Tag Archives: Valerie Bence

Arachneversary: Time and Tide

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Continuing our eighth anniversary celebrations, with the most recent Solstice Shorts Festival and book, Time and Tide.
Stories and poems set on and beside the sea with a strong female voice, BSL translations by Marcel Hirshman of:
Remittance, by Kilmeny MacMichael;
Arrival by Valerie Bence (with voice over by Holly Blades);
I Nearly Drownded Daddy by Vivien Jones and
Napoleon by Nick Westerman.

Plus news of the future of Solstice Shorts.

You can buy the book, in two different editions (the special is illustrated) from our Webshop

throughout August there is a discount if you apply code ARACHNEVERSARY at the checkout.

Time and Tide Videos: Arrival, and Scarborough Street Greenwich

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

We made a point of curating the sea shanties against particular poems/ stories. The connection here is superstitions.

Poem Arrival by Valerie Bence, read by Carrie Cohen

with song Scarborough Street by Chip Wilson, sung by  London Sea Shanty Collective

This song is part of LSSC’s new Shanty Opera, The Earl de Grey: a Hull Folk Opera you can be part of the audience on 22nd February atThe Mildmay Club, in Stoke Newington. Get your ticket here

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 readings.

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.

 

Time and Tide: Hastings audio recordings, Poems

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Unfortunately part of the video for the Hastings leg of the Solstice Shorts Festival went a bit wonky. We’ve managed to salvage the audio for this section.

Here are a some of the poems read at Hastings Fishermen’s Museum  on the Winter Solstice:

Verticals by Kate Foley read by Umi Sinha

wigtown estuary

Arrival by Valerie Bence read by Umi Sinha

ship for T&T book

Fisherman’s Daughter by Claire Booker, read by Kate Dyson

buried chain

images © Cherry Potts

An Outbreak of Peace launch video: Valerie Bence

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Poet Valerie Bence reads her poem Light at the launch of An Outbreak of Peace, an anthology of stories and poems in response to the end of WWI

 

Next launch event Blackwells Manchester 30th November

Launching An Outbreak of Peace – Photos at Housmans

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Launching An Outbreak of Peace to a full house at Housmans.

Thanks to everyone who came along and in particular to Housmans for hosting and to CB,  Clare, Karen, Katy, Peter, Sarah and Chantal (all pictured) and Valerie (not pictured) for reading so magnificently – sold out Housman’s stock of the book!

An Outbreak of Peace: Valerie Bence

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After a career in academia, Valerie Bence finished a doctorate in her mid-fifties and then moved from academic to creative writing, completing an MA in Poetry in 2016. She works mainly with objects and artworks but writes ekphrastic poems in its broadest sense, encompassing truth, memory, place and time. Time is an especially powerful focus and she finds that writing on significant anniversaries or in real-time brings another dimension to the writing process.

Her first collection Falling in Love With a Dead Man (based on Rembrandt artworks) is to be published in 2019. Valerie lives and works in Bucks.

Valerie will be reading her poem, Light at the London launch of An Outbreak of Peace

at Housmans on 14th November 7pm

Northern Launch for An Outbreak of Peace

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As our authors are spread all over the globe, we are trying to give as many of them as possible an opportunity to celebrate the launch in person. We can’t afford to jaunt off to the US and Australia, or even Germany or France, but we can manage Manchester!

Northern fans of poetry and short fiction are invited to join us at Blackwells, Manchester. Near Arthur Lewis Building, The University of Manchester Bridgeford Street, M13 9PL (address confirmed!)

on 30th November at 6.30pm

There will be readings from

Ness Owen, Sarah Tait,

Rebecca Skipwith,  Lily Peters

Mantz Yorke, and Valerie Bence, and cake and liquid refreshment.

Free tickets via eventbrite

Coming up: An Outbreak of Peace

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LONDON! Housmans 14th November

The official publication date for this anthology of new short stories and poems in response to the end of WWI, An Outbreak of Peace is the 8th November, but we are having the launch party on

7pm Wednesday 14th, at Housmans radical bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, N1 9DX,

with readings from Clare Owen, CB Droege, Katy Darby, Chantal Heaven (fiction);

clare owencb-biopicKaty Darby headshot Moby big

Karen Ankers, Valerie Bence, Peter Kenny, Sarah Tait (poetry).

Karen AnkersValerie BenceP Kennysarah tait

There will also be a poppy-seed cake, and other, liquid, refreshments.

£3 on the door, redeemable against purchase of the book.