Dead Good Poets Society – June 2008 Diary

JUNE’S DIARY

Monday 2nd@ 8pm – Come Strut Your Stuff. Poetry and music open mic hosted by Graham and Nick, with Stan the Harper. The Egg Cafe, Newington, Liverpool (down the side of Rapid Hardware). Free.

Wednesday 4th @ 8pm – Dead Good Poets Society Open Floor. 24 performance slots of 5 minutes for you to perform your own poetry. Compered by the ever surprising Aaron Murdoch. The 3rd Room, Everyman Bistro, Hope Street, Liverpool 1. £1.

Wednesday 4th: 8-9pm – Les Murray. An unmissable opportunity to hear Australia’s leading contemporary poet read from his work. Murray was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry in 1999 and his latest collection of writing is The Biplane Houses (Carcanet 2006). Tickets: £5 / £3. Tel: 0151 702 5324. Performance Space, The Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX.

Friday 6th @ 8pm: Riders Write Out Loud’s ever popular “Riders” event is a night of music, comedy, poetry and who knows what?! A great night featuring: singer/songwriter and poet: Nat Clare, Peter Kennedy’s PUPPETUAL MOTION! a fantastic cult puppet show featuring music, jokes, stories – the progeny of mutant Muppets with the Mighty Boosh, Poetry Pete Crompton AND an Open Mic Event. The Socialist Club, Wood Street (Off Bradshawgate) – 8pm Entry: £3

Friday 6th: 7-9pm – Open Mic @ Warrington Central Library, Museum Street, Warrington, WA1 1JB – whether you write poetry and want to share your words or if you would just like to sit and listen, we hope you will be able to join us for these friendly, informal evenings. Contact: Tel 01925 442732 email wmolyneux@warrington.gov.uk

Saturday 7th: 2pm-4pm Dead Good Poets Society Poetry Reading Group. Two hours in which to discuss and debate poems! As last month’s theme was so much fun we’re repeating it for the final session of this series: bring poems you remember from school or other significant moments in your life and they’ll be photocopied at the library to share with the group. The Hornby Room, Liverpool Central Library. Refreshments provided. Free.

Saturday 7th: 7-11pm, Wave if you’re really there #1 Collaboration, Commission, Participation, Pop is the Mercy mission to present the best live literature, music and performance art. Featuring many performers including UNIVOCALISM Tim Clare, Joe Dunthorne, Ross Sutherland. Three of the UK’s most acclaimed writers perform their lecture and series of poems written in only one vowel. Venue: St Bride’s, Percy Street, Liverpool. Tickets (£5) must be bought in advance. Phone 0151-708-9781 or 07877-660-150 No bar, so bring your own drinks.

Monday 9th: 7.30pm-9.30pm Liverpool Poetry Cafe: Bodies on the Frontline. Poems on women’s lives, loves, sorrows, aspirations and politics. Costa Coffee, Bold St, Liverpool. Free. All welcome!

Thursday 12th @ 8.30pm Write Out Loud – Open Mic at Tudor House Hotel, New Market St. Come and read a poem or two with us. All welcome. Beginner-friendly.
The Tudor is next to the bus station, 5 mins walk rail stations: info@writeoutloud.net

Saturday 14th: 11am-1pm Dead Good Poets Society Poetry Reading Group, meets at Bebington Library, Wirral. More good natured poetical debate hosted by Janine Pinion. If you would like to receive copies of the poems in advance, please telephone Sarah on 0151 709 5221. Free. Refreshments provided.

Sunday 15th @8pm – Write Out Loud’s Read Around. Friendly and relaxed open mic at the Howcroft Inn, Bolton. £1 donation. For directions www.writeoutloud.net

Wednesday 18th @ 8pm: Dead Good Poets Society Guest Night: Phil Bowen, poet, performer & playwright, was born in Liverpool in 1949. He revisits the City to read and perform from his collections: The Professor’s Boots Variety’s Hammer (Stride), selected for The Forward Book of Poetry – 1998 and Starfly (Stride 2004). Phil “makes use of a good deal of humour but beneath the light-hearted veneer of his regular metres there is something of a murderous song” (Shearsman magazine).The 3rd Room, Everyman Bistro, Hope St, Liverpool 1. £3 / £2/ £1 pay on the door.

Thursday 26th: 4-6pm – Valerie Bloom – Come, Me Pickney! Poems and stories set to a specially commissioned soundscape showcase this award winning poet’s writing. This is an uplifting and unique performance from one of the best contemporary writers for children. Suitable for children aged 7+. Tickets are £3 single/ £10 family ticket. Book via The Bluecoat. The Performance Space, the Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool

Thursday 26th: 7.30-9.30pm Liverpool Poetry Cafe – Voices From the Benares. A poetry sequence by Pauline Rowe performed by North End Writers & Liverpool Women Writers. The City of Benares sailed from Liverpool on September 13th 1940. Among the passengers were 90 children evacuated from England’s blitzed cities. Four days into the voyage the ship was torpedoed. 258 passengers and crew lost their lives – including many Lascar seamen from India and 77 children. This piece is a tribute and memorial to all of them. Free. Costa Coffee, Bold Street, Liverpool

OPPORTUNITIES

* Kudos, formerly Competitions Bulletin lists umpteen competitions, local, national and international. For further details of how to subscribe, including a free downloadable issue, go to www.kudoswriting.wordpress.com

* Flax is looking to commission a short fiction and a poem for a pair of limited edition posters to be launched at this year’s litfest in Lancaster. In the first instance, we invite any interested writers, who live or work in the North West, to send three short fictions (200 words max) or three poems (20 lines max) by noon on Friday 27 June to flaxbooks@litfest.org. We will select six writers (three prose writers / three poets) by mid July. Each of these writers will be paid a flat fee of £150 to write new work by end of August. Only one poem and one fiction will be selected for the final designs, by mid September. The other four pieces will be published on the litfest website. If you have any questions, please get in touch with the editor Sarah Hymas on 01524 62166 or through sarah.hymas@litfest.org

* Conclave: A Journal of Character seeks writing that centres around well-crafted characters – complex and authentic. Love them or hate them, characters who are unforgettable and infuse their stories with life beyond the page. Conclave welcomes short stories, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and prose poems. International submissions are encouraged, but all submissions must be in English. www.conclavejournal.com

* The Writing Zone: a course to develop the creative imagination. Moniack Mhor Writer’s Centre, Beauly, Inverness-shire, October 3-5 2008
How many times have you gone to write and just found yourself staring at the computer screen or the blank page, unable to access your ‘writing zone?’ Or maybe you’ve been able to begin, but found yourself not knowing where to go next with your story, novel or poem. Or struggling with ways to create a vivid, realistic imagined world through your writing. This course will teach you practical techniques to break the blocks and gain inspiration; show you how to unblock images and fully enter the imaginative worlds you create. We will aim to fully engage with the creative process and, as the weekend progresses, generate new writing and new forms of writing.
This is a course that focuses on creativity as a way of life. The course is suitable for all writers: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Writers of all experience are welcome.
Course tutor: Sharon Blackie is a former psychologist who is now both a novelist and a publisher. Her critically-acclaimed first novel, The Long Delirious Burning Blue, was published in February 2008. She is editor of Cleave: New Writing by Women from Scotland (June 2008) and co-editor of Riptide: New Writing from the Highlands and Islands (April 2007). She is also translator from the French of Franco-American author Raymond Federman’s memoir of and tribute to his friend Samuel Beckett: The Sam Book (June 2008) and has written a number of non-fiction articles. Sharon specialised in storytelling and creative imagination techniques in her therapeutic practice and has many years’ experiencing training and running workshops both for small groups and in large organisations. Sharon is the co-founder of Two Ravens Press, and their Commissioning Editor for fiction. David Knowles, Poetry Editor of Two Ravens Press, will also be participating.
For booking and more information see http://www.sharonblackie.com

COMPETITIONS

Fakenham Poetry Circle Open Competition 2008 | Closing Date: 20-Jun-08
Details: For poems of up to 40 lines. Adjudicator: Mike Bannister. Prizes: £50, £30, £15.
Entry Fee: £3 per poem or 3 poems for £5
Contact: The Secretary, 31, Hayes Lane, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 9EP

Envoi Open Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 20-Jun-08
Details: For poems of up to 40 lines. Adjudicator: Nigel McLoughlin. First prize: £150.
Entry Fee: £3 per poem or £12 for five poems
Contact:
Send SAE to Envoi Poetry Competition, Meirion House, Glan yr afon, Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd LL41 3SU
Website: www.envoipoetry.com

Welsh Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 22-Jun-08
Details: First prize £200, second prize £100, third prize £50. Judge: John Evans. For poems in English.
Entry Fee: £3 per poem
Contact: 9 The Avenue, Pontypridd CF37 4DF
Website: www.welshpoetry.co.uk

Manchester Cathedral International Religious Poetry Competition 2008 | Closing Date: 30-Jun-08
Details: For poems of up to 40 lines. Poems submitted should be ‘broadly religious’, that is, ’spiritual’ in nature. Poems welcome from all faith traditions and from those struggling to discover their own sense of the sacred. Winner will be designated Manchester Cathedral Poet of the Year, 2008. First prize £300, judge Linda Chase.
Entry Fee: £3 for the first poem and £2 each for others
Contact:
‘The Religious Poetry Competition’, The Cathedral, Manchester M3 1SX
Telephone: 0161 833 2220
Email: albert.radcliffe@dsl.pipex.com

Bridport Prize 2008 | Closing Date: 30-Jun-08
Details: For short stories and poems. Poems should be a maximum of 42 lines. Poetry Judge: David Harsent. First prize £5000, second prize £1000, third prize £500.
Entry Fee: £6 per poem
Contact: The Bridport Prize, PO Box 6910, Dorset DT6 9BQ
Tel: 01308 428 333
Website: www.bridportprize.org.uk

Keats-Shelley Prize 2008 | Closing Date: 30-Jun-08
Details: Two competitions, open to all: and essay or a poem. £3000 in prizes. Judges: Ann Roe, Matthew Sweeney, John Hartley Williams, Professor Peter Kitson, Dr Seamus Perry. The essay can be on any aspect of the lives and works of John Keats, PB Shelley, Mary Shelley or Lord Byron, and should be of 2000-3000 words. The poem should focus on the theme ‘Lost’ and should be of any length up to 50 lines.
Entry Fee: £5
Contact: KSMA, Competitions Secretary, School of English, The University of St Andrews, KY16 9AR
Website: www.keats-shelley.co.uk

Split the Lark Poetry Festival Deal and Dover Poetry Competition | Closing Date: 30-Jun-08
Details: For poems of up to 40 lines. First prize £250, second prize £150, third prize £50.
Entry Fee: £3 for one poem, £5 for two, £10 for five poems
Contact: Cheques payable to “Split the Lark Poets”
Liz Turner, 1 King Edward Road, Deal, Kent CT14 6QL
Tel: 01304 380866 E-mail: june.english@btinternet.com
Website: www.splitthelarkpoets.co.uk

Poetry Writers’ Yearbook Competition | Closing Date: 30-Jun-08
Details:
For poems of no more than 30 lines, on the theme of ‘Desire’. Entrants must register on the competition website (see below for address). Cash prize of £300, or £500 of A&C Black books.
Entry Fee: £0
Contact: Entries must be submitted via email as to poetrycompetition@acblack.com with the subject heading: PYB08 COMPETITION.
Website: www.acblack.com/poetrycompetition