Town writers’ forums to start new chapter (From Swindon Advertiser)
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Town writers’ forums to start new chapter
6:00pm Thursday 10th January 2013 in News By Josh Layton
Organiser of the Swindon festival Of Poetry Michael Scott and Hilda Sheehan at the central library at the start of the festival
SWINDON’S restless band of poets and writers have followed up on last year’s action-packed series of events by sprucing up the town’s world of words.
The regular Swindon Open Mic night is among the events which will open a new chapter in 2013 in order to attract new and established contributors.
For the past two years the night has been organised and funded by Artsworlds, with support from the BlueGate Poets.
However, the new committee of BlueGate Poets is eager to make the fixture one of their most important monthly events to allow people to read their own work as well as to listen to work from established and published poets. The night will be renamed BlueGate Open Poetry Night with the committee taking on full responsibility for the event.
The night takes place in a new venue – the function room of the Great Western Hotel opposite Swindon Railway Station. The popular Writers’ Cafe at Lower Shaw Farm will become Writers’ Kitchen, with a better opportunity for critical comments on people’s writing with a forum for comment and feedback. The pot-luck dinner will continue before the event.
A new quarterly BlueGate Poets' Discussion Group has also been set up at the Richard Jefferies’ Museum. The first one will kick off with a talk by Swindon Philosophical Society member Chris Eddy. BlueGate Poets are putting on two workshops in January with American poet Carrie Etter continuing her series and National Poetry Day director Jo Bell looking at happiness and poetry.
Hilda Sheehan, of Artsworlds, who hosts the poetry night, thanked the town for supporting last year’s events including the Swindon Festival Of Literature, the all-new Swindon Festival Of Poetry, BlueGate Poets’ events, reading and writing groups and many other Artsworlds activities.
She said: “We hope that this new year will prove to be just as fruitful and full of good opportunities to develop interest in reading, writing, and enjoying literature.”
For more information contact hildasheehan@gmail.com The next Writers’ Kitchen will take place on Thursday, January 31. The discussion group takes place on Thursday, January 17 at 7pm. The event is free.The Artsworlds Reading Group meets on January 22 at 7.30pm at Lower Shaw Farm.
