festivals

Kendal Poetry Festival

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Kim Moore writes

Dear Poets

I’m writing to you to let you know about Kendal Poetry Festival, which I’m the co-director of, along with Pauline Yarwood.

The festival will be taking place from the 16th-18th June 2017 at Abbot Hall Art Gallery and other venues in the market town of Kendal.

Last year was our first year of running the festival, and it was a complete sell-out, so we’re hoping to replicate this again this year.

We have a really exciting programme of events and poets coming from far and wide.  Our Festival Poets this year are Hannah Lowe and William Letford, Inua Ellams and Chrissy Williams, Katrina Naomi and Malika Booker, Kathryn Maris and Tim Liardet and Ian Duhig and Linda Gregerson.  We’ve got a series of workshops, discussions and open mics as well as readings and the full programme is now up on the website.

It would be lovely to see you in Kendal this year at the festival – there is some great bed and breakfast accommodation available in Kendal that is fairly cheap.  The nearest train station is Oxenholme Lake District which is on the mainline and just a five minute taxi ride from the venue.

We believe our festival is unique in the UK in its programming of young poets alongside our invited guest poets.  Last year people remarked on our friendly and welcoming atmosphere as well as the quality of the programming – please have a look at our programme, and if you’ve got any questions, you can email me here or at team@kendalpoetryfestival.co.uk

If you’d like to be added to the Kendal Poetry Festival email list, just let me know and I can put you on there.

Finally, any help you can give with spreading the word about the festival would be much appreciated.  We don’t have a budget for marketing or even a marketing expert, so we rely on word of mouth to let people know about the festival.

Best wishes

Kim Moore and Pauline Yarwood

Festival Directors
Kendal Poetry Festival

www.kendalpoetryfestival.co.uk

Going to the funeral

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Photo at Pixabay

I first caught sight of you in my wing mirror
half way up the Sma’ Glen; high place, grey rock
smoothed and polished by four clean winds,
bog myrtle, sphagnum moss, bent over bushes
stunted, blunted down the years.
You were parked up in a layby,
about to get back in your old silver hatchback,
your kilt aswirl in the breeze.
Who knew we were going to the same place?
And when you stood later by the grave,
you and your fellow pipers resplendent
in black and red, the silver pins on your plaid shawls
glistening, the sharp point of Schiehallion poking the heavens behind,
I knew you’d filled your pipes with mountain air
for you blew all the wild wonder of the glen
into your pibroch lament.

Kirsty Hollings

Many congratulations to Kit who won 3rd prize at the 2016 Maryport LitFest – ‘Wild’ – for this evocative poem

– M&P

Literary treasure

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Photo 2CRG

Snow topped Fells. Frosted fields. Winter sharpens ancient definition in glorious Lakeland scenery. And every year, noting steaming breath, I marvel at sheep knees and noses withstanding intense cold.

At the Maryport Literary Festival, hosted at the Senhouse Roman Museum where picture windows frame the Solway Firth, I enjoyed a tour de force from Steve Matthews (‘polymath and raconteur’) whose book Lap of Horror tells of early travellers to Borrowdale and Derwentwater.

The genius of the Brontë family came alive in Angela Locke’s illuminating conversation with renowned authority Juliet Barker. Each of Patrick Brontë’s children was shy. Writing became their means to articulate rich inner lives.

A personal and poignant reading by Grevel Lindop, the timbre of whose voice hums in his stanzas before he speaks, brought poetry’s moving power to search depths centre stage.

Echoes of Roman soldiers on the mileforts. Time-travel to walk with early Lakeland tourists. Encouragement to the shy. A great poet’s inspiring to aim high. Solway Firth’s sea and sky. Treasure of a way to spend a winter’s day.

– M&P

Signature

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Screenshot from Signature

Signature is a major resource for inspiration-hungry writers and readers. Its strapline ‘making well-read sense of the world’ invites me both to read and write well. I signed up for their free newsletter and received The Ultimate Guide to Writing Advice.

All this, and the Maryport Literary Festival coming up this weekend. How good does it get?

Good work wishes for you today – reading or writing.

– M&P

Maryport Literary Festival

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Photo at Senhouse Museum

Literary Festival 2016: Wild!

Friday 18th – Sunday 20th November 2016

This year’s festival will look at writing inspired by our relationship with the landscape. The festival will be launched by mountaineering legend Doug Scott.

Speakers appearing during the festival weekend include Eric Robson, Steve Matthews, Kim Moore, Robin Ashcroft, Tom Pickard, Josephine Dickinson, Juliet Barker, Catherine Anderson and Simon Yates.

There will be an appearance from the Lakeland Dialect Society and writing workshops will be led by Nick Pemberton and Grevel Lindop.

– M&P