akers
Karen Ankers
Annelise Balsamo
Valerie Bence
Anne Bevan
Elinor Brooks
Katy Darby
Peter DeVille
Sarah Deckro
CB Droege
Ken Farrell
Corie Feiner
Norman Franke
David Guy
Chantal Heaven
Anwar jaber
Steven Jackson
Peter Kenny
Peter Shaver
Julie Laing
Katy Lee
Gerald McCarthy
Nicholas McGaughey
Nina Murray
Ness Owen
Clare Owen
Lily Peters
Nick Rawlinson
Rebecca Skipwith
Lucy Smith
Sarah Tait
James Toupin
Rob Walton
Nick Westerman
Martin Willitts, Jr
Mantz Yorke
We have an eclectic mix of poems and short stories some of which deal with WWI, some with the ending of other wars, and some not about war at all, as such, which is as it should be.
Announcement: SHORTLISTED POEMS for DUSK
In alphabetical order by poet’s first name…
Alannah Egan, I Am Dusk
Alice Tarbuck, Decoration of a Fermented Season
Alison Lock, Crow Haibun
Aziz Dixon, A Calligraphy Of Starlings
Bridie Toft, Arrival
Carl Griffin, Sea Wedding
Eileen Carney Hulme, Blue Hour
Elinor Brooks, Spelling the Dusk
Gabrielle Choo, Sundown Breath
Jane Aldous, After the Sun, Before the Stars
Jeremy Dixon, Driving To Blackpool to Visit My Sister
Jill Sharp, The Dogs Of Delhi
John Bevan, Afterglow
Joy Howard, Factory
K Wise, Tempus Erat
Katie Evans, 16:30
Katy Lee, Red Coat, Wolf, etc
Kelly Davis, Calling Them In
L Reid, Summer Evening
Laila Sumpton, Starling Time
Lisa Kelly, Match Girl
Lizzie Parker, Dhusarah
Mandy Macdonald, The Gloaming
Martyn Crucefix, Summers Ended In Sweetness
Michelle Penn, End Of Ramadan
Ness Owen, Female Blackbird Sings
Nicholas McGaughey, Magic Hour
Nigel Hutchinson, Sometimes a Black Cloud
Paul Deaton, Brunel’s Bridge
Roselle Angwin, The Standstill
Rosemary Appleton, Going Out
Stevie Krayer, Sleeping out
Sue Birchenough, Roost
Sue Johnson, The Shortest Day
What does short listing mean?
Every regional organiser has read everything, and chosen a long list that they would have performed at their site, if there were enough time.
Sadly that isn’t going to be possible, we’d need twice as long, so they will be picking their final performance list (where they haven’t already) based on timing and not having poems that are too similar in tone; there were quite a few thematic things going on, particularly with birds.
We are aiming to announce the final line up on 1st December.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Longlisted Poems for DUSK
Finally, after much discussion and re-reading we have a long list of poems.
(Thank you, Ness Owen, Phil Baarda and Yvonne Battle-Felton for the hours of work.)
Alphabetically by poem title:
16:30, Katie Evans
A Calligraphy of Starlings, Aziz Dixon
A Fatality at Wandsworth, Jill Sharp
After the Sun, Before the Stars, Jane Aldous
Afterglow, John Bevan
All This, John Richardson
Arrival, Bridie Toft
Between, Lindsay Reid
Blue Hour, Eileen Carney Hulme
Brunel’s Bridge, Paul Deaton
Calling Them In, Kelly Davis
Corn Dolly, Steven Jackson
Crow Haibun, Alison Lock
Decoration of a Fermented Season, Alice Tarbuck
Dhusarah, Lizzie Parker
Driving to Blackpool to Visit my Sister, Jeremy Dixon
Dusk in Drury Lane, Sarah James
End Of Ramadan, Michelle Penn
Factory, Joy Howard
Fall, Julian Bishop
Female Blackbird Sings, Vanessa Owen
Going Out, Rosemary Appleton
I Am Dusk, Alannah Egan
In-Between Light, Christine Webb
l’Heure Bleue, Angela Kirby
Lingering Light, Bethan Rees
Magic Hour, Nicholas McGaughey
Match Girl, Lisa Kelly
Red Coat, Wolf, etc., Katy Lee
Roost, Sue Birchenough
Sleeping Out, Stevie Krayer
Sometimes a Black Cloud, Nigel Hutchinson
Sleeping Out Stevie Krayer
Spelling the Dusk, Elinor Brooks
Starling Time, Laila Sumpton
Summer Evening L Reid
Summers Ended In Sweetness, Martyn Crucefix
Sundown Breath, Gabrielle Choo
Tempus Erat, K Wise
The Dogs of Delhi, Jill Sharp
The Gloaming, Mandy Macdonald
The Sea’s Wedding, Carl Griffin
The Shortest Day, Sue Johnson
The Standstill, Roselle Angwin
Walking Home on the Shortest Day of the Year, Janice Dempsey
We will short-list as fast as we can!
The Story Sessions: Retelling Tales – poems – audio
The poems not caught on camera…
Joy Howard‘s Melangell and the Hare,
Olympus Inc and Living to Tell the Tale (explicit language warning!)
All these and more available in Foraging
and Zoe Brigley Thompson‘s Letter to Leda on Getting Married
all read by Cherry Potts
final Liberty Tales tour date Greenstead – Video
The last of the Liberty Tales events: Greenstead Library
Stories and poems inspired by Magna Carta
Cliff Chapman reading David Guy‘s The King and the Light, and three poems by Jeremy Dixon, Carrie Cohen (aka Carolyn Eden) reading her own Free White Towel and Sarah Evans‘ Bothered, Jim Cogan reading his own story, Lag and Helen Morris reading her story, The Poppies.
