The Word Soup Womanhood night – aka The Red Tent Edition – was a true feast of North West literary talent, incorporating the highs, lows, sadness, humour, downright rudeness, and above all wonderfully diverse creative talent of Womanhood.

Dreamed up by Rachel McGladdery and cemented over contemplation of an Erica Jong poem with Vicky Ellis, these two intrepid writers pulled together a strong line-up of writers from across the North West, and put on a memorable night of live literature.

Although the fabulous Rachel McGladdery was unable to come along herself and will have to make do with the film of the evening (hopefully on the LWH YouTube channel very soon!), Vicky was a fab compere for the evening and started us all off with two of Rachel’s poems – including one of my personal favourites and a perfect fit with the theme of the evening, “Gypsy Nanna King”, truly goose-bumpingly beautiful poetry.

Carys Bray (aka Scott Prize Winner 2012!) presented us with a thought-provoking short story which took us on a poignant journey through parents’ quest for rescue and redemption, witnessing the miraculous rescue of other people’s sons to the realisation of their own hopelessness in the face of their own son’s entrapment in a hell of a different kind. Fabulous stuff, and we can see why Carys won the Salt Publishing 2012 Scott Prize.   Ann Wilson (aka Ann The Poet), pulled us all into a very different mood with a fabulously humorous array of poems and a lively set on the theme of womanhood, and I was personally really pleased to be able to see Ann perform at last as I hadn’t up until now!  Kim Moore (aka Eric Gregory Award & Geoffrey Dearmer Prize 2011, The Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition 2012), was a compelling stage presence, presenting a memorable selection of poems on the theme, ”Suffragette” and “Boxer” in particular were truly and goose-bumpingly magic.

Sarah Miller (aka poet and playwright, co-editor of Best of Manchester Poets 2 and making new plays with Barrow Youth Theatre, and whose online presence I can’t find for love nor money!) gave an equally riveting and memorable performance which included poems about growing pains and a magic dress which didn’t lead her quite where she intended (I’ll never look at a man named Robert Johnson or a cheese sandwich in the same light ever again), but my personal favourite from Sarah’s set would have to be “Still Orbiting the Sun” – brilliant.  After the break, Danielle Rose (aka a shopaholic blogger from Blackpool) got the second set off to a fabulous start with her wonderful poems and natural stage banter (so I was amazed when she said she was very nervous) – and the highlight for me would be hard to choose from such a great set but if pushed it would have to be the poem about her self (in response to people who think poems are automatically biographical) as this was an excellent piece. Next up was, erm, oh, me, pulling the jolly mood down several notches to a more sober place with one of my short stories, “Faery” - but luckily Vicky Ellis (aka prize-winning performance poet, storyteller, singer-songwriter, editor and an excellent compere!) was on hand to pick up the mood again at once with the poem from Erica Jong encapsulating what the evening was all about, and with an often disturbingly sensual selection of her own poems (well it is disturbing if you find yourself listening to erotically-charged farmyard creatures!), and the much less visceral but highly-entertaining “Diamonds”.

The open mic set was short but definitely sweet with two brave men, Michael Neary, and Nick Guy Williams tackling the subject of Womanhood with aplomb, and Lorna Smithers and Jeanette Greaves entertaining us with a beautifully written and delivered poem on the one hand and an entertaining tale about a hoped-for transformation which ended rather unexpectedly on the other.

A fabulous night all round, with thanks to the multi-talented Rob Talbot for his expertise and support in helping to stage the whole event (- and congrats on the progress of the book, Rob!), to the Lancashire Writing Hub, They Eat Culture, and The Continental for making all this possible, and to Vicky Ellis who co-organised the whole caboodle with the fabulous Slam-winning poet Rachel McGladdery who was sorely missed and we hope to see you back up on that stage asap Raich!

The next Word Soup is in September and is a poetry special. More details coming over the summer…

The Best Ever!

8 pm Thursday 31 May 2012

with

Carys Bray

Kim Moore

Ann Wilson

Sarah Miller

J. A. Brunning

Danielle Rose

Vicky Ellis

Thursday 31st May 8pm – £3 entry

AKA ‘The Red Tent Edition’
The latest Lancashire Writing Hub Live Lit Night sees luminaries Anne Wilson, J.A Brunning, Vicky Ellis, Carys Bray and a host of others waxing lyrical on what it means to be female. Plus the ever-popular Open Mic Slot and more!

J. A. Brunning is a Lancashire-based author whose first novel, Witherstone, was published in 2011 and is currently working on her second novel, The Hunt Begins. She also writes short stories and blogs at http://ribblebabel.blogspot.com/ and is on Twitter @ribblebabel and Facebook @Jane Brunning.

Ann Wilson (aka Ann the Poet) is a South Cumbria based poet who performs and delivers creative writing and performance workshops.  She has performed her poetry, stand-up and music in theatres and at festivals and events throughout the UK since 1995.   She’s the host of the Spoken Word Open Mic at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal.  She was very proud to win a Tough Guy’s Music Award for Best Solo Act in 2009 especially as it sounds so butch. She was South Cumbria Poet Laureate in 2006. Ann is currently working with Whitewood and Fleming in the role of Looked After Children’s Projects co-ordinator.  She’s also writing a script for The Dukes Young Actors in Lancaster.  She’s half of the music duo 2 Baa Chords and when she’s not writing, singing, performing poetry or leading workshops she’s a black belt martial arts instructor.  Her latest poetry collection is “Ann the Poet’s Gig Book” catchy title eh!  Her previous collections are “Synesthetic” and a poetry/sonic art album and exhibition “The Resting Bench”

Carys Bray has had short fiction published in a variety of magazines and journals including Mslexia, Black Market Review, New Fairy Tales and The Yellow Room. Her debut short story collection won Salt Publishing’s 2012 Scott Prize and will be published in November.  She is working on a Creative Writing PhD.

Kim Moore was awarded an Eric Gregory Award and the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2011.  In 2012 her pamhlet ‘If We Could Speak Like Wolves’ was a winner in The Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition, judged by Carol Ann Duffy. It will be published by the Poetry Business in May 2012.  Kim’s poetry and reviews have been published in The TLS, Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Rialto, Ambit and Mslexia.

Sarah Miller is a poet and playwright based in Manchester. She is a co-editor of Best of Manchester Poets 2 (Puppywolf) and has recently been making several new plays with Barrow Youth Theatre.
Vicky Ellis is a product of all that she has known. Her poems are filled with stubborn women, strange sex and bewilderment. She uses writing as a method of avoiding difficult questions

Danielle Rose is a girl from Blackpool with a love of writing, tattoos and of course shopping. She blogs about fashion, beauty, bargains and much more. She lives in Blackpool and studies in Manchester. She can be found here: http://www.ablogfromblackpool.com/
All starts at 8pm on Thursday 31st May. Entry is £3.

Writing in Libraries at Accrington Library – Word Soup Review

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During March 2012, Avril Scott led the first of Lancashire Writing Hub’s Writing in Libraries courses – Getting Started at Accrington Library. The course was delivered in partnership with Lancashire Library & Information Services, and was well attended. Avril helped a group of writers to develop their writing skills, through a variety of exercises and workshop sessions. The writers were encouraged to write a 1000 word piece which was to be read at a mini-Word Soup at Accrington Library on the final day of the course.

Five writers performed their pieces at the Word Soup which was compered by Avril Scott. Lunchtime sun lit the upstairs lecture room at Accrington Library as Maxine Jordan, David Dixon, Natalie Young, Joe Curry and Barbara Hill read their work written on the course.

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