Artswords News October 2016

Dear Writers and Readers

October is here and the Poetry Swindon Festival is underway.
Also this month, Mum's the Word, a friendly, informal group for mothers interested in writing meets on Tuesday 4th October at 7.30pm at Lower Shaw Farm. Don't worry if you haven't had a chance to write anything yet. The group will help you get started, if you want it to. For further information, please contact Monica.
On Sunday 16th October we have a special one-off, not-to-be-missed Swindon Festival of Literature promotion. Two world-class musicians and storytellers come to Swindon and play and celebrate the music of Paraguay and South America. Concert guitarist Richard Durrant and acclaimed Paraguayan harpist Ismael Ledesma will play music and tell tales from South America and beyond. Full details here.

The Artswords Reading Group meets at 7.30pm Tuesday 18th October to discuss Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Does wisdom come with age? Is knowing and understanding a solace or sadness? Further details about the group from matt@lowershawfarm.co.uk

For other reading groups across Swindon, run by Swindon Libraries, see here.

Artswords Writers' Cafe & Kitchen, a meeting place for new writers, experienced writers and anyone interested in writing, takes place on Thursday 27th October at Lower Shaw Farm. Starting at 7pm and finishing at 10pm, it is a reflective and, whisper it, slightly rebellious writers' group! The emphasis is on feeding back on people's writing, rather than focusing on the 'rules'. If you'd like your work to be the subject of helpful comments and discussion, please email said piece to artswordsinfo@gmail.com by Thursday 20th October, so that group members can read and reflect in advance of meeting. This should amount to no more than 500 words of prose or more than 40 lines of poetry. Please also bring food to share.

Finally, The Richard Jefferies Museum is one of only four heritage projects across the country to be shortlisted for the best community action project in the 2016 Historic England Angel Awards. The awards were founded by Andrew Lloyd Webber to celebrate the efforts of people taking action to champion their local heritage, and culminate in a red carpet awards ceremony at the Palace Theatre, London, on 31st October. The museum is also eligible for an overall award which will be decided by votes from the public, and it would be lovely if the people of Swindon could get behind this fantastic local project and voteDeadline is 12th October.

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If you have any news or events for November and would like us to mention them in the next Artswords newsletter, please let us know by the middle of this month by emailing matt@lowershawfarm.co.uk or calling 01793 771080.

Happy reading and writing!

Matt Holland & Annie Vickers

SWINDON ARTSWORDS
LOVE LITERATURE! LOVE LIFE!