Whitstable’s monthly spoken word event WORD OF MOUTH is back – ready for a better year than ever – on Thursday next week, the 9th, at 6.30pm.

The Umbrella Café doors will be open from 6pm and it’s going to be a #FAVERSHAM SPECIAL thanks to Angel Cakes Dye who is bringing top-notch poets Katy Evans-Bush, Rosemary McLeish, Christopher Hopkins – with his brilliant new book The Shape of a Tulip Bird – and Melinda Walker who will not only read her emotional, beautiful poetry but will also sing with magnificent folksinger, and no mean wordsmith herself, Helen North.

This is a FREE EVENT, the Umbrella’s licensed café stays open throughout with tea, coffee, cake and hot food, and there’s an OPEN MIC! If you would like to come and read for up to five minutes, please sign up with me (free) on the night. The café is behind the Umbrella Centre in Whitstable’s Oxford Street (the best Oxford Street) opposite the Fishslab Gallery and the Rock Lodge.

See you there!

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in; a pessimist stays up to make sure the old year goes away. Whatever you do this evening, I wish you a very happy, healthy, loved 2020.

For anyone with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, life can feel as if we’re always navigating a tiny boat on a huge, turbulent sea. Occasionally we send up distress flares but usually we manage to keep smiling, keep going forward and to most other people, we look absolutely fine. That’s what we aim for anyway. This year has thrown some substantial CPTSD storms my way but it has also been one of glorious writing company and a lot of major steps forward for me.

Thank you very much to Dennis Greig of Lapwing Publications in Belfast who, in spite of his own huge health difficulties, published my Six-Count Jive at the end of March 2019. This book combines highlights from my already published 17s with a lot of new work, all combining to give a picture of my past ten years of CPTSD that has resonated far more widely than I could ever have dreamt. It has received outstanding reviews in The Lake Poetry magazine (the same review also appeared in High Window), London Grip, The Poetry Shed and Thanet Writers. Very many thanks to these reviewers who took the time to understand Six-Count Jive and write about it so sensitively.

To honour Dennis and Rene Greig and their decades of excellent work at Lapwing, poet Peter Pegnall organised two wonderful events in Belfast and I was honoured to be asked to read at both. Here is Peter introducing Dennis and Rene who both read from their own years of writing.

I have lived in England for most of my life but Belfast will always be my home city and these two events touched my heart in ways I didn’t expect. Together with a wonderful reunion with some of my school friends from Coleraine High, they left me a sense of belonging I hadn’t known for many years.

That said, I am hugely grateful to live among the marvellous writers of the north Kent coast. What a warm, exciting, uplifting bunch they are. Thanks and hugs to everybody who invited me to come and read this year, from Faversham to Margate via the Canterbury Festival, and for their own marvellous words. Thanks to everyone who came to read and listen at Words on Waves in Whitstable – now WORD OF MOUTH #WHITSTABLE at the Umbrella Café, especially our full-house Christmas party on 5 December, featuring poetry with an international flavour, a wonderfully spooky Christmas story and dance music from the marvellous Useless Pluckers. Our fabulous new line-ups for 2020, booked until May, are on the events page here.

This summer I started a new writing group in Canterbury Waterstones – Rose Lane Writers – along the lines of the group I’ve been facilitating in Cambridge since early 2011. It’s inspirational to study our craft and scribble together among those packed book shelves ; all those published writers started somewhere. The atmosphere among the writers is generous and warm and I am thrilled to call many of them my friends. It’s always a pleasure to start my week with them.

The Churchill Writers at Churchill College, Cambridge have had an outstanding year. I’ll keep my fingers crossed rather than name potentially famous names just yet but there have been several big steps forward among the writers and leaps in confidence for those who are less experienced.

We had a week’s display of the group’s published material in the college library (thank you, Annie Gleeson) and have gathered writing together for our first anthology – it should be available by next March. I could not be more proud of these writers, many of whom came to my groups with no more than a passion to write. Their diligence and talent are outstanding. They are also wonderful company!

Poems of mine have been published in Words for the Wild this year, twice, on the Mary Evans Picture Library’s Poem and Pictures blog again and, if you scroll down, in London Grip’s new poetry for Winter 2019. I’ve continued to review some very exciting subject matter for London Grip too: you can find it here.

It’s time now for me to find that margarita with my name on it. I wish you a wonderful evening, whatever you do, and every happiness and joy with your writing in 2020.

My poem Palm Tree Victory is published today in excellent company in London Grip’s New Poetry Section, Winter 2019/2020. Many thanks go to Anne-Marie Fyfe. Anne-Marie is from County Antrim, Northern Ireland and runs wonderful workshops above the Troubadour in Earl’s Court, London.

A while back the first draft of this poem fell onto my pages at a workshop of hers, in spite of my fears that I couldn’t write in front of other people. This summer, I found it, gave it a rub down and a polish up, and it’s become the version you can find here.

Great news that Whitstable’s finest ukulele band THE USELESS PLUCKERS will play at WORD OF MOUTH’s Christmas party at the Umbrella café #Whitstable on Thursday 5 December, 6.30 – 8.30pm. THIS FREE EVENT features the acclaimed international poet Agnes Meadows, LicketySpit Slam winner and author of hilarious ‘Talk to the Paw’ Pauline Holmes & Kadir Samad from Kurdistan with his emotional and beautiful bilingual poetry. Rosie will be your host as usual, sprinkling the evening with seasonal poetry, and there will be 10 OPEN MIC slots of five minutes each, yours for the asking on the night.  Whitstable’s licensed Umbrella Café will be open, serving tea/coffee and cakes, and a hot meal if you fancy it. Please come!

WORD OF MOUTH’S CHRISTMAS PARTY Excellent news that Whitstable’s finest ukulele band THE USELESS PLUCKERS will play at WORD OF MOUTH’s Christmas party at #Whitstable‘s fabulous Umbrella café  on Thursday 5 December, 6.30 – 8.30pm. THIS FREE EVENT features London poet Agnes Meadows, Pauline Holmes of ‘Talk to the Paw’ fame (one of Kent’s funniest poets) & Iranian poet and musician, now living in Kent, Kadir Samad. I will be your host as usual, sprinkling the evening with seasonal poetry.

At all Word of Mouth events, there will be up to 10 OPEN MIC slots of five minutes each, yours for the asking on the night. Whitstable’s licensed Umbrella Café will be open, serving tea/coffee and cakes, and a hot meal if you fancy it. Please come!FAVERSHAM SPECIAL STARTS OUR NEW YEAR On Thursday 9 January, 2020, 6.30 – 8.30pm, the ‘full-time artistic dynamo’ Angela Dye will help us into the New Year at Word of Mouth with some of the coast’s finest writers, all from Faversham and around. Christopher Hopkins will read from his magnificent new collection published this week, The Shape of a Tulip Bird, Rosemary McLeish will make us laugh and cry with her collection published last year, I am a Field, Melinda Walker will sing as well as read her courageous poetry and, a first for Word of Mouth Whitstable, we have the mighty Katy Evans-Bush. As a special treat, folksinger Helen North has agreed to come too. Helen’s lyrics are beautifully crafted and her music always hovers with me for days. Particular songs of hers leave with me with something in my eye every time…

FEBRUARY IS A MARGATE SPECIAL On Thursday 6 February, 2020, 6.30 – 8.30pm, Jess Taggart, currently up to her eyes in organising Margate Bookie 2019, will come and read her gorgeous poetry and will bring Margate talent with her. Tanya Royer, Roger Sapsford and Joshua Cialis have been mentioned and when the Bookie dust has settled, we will confirm details.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY IN MARCH Word of Mouth on Thursday, 5 March 2020, 6.30 – 8.30pm, falls in the week of International Women’s Day and we will celebrate our marvellous variety as women with readings by Maggie Harris, Fiona Sinclair, Gillian Laker, Clair Meyrick and hopefully (baby Freya permitting) Setareh Ebrahimi.

Helen North has just agreed to come and sing for us again that night. Many of her songs, her own compositions, sum up our complex female lives brilliantly.

People of all genders and none are always welcome to read at our open mic.

RAINING MEN IN APRIL? On Thursday 2 April, 2020, 6.30 – 8.30pm, I’m planning a line-up of excellent male poets and music. More details soon!

Many thanks to the Umbrella Café for giving Word of Mouth #Whitstable such a wonderful home.

Last week I made the trip to that there London to read at Loose Muse London. Loose Muse is a network of monthly readings that showcase and encourage women and their writing. The evening was damp – London’s damp somehow feels more grim than damp anywhere else – but up the pub stairs was a cosy room and a lovely welcome. Here is London’s organiser Agnes Meadows‘ review of our evening:

REVIEW

Perhaps it was the bad weather that kept people away from the November Loose Muse, but they certainly missed an exceptional evening of exceptional words.

 

On Monday 13 January, 2020, I look forward to returning to read at WINCHESTER LOOSE MUSE: 8pm. Details soon.

Six-Count Jive sold out this summer and this is to let you know that it’s back in stock again, available for you to buy.

Dennis Greig, the heart and soul of Lapwing Publications, finishes production of every Lapwing book himself and has been severely ill throughout this summer and autumn, with frequent visits to hospital. His courage in doing the very best he can to keep Lapwing flying in such testing circumstances is outstanding. Take care of yourself, Dennis, and of that marvellous family of yours – I wish you back to full strength very soon.

Reviews of Six-Count Jive

Fiona Sinclair in The Lake magazine

‘This is a superbly crafted piece of work whose language is at times sublime. The narrative is gripping because it takes us through the protagonist’s process back to happiness. In its deliberate brevity it invites us to mine for layers of meaning and rewards constant re-reading. Its back story and message of survival are life affirming but significantly, this is not an exercise in therapy, instead, Six-Count Jive is a superb piece of art.’

Stephen Claughton in London Grip

‘The 17-syllable form is one Johnston has made very much her own, having used it in her three previous books of poetry: Sweet Seventeens (2010); Orion (2012); and Bittersweet Seventeens (2014). The poems don’t qualify as haikus (and aren’t meant to) not only because technically they don’t follow the five-seven-five syllable form or include the required seasonal reference, but also because the stanzas in Six-Count Jive don’t aim for the completeness — the Zen-like oneness, however elliptical — that haikus strive to attain. Rather, they are fragments or shards, pieces of a shattered life that somehow must be fitted back together. Paradoxically, grouping the stanzas in threes only serves to emphasise this disconnectedness.

Six-Count Jive is a brave and honest book, one which I hope will not only be enjoyed as poetry, but also give encouragement to women recovering from similar experiences. Rosie Johnston dedicates it to everyone with PTSD, “especially those of us traumatised in our own homes.”‘

Setareh Franklin for Thanet Writers

‘There is a fragility to the images used within Six-Count Jive, as well as natural imagery. One of my favourite lines within the collection is an example of the latter, when Johnston writes, “She lives in a glacier,” which perfectly reflects the main character’s isolation.

Six-Count Jive creates some order in writing out of the chaos of life. It also feels very healing, as writing often can be. It’s good that this collection came out of such a subject matter. It was brave of Johnston to write this collection. The lasting image of Six-Count Jive, the title idea of the jive—mentioned twice in the book—is it’s final, strongest, parting idea; despite everything covered in the collection, the reader is left with the idea of a dance, something joyful and freeing.’

Derek Sellen for The Poetry Shed

‘The choice of seventeen-syllable stanzas is far from limiting; one of the wonders of this book is the variety and nuance which she imparts in such small packets of verse. These are not ‘haiku’ as such but, like the haiku, they are spare and densely significant, the carriers of reverberations and tensions it is important not to miss. She has used this form before in previous collections and her control of it is impressive.’

 

 

 

 

Our next monthly poetry and prose event in Whitstable, this coming Thursday, 7 November, 2019, brings the city to the seaside. Our featured writers from CANTERBURY’S SAVEAS WRITERS are Gary Studley, Jeffrey Loffman, Derek Sellen and Mary Anne Smith.

There will be an OPEN MIC too with up to 10 slots of five minutes each –

just sign up with Rosie on the evening. 

WE HAVE A CHANGE OF VENUE – we’re moving to Whitstable’s marvellous UMBRELLA CAFE on Oxford Street, opposite the Fish Slab Gallery. Look for the lane to the left of the main Umbrella Centre and follow the signs. ENTRY WILL BE FREE and we’ll be able to enjoy the lovely licensed café with hot drinks, soup, and fantastic cakes that they bake themselves. The Umbrella is a community-based café that operates Pay It Forward. 

Here are our readers –

Derek has won prizes for poetry, plays and short stories, including Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2018. His favourably reviewed recent collection, The Other Guernica, is inspired by Spanish art.

Jeff was born in London, grew up in Yorkshire and is a workshop leader and event organiser. His prompters are Hill, Jones, Bunting, Duncan, Hughes, history and place and his latest book is BREATH-TAKING: A Geography.

Mary Anne is well known to north Kent audiences. Her work has been recognised in both national and international competitions, including first prizes in O’Bheal Five Words and Sentinel Literary Quarterly, and is also widely published and broadcast.

Gary leads Dead Hoarse Writers and Writing For Life. An art & writing tutor, compere, and writer of prize-winning poetry & prose, Gary has worked with Marlowe Theatre, English Heritage, Canterbury Festival & Porchlight.

Harbour Books is sadly unable to host these events any longer. We will always be grateful to them for instigating Words on Waves and giving us all such a marvellous welcome. This prize-winning little book shop is the perfect place for your Christmas shopping and we send Keith and all the staff our very warmest wishes.

This photo is on the gloomy side but maybe you can see the shine in our hearts. We’re the Churchill College writing group, last Saturday, enjoying our beautiful display in the college by librarian Annie Gleeson. Writers represented on the table are Michael Smyth, Pete Chown, Gervase Vernon, Harley Farmer, Helen Mulligan (the poster is for her  film ‘ExAudio’, shot in the Moller Centre), poet Liz Forte and myself. I am so proud of everyone in the group and of the wonderful friendships we’ve made over the years.

Happy writing, everyone!

My writing group in Churchill College, Cambridge has been meeting 12 times a year since 2011. Several of the original members still come and have become great friends. The college librarian suggested in the summer that she display our published work in the library. Well – writing can feel like solitary howling at the moon but look what the group has come up with! I’m so proud of them and show this here to encourage you too.