Source: Hay Writers’ Fiction Competition Judge announced as Piers Wenger
Hay Writers’ Fiction Competition Judge announced as Piers Wenger
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Hay Writers’ Fiction Competition Judge announced as Piers Wenger
Media Images Channel 4 – Piers Wenger – Head of Drama.
Exciting times ahead with the confirmation of our Fiction Competition Judge 2015. Piers Wenger is the Head of Drama for Channel 4 and E4, as well as an Executive Producer for Film 4 and will be our Fiction Competition Judge 2015. We expect the results to be announced during December so, as the saying goes – “watch this space!”
“Before joining Film 4, Piers Wenger was Head of Drama for BBC Wales where he executive produced the BBC’s hugely successful Doctor Who under lead writer Steven Moffat. His BBC executive producer credits also include BBC Two’s BAFTA and RTS award winning Eric and Ernie and the critically acclaimed Christopher and His Kind, Kevin Elyot’s account of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin years. During his time at BBC drama, he was the commissioning editor for Parade’s End, Sir Tom Stoppard’s forthcoming adaptation of Ford Madox Ford’s quartet of novels charting the First World War.”
Source – Channel 4 Press Release. Click here for further information.
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Tagged Annual, Anthology, art, Arts, Book Town, British Writing, Channel 4, Creative writing, E4, fiction, Fiction Competition, Fiction Competition Judge, Film 4, Hay, Hay Writers., Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire, literature, literature Wales, Marches, Piers Wenger, Powys, Prize winning Fiction, River Wye, short story, Wales, Welsh, Welsh Borders, Writers Club, writers groups, writing
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The Dancing Floor – A Film For Wales To Celebrate
A Film For Wales by by Emma van Woerkom
Brechfa, mid Wales is one of those rare mysterious places that once discovered, its enigma will never leave you.
A seemingly shallow pool on the top of a hill surrounded by mountains; there is a vast unspoken deepness here. Like a tap root whose centuries of growth have bedded it down beyond Welsh rock and earth, so Brechfa Pool transforms into a mirrored conduit between the ancient and the modern worlds. To touch it’s icy waters is to stir your fingers in the old Welsh myths and their cryptic heritage. It’s a shame these stories are so little known, but this is about to change.
Film maker and Brechfa resident, Lyn Webster Wilde, is going to bring these themes to life in her new film project, The Dancing Floor. It’s easy to understand where her inspiration comes from, she lives on the edge of this esoteric stretch of water. The film, set locally in Mid Wales, employs one of the tales from the Mabingion to help answer a modern day riddle – how do we find ‘what is lost’?
Interested….Intrigued…..want to know more…..want to get involved????
I’ll now hand you over to Lyn (via her fund raising site) to explain her vision.
Click here to discover more about The Dancing Floor.
Still shot taken from The Dancing Floor.
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Tagged Ancient history, Black Mountains, Brechfa, Brecon, Brecon Beacons, British Film, British Myth, Creative writing, Crowdfunding, Emma van Woerkom, Film, Film making, Film Projects, Filming, Hay Castle, Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye, Mabinogion, Mid Wales, Mythology, Photography, Powys, Screen Play, The Dancing Floor, Wales, Welsh, Welsh Artrs, Welsh Film, Welsh Films, Welsh Myth, Welsh Writers
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MUCK, MAYHEM & MEMORIES – ‘A FOOT IN THE BUCKET’ IS PUBLISHED
by Emma van Woerkom
Two years before The Good Life appeared on our television screens, Jenny and her husband made the decision to leave their urban home and lifestyle to embrace a life of self-sufficiency in the Welsh Hills.
At an auction in Brecon they bought Tironnen, an old hunting lodge with outbuildings and five acres of old pasture, little knowing how their lives would be so greatly enriched by the friendliness and delightful eccentricities of the humans they met and of the animals which came to live with them.
This book recounts with humour how Jenny blundered her way up the steep learning curve of her new life.
“Having lived for over fifty years on the Welsh Border I enjoyed far more the adapted themes of Jenny Green than I did the nostalgic themes of Bruce Chatwin in On The Black Hill. Her wit and artistic insight illuminated my part of rural Wales far more than any other book had done.” Richard Booth, author of My Kingdom of Books.
A Foot In The Bucket by Jenny Green is published by Read Fox Books. Paperback edition – 289 pages.
Priced £8.99 + p&p (£2.80 UK)
ISBN – 978 0993256417
It is currently available to buy direct from the author.
To order your copy email Jenny Green at nellhound@outlook.com or write to The Old Police House, Clifford, Herefordshire, HR3 5ER. Cheques made payable to Jenny Green.
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Tagged A Foot In The Bucket, adventure, Author, autobiography, Autumn, Black Mountains, Book Town, Books, Brecon, Brecon Beacons, British Writing, Creative writing, Emma van Woerkom, England, English, Farming, Goats, great outdoors, Hay, Hay Festival, Hay Writers., Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire, Horses, humor, Jenny Green, land, landscape, life, literature, literature Wales, Marches, Memoir, memories, nature, non fiction, Powys, Richard Booth, Richard Booth Books, River Wye, seasonal, Self Sufficency, vet, Wales, weather, Welsh, Welsh Borders, writing, Writing Groups.
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Pick and Mix Anthology News.
“The first real content meeting for the Hay Writers new anthology took place at the weekend in the glorious booktown of Hay-on-Wye. I’m very happy to report that we have 80 strong pages of wonderful, diverse new writing selected and approved for the Pick and Mix publication, which is due to launch 15th Novemeber 2015.” (from Read Fox Books)
“Our Anthology, a new venture for us, will contain a great variety of our work. It will include the winning pieces from our competitions held during the year: fiction, non-fiction and poetry, as well as readings from our public performances. We appeared at the Hay Festival again, and also read Christmas pieces at a concert at Booth’s Bookshop. We shall scatter Pick and 
Mix with additional short pieces which members have written during the course of the year.
We hope the variety will appeal to everyone. We plan to have the anthology in bookshops and on Amazon by the end of the year.” Juliet Foster, Chairperson, Hay Writers’ Circle.
Pick and Mix : An assortment of new work by the Hay Writers’ Circle.
Paperback edition – 100 pages (approx)
ISBN – 978-0993256424
£5.00 + p&p – Available – 1st November 2015.
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Tagged Anthology, Arts, Autumn, Book Town, British Writing, Castle, christmas, city, Creative writing, England, English, English free performances, fiction, Hay, Hay Festival, Hay Writers., Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire, landscape, literature, Literature festival, literature Wales, Marches, non fiction, poem, poetry, Poetry Anthology, Poetry Blogs Poetry Event Reading and Writing Reading and Writing Poetry, Poetry readings in Wales, Powys, Prize winning poem, Publishing, Read Fox Books, Richard Booth, Richard Booth Books, River Wye, seasonal, short story, Short Story Anthology, Wales, War Poetry, Welsh, Welsh Borders, Writers Club, writers groups, writing
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A Poem for Ruth Stone, Poet 1915-2011
A Poem for Ruth Stone, Poet 1915-2011
Earlier this summer I was involved in a project responding to works of the American poet Ruth Stone, 1915-2011.
Ruth Stone? – I freely admitted to Elephants Footprint (publishers of this new anthology) that I’d not heard of any of Ruth ‘s thirteen poetry volumes, but this exciting prospect of reading a new (to me) poetic voice spurred me forward in the discovery a truly individual poet.
I would say her words mix science, philosophy and nature into poems that question what it is to be human or attempt to re-define the ‘human condition‘. There is a great and abiding simplicity to her expressions; delightful, playful, sincere, but somehow hungry and unsatisfied. Always seeking another answer and in turn, looking deeper and unearthing more questions.
I think Ruth liked asking lots of questions. Simple questions, difficult questions, the relevance of questioning and then she considered how important the answers we get really are.
So, I was drawn to respond to her beautiful understated poem ‘You May Ask’, with just this idea. Her poem is very simple and I’ve kept to the same form. Ruth’s poem ends by posing three small, but direct questions. Each one grips us with the capacity for a deeper, more profound reflection. I like to think beyond corporeal life Ruth now has some interesting answers … but what do I know?
You May Answer
Summer has come to town.
The wind is playing up
making the poets’ hand seize
as it errs along a paper draft.
The poem is for Ruth
although, she is dead
her poet-voice restlessly
mouths the answers.
But the hand is still and
the poet, too rigid to write.
By Emma van Woerkom ©2015
***The Ruth Stone Project anthology is due be published by Elephants Footprint late 2015.
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Tagged American Poet, American Poetry, Anthology, art, Arts, Auntumn, Book Town, British Writing, christmas, Creative writing, Elephants Footprint, Emma van Woerkom, England, English, haiku, Hay, Hay Castle, Hay Festival, Hay Writers., Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire, life, literature, Literature England. Hay-on-Wye, Literature festival, literature Wales, Marches, memories, nature, philosophy, poem, poetry, Poetry Anthology, Poetry Blogs Poetry Event Reading and Writing Reading and Writing Poetry, Poetry readings in Wales, Powys, River Wye, Ruth Stone, Summer, Welsh, Welsh Borders, Writers Club, writing
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Summer Lunch and The 2015 Richard Booth Prize for Non-Fiction Results
Summer Lunch and 2015 Non-Fiction Competition Results.
Our summer lunch took place at Nantyffin Cider Mill Inn near Crickhowell on what seemed to be a chilly Autumn day.
Richard & Hope Booth (centre) Juliet Foster (far left) Philip Foster (far right)
We enjoyed wonderful food in delightful surroundings. The highlight was the prize-giving for the Richard Booth Non-Fiction Competition, Richard and his wife Hope joined us for lunch.
The judge this year was Colin McDowell: Top fashion commentator, journalist and academic who has also published twenty books. For many years Colin was the chief fashion writer for the Sunday Times and in 2008 awarded an MBE for services to fashion. He is a fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and in 2010 he was appointed Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art.
http://www.colinmcdowell.com/
Colin McDowell
Photograph c/o Butterboom Publications HK
Colin McDowell was unable to attend the lunch so Richard Booth kindly made the presentations for the prize which bears his name.
The winners for 2015 were
First prize : Emma van Woerkom
Joint second: Frances Copping and Jenny Green.
Congratulations to you.
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Tagged Annual, art, Arts, Book Town, British Fashion Writer, British Writing, Colin McDowell, Creative writing, Emma van Woerkom, Hay, Hay Festival, Hay Writers., Hay-on-Wye, literature, Literature England. Hay-on-Wye, Literature Prize, literature Wales, Marches, non fiction, Powys, Richard Booth, Richard Booth Books, Richard Booth Prize for Non Fiction, River Wye, Wales, Welsh, Welsh Borders, writers groups, writing, writing competition
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HAIKU AND THE RICHARD BOOTH PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION
Haiku:
Between cloud and tree
The threshold of the mountains –
Old doors, old latches.
ECvW 2015
Black Mountains by ECvW 2015
While summer storm clouds take up residence above our home town of Hay-on-Wye, this afternoon sees the announcement of the 2015 winner of the Richard Booth Prize for Non Fiction.
Richard and Hope Booth are keen supporters of our writers’ group and never fail to attend our Hay Festival event. As performers, we always feel quite majestic when we see our very own King Of Hay sitting in the audience and listening intently.
So, it seems very fitting that it should be Richard himself making the prize presentations today at a the Writers’ Summer Lunch, held this year, at that The Cider Mill, Crickhowell.
In the mean time, we shall plough on with putting together our anthology of new work – Pick and Mix and keep all our followers well versed and very well read! xxx
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Tagged Anthology, art, Arts, Book Town, British Writing, Creative writing, England, English, haiku, Hay Castle, Hay Festival, Hay Writers., Hay-on-Wye, Herefordshire, Japanese, literature, Literature England. Hay-on-Wye, Literature festival, Literature Prize, literature Wales, Marches, non fiction, poem, poetry, Poetry readings in Wales, Powys, Richard Booth, Richard Booth Books, Richard Booth Prize for Non Fiction, River Wye, Wales, Welsh, Welsh Borders, Writers Club, writers groups, writing
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THE HAY WRITERS 