The Weekly Poem #26

Posted by Mick North in New Writing, News, The Weekly Poem on January 25, 2012

The nearest you can get to loft living in Carlisle, Shaddon or Dixon’s Mill is now a huge block of swanky apartments, itself dwarfed by the defiant finger of Dixon’s Chimney. Kathleen Jones’s great grandad knew it before the floors were sanded.

Read the poem, Dixon’s Mill>>

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YAK YAK

Posted by Mick North in Events, News on January 25, 2012

C-Art, the Eden Arts project which co-ordinates and promotes an annual open studios event with visual artists throughout the county, is organising its first ‘forum’ event.

YAK YAK invites creatives of all kinds (musicians, painters, craftspeople, writers, filmakers et al) to get together to meet and learn about each others’ work, share experiences and ideas, and generally socialise. Read more>>

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Ear ear

Posted by Mick North in Competitions, News, Opportunities on January 18, 2012

In collaboration with Edinburgh-based Maison Vee’s jewellery, Maryport-based The Journal and Original Plus Publications has announced the free-to-enter Silversmith Poetry Competition.

But not that free. All poems have to be about earrings. Read more>>

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Imagineears wanted

Posted by Mick North in Opportunities on January 16, 2012

Imagineear, a leading producer of audio and multimedia guides, are looking for freelance writers to work on a range of upcoming projects.

Read more>>

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Crime writer Reginald Hill dies

Posted by Mick North in News on January 16, 2012

Cumbrian crime writer Reginald Hill, best known as the creator of detectives Dalziel and Pascoe, has died aged 75 after suffering from a brain tumour.

Fellow authors have been quick to pay tribute. On Twitter, Ian Rankin wrote: “A lovely man, fine writer, great wit …” Read more>>

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Working Nights – A Festive Flash

Posted by Mick North in New Writing, News, Short Stories on January 12, 2012

Our Consulting Flash Fiction Editor, Brindley Hallam Dennis, sent us this story in the Christmas hols, in the hope that we might be able to rattle it out in a truncated Christmas issue of The Weekly Word. Sadly, we were so truncated by confectionery and cut-price single malt that we couldn’t get off the sofa. So treat this offering by Jenny Harrow as a late Christmas card and unexpected gift.

Read Working Nights>>

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The Weekly Poem #25

Posted by Mick North in New Writing, News, The Weekly Poem on January 12, 2012

From Back o’ Skiddaw to the roof of the world – in this week’s poem, the well-travelled Angela Locke reflects on journeys corporeal, spiritual, and political.

Read the poem, After the sky burial: Tibet>>

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Mslexia Women’s Short Story Competition 2012

Posted by Mick North in Competitions, News, Opportunities on January 12, 2012

“There’s no recipe for a good short story – in fact, they need to be unexpected, surprising. The most familiar material can be surprising if it’s seen freshly.”

So says Mslexia competition judge Tessa Hadley. To see if you can surprise her, read more>>

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Maggie knows her onions

Posted by Mick North in Books on January 12, 2012

Ulverston writer Maggie Norton has a new collection of poetry out from Indigo Dreams. The intriguingly titled Onions and other intentions is an assured act of ventriloquism, written in many voices.

Read more>>

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Take a Popshot

Posted by Mick North in News, Opportunities, Submissions on January 9, 2012

Poet David Tait, formerly but briefly of this parish and now unaccountably domiciled in Yorkshire, has been in touch to tell us about the rather lovely Popshot magazine and its search for poems and pictures on the theme of ‘power’.

Read more>>

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Words by the Water tickets on sale

Posted by Mick North in Events, News on January 6, 2012

“And so we assemble, we literary congregation, and lift up our eyes to the hills and welcome writers and readers alike once more to the holy lakeside of Derwentwater … ”

Festival President Melvyn Bragg sounds distinctly Shakespearean in his introduction to this year’s Words by the Water, which takes place from 2-11 March at Theatre by the Lake. Read more>>

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The Weekly Poem #24

Posted by Mick North in New Writing, News, The Weekly Poem on December 30, 2011

Here for the weekend, you ask where the young
hang out nights in this back-of-beyond place …

This week, Martin Malone explains why the young folks are leaving the lovely village of Maulds Meaburn. Jobs? Education? Night life? No – they can’t get a phone signal …

Read the poem, Meaburn>>

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When the Water Flows

Posted by Mick North in Books, News on December 28, 2011

South Lakeland ‘artivist’ Marianne Birkby, founder of the pressure group Radiation Free Lakeland, has produced and published a Raymond Briggs-style picture book in her efforts to continue the campaign against plans to create the world’s first high level nuclear waste dump in West Cumbria.

Read more>>

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