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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The Monthly Flash #02

Posted by Mick North in New Writing, News, The Monthly Fiction Flash on December 22, 2011

To celebrate National Short Story Day, here’s the second story in our monthly(-ish) series of new Cumbrian flash fiction, in which Sue Banister gives us a desperate housewife with knobs on. “It always began with the toast …”

Read the story: Swallowing>>

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More winnings in Warwick Bridge

Posted by Mick North in Competitions, News on December 16, 2011

Poet Terry Jones’ decision to give up his lecturing job at Carlisle College in the summer, to devote more time to his writing, has paid off.

He bagged the prestigious £5,000 Bridport Poetry Prize a few weeks ago, and now he’s won first and second in another couple of competitions. Read more>>

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The Dark Mountain wants you to climb it

Posted by Mick North in News, Opportunities, Submissions on December 16, 2011

Ulverston writer Paul Kingsnorth is back from an extended sojourn in the South American wilderness and has returned to the steep and rocky slopes of the Dark Mountain Project.

There have been two Dark Mountain books so far; now Kingsnorth and his fellow editors are working on number three, and they’re looking for submissions. Read more>>

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The Weekly Poem #23

Posted by Mick North in New Writing, News, The Weekly Poem on December 15, 2011

Dusk in a wintry garden, somewhere in the Lake District, finds Mike Smith in meditative mood:

Winter grants me this at least, here in the garden:
to see the night come slowly on,
overwhelming all mountains and the lake … read more>>

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Words by the Water competitions open for entries

Posted by Mick North in Competitions, News, Opportunities on December 15, 2011

Two competitions organised in association with Keswick’s Words by the Water festival – the Mirehouse Poetry Competition and the Notting Hill Editions Essay Writing Competition – are open for entries.

The closing date for both is 10 February, and linked events are included in the festival programme in March. Read more>>

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Proof of Love in the Lake District

Posted by Mick North in Books, News on December 14, 2011

Catherine Hall (no relation to Sarah), who grew up in the Lake District, has won the 2011 Green Carnation Prize with her second novel, The Proof of Love.

Set during the long hot summer of 1976, it’s a deeply evocative and moving tale of a young Cambridge mathematician, Spencer Little, who arrives in a remote Lakeland village and takes on a job as a farm labourer. Read more>>

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The Weekly Poem #22

Posted by Mick North in New Writing, News, The Weekly Poem on December 9, 2011

In this week’s poem, Malcolm Carson is back in a Belfast classroom, snookered by Latin vocabulary and attracting some routine intimidation.

Read the poem – Mille passus>>

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