Anthology Alert: Micro Fiction and Poetry

The publications in the photo above have all come out in time for Christmas.

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Four Word Stories, edited by Mai Black, is for sale on Amazon at £4. The volume contains a selection of micro-fiction produced by members of Ipswich Writing Group. The stories were written in five minutes during a workshop, with a little time thereafter for editing. Each writer was given four random words from a pile created by participants.
My story is called 'Jupiter  |  basket   | today  | creature' 

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Flight, edited by Jean Salkilld, is the latest anthology of poems from the Tuesday Poetry group. I was a member of the group when I lived in Swansea. It contains airborne poems about birds (wild geese), heroes (Superman), bats, fairies and aircraft (air ambulance).

The volume includes two of my poems, 'The Bumblebee Bat' and 'Glossy Ibis near Welney'. 

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Slants of Light, named after a poem by Emily Dickinson, contains the winning, shortlisted and longlisted poems from the 2013 Paragram Poetry Competition. It also contains full adjudication notes from Adrienne Dines, the competition judge. 

The volume includes my shortlisted poem, 'Meteor Shower'. 

Book Corner: National Libraries Day 2013

Mai with the Ipswich Writing Group display

Saturday (tomorrow) is National Libraries Day, and Mai, leader of the Ipswich Writing Group, has been mounting a display of our creative writing in Gainsborough Community Library in Ipswich, where we meet. This popular library serves as a hub for those who live in the area and for those who come from further afield.

There are friendly members of staff on hand - and a very popular cafe. There is also a good section of large print books.

The Writing Group has been going since last summer. Members have enjoyed input (from Mai and other members) on novel-writing, journalism, poetry and screen-writing. We also spent a session on Shakespeare, reading excerpts from Romeo and Juliet.

We were looking at novel-planning yesterday, and were able to make good use of the books in the library. I selected a novel called The Poet's Wife by Gillian Allnutt. It is about Patty, wife of the poet, John Clare - and is a book that I will add to my GoodReads shelf in due course.

You might like to read my poem, Ode to our Treasure Keepers, in support of Newcastle libraries here. You can read about the background to the Newcastle library campaign here.

Let's celebrate and cherish our libraries, particularly in these difficult times ... and if you have a project for the National Libraries Day, you can Tweet it, using this tag: #NLD13.