World Poetry Day!

by halekatie on March 29, 2016March 29, 2016

My Writing Life: Week 13

It’s been another busy week (of course), with a straight run of poetry events to start it off. Oh, and hot chocolate. LOTS of hot chocolate.

Monday was World Poetry Day (so a belated Happy World Poetry Day!), which I celebrated at a poetry sharing event in Shap Library. It was a lovely evening, with about eight of us there, just reading and sharing our favourite poems with one another. I took Liz Berry’s Black Country and Kei Miller’s The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion. We also had bits of Kate Tempest, Robert Browning and Pablo Neruda, to name just a few.

Tuesday saw the first ever Word Mess! Word Mess is the new open mic night that I’m hosting in Penrith, through New Writing Cumbria. It’ll be happening on the fourth Thursday of every month, upstairs in the old mess hall at Penrith Old Fire Station. We had a small but perfectly formed crowd to start us off this month, and hoping to grow the event over the months to come. (Next one will be Thursday 26th April!)

Wednesday was a poetry event on a wholly different scale, with a trip down to London for this year’s Barbican Young Poets Showcase. This is an epic annual event, and a fantastic celebration of some incredible young writers. It was also a great opportunity for a catch-up with some former Barbican Young Poets, from my year and others.

I then managed to take a bit of a break from poetry, what with Easter, a birthday and a few good books. (Note: Easter egg hunts with an under-two-year-old are adorable!)

Unfortunately, not much on the writing side this week, but plenty of reading, and as everyone knows, reading is the first step to writing. Though I’m considering attempting NaPoWriMo starting next week, so I’ll definitely have to up my poetry game before that starts. Pressure!

The Week in Books:

Two novellas from the Myths series, and a recent novel:

Jeanette Winterson, Weight
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant

These were some of the products of my recent new-book-buying extravaganza. I always love reading brand new books – I think probably because I do it so rarely. There’s something magical about being the first one to open the pages, like exploring a new land.

The Week in Pictures:

Kennedy's Fine Chocolates, Orton, Cumbria

Word Mess monthly open mic night in Penrith, Cumbria

32 Things Before 30: the age 26 update

by halekatie on March 25, 2016March 21, 2016

In 2015, I created a list off 32 things I wanted to achieve by the time that I turn 30.

With an imminent 26th birthday (eek!) I thought it was time to take stock and see how I’m doing. What have I achieved in the 8 months since I created the list, and what am I on track to achieve in the coming year?

In the past 8 months, I’ve achieved 5 items from my list: I visited my friend Lizzie in Barcelona, which was a whirlwind of Gaudi sites and delicious food; I took a beginners’ Spanish course at Escuela Albufera, just outside Valencia, where I did have a conversation in Spanish (although admittedly not a very long or complex one); I took a two day photography course at the local Adult Education centre; I baked an Indominus Rex birthday cake for my friend Stephen, and then made a number of mini cupcakes for Christmas; and I distributed sweets and poems to strangers on Valentine’s Day through my Poetry Plaster Pack project.

Poetry Plaster Pack - 32 things to do before I'm 30

Poetry Plaster Pack on Valentine’s Day

Barcelona

Birthday cake - 32 things to do before I'm 30

Indominus Rex birthday cake

Poetry Plaster Pack on Valentine’s Day

There are also a number of items on the list that, although I haven’t achieved them, I’m on the way to achieving them. For instance, I have plans for this summer to visit my friend Jessi in Oregon and to road trip along the Californian coast. Of my ‘5 new countries to visit’, I’ve so far visited one, when I went to Morocco in January. Four to go! (At a minimum, of course…)

So how does my list look now?

32 Things To Do Before I’m 30:

Publish a poetry pamphlet – slowly, slowly, catchy monkey…
Write and publish a Mills & Boon style novel (because let’s face it – why not?)
Travel to Antarctica
Travel to at least 5 new countries – I visited Marrakech in January: 1 down…
~~Visit Lizzie in Barcelona~~
Visit Jessi in Portland, Oregon – planned for this August!
Drive around Iceland’s Route 1
Island hopping in the Pacific
Take a solo trip that lasts at least a month
Spend at least a week at the Edinburgh Fringe
Visit Ireland
Road trip the coast of California – also planned for this August!
Drive a convertible (roof down)
Take a road trip in a camper van
Go on a writing retreat by the sea
Go to a music festival
Order room service
~~Hold a conversation in Spanish~~
Climb a mountain
Undertake (and complete) a multi-day walk
Be able to run a mile without collapsing / seizing up / giving up and walking
Do 30 sit-ups in a row
~~Take a photography course~~
~~Bake at least one cake~~
Knit or crochet something (anything will do)
Make an item of clothing, which is acceptable to wear in public and doesn’t fall apart
Own (and have reason to wear) a full length ball gown
~~Give cards / chocolates / flowers to a stranger / strangers on Valentines Day~~
Buy a piece of original artwork
Finish reading The Well of Loneliness
Achieve 1000 twitter followers (you can help with this one here)
Glamping

Of course, I’ve also achieved things that aren’t on this list. I’ve managed to give up one of my jobs to free up more time for writing. I’ve drafted a play. I’ve volunteered at a poetry festival. I’ve created a new poetry project (Poetry Plaster Pack). I’ve read a number of books (35-ish?) and written some new poems.

So what are the aims for the coming year, to try and achieve by the time I’m 27?

I’d like to achieve the fitness objectives:
21. Be able to run a mile without collapsing / seizing up / giving up and walking
22. Do 30 sit-ups in a row
19. Climb a mountain – my dad and I are actually planning to do this some time this year, so providing I don’t collapse half way up due to my terrible lack of stamina, this one ought to be achievable.
11. Visit Ireland – my cousins live over there, so I’m hoping this one should be fairly do-able!
20. Undertake (and complete) a multi-day walk – again, this one depends on fitness and stamina, so I guess I’d better get exercising!
26. Make an item of clothing, which is acceptable to wear in public and doesn’t fall apart – would love to get back into my crafting, as a break from screens and words from time to time, so this seems like a good project
29. Buy a piece of original artwork – maybe one to do during C-Art Open Studios in September…?
30. Finish reading The Well of Loneliness – because seriously, I started reading it in 2009, and now it’s 2016.
1. Publish a poetry pamphlet. FINGERS CROSSED!

None of the big travel goals in the coming year, but that’s ok. I’m saving those for the year after. Saving, saving, saving…

A commended poem, a funding award & a new job

by halekatie on March 21, 2016March 21, 2016

My Writing Life: Week 12

Well, they do say that things come in threes, and the good stuff has been rolling in this week – on Thursday / Friday / Saturday, just to make it nice and easy.

YorkMix / York Literature Festival Poetry Competition - Katie Hale, Cumbrian poet & writer — YorkMix / York Literature Festival Poetry Competition

Thursday: I started a new job! It’s still for Eden Arts, so not a new place of work, but it’s a new project, and gives me an extra day a week in the office. It’s about helping NHS recruitment to the area, by promoting Cumbria as a place not just to visit, but also to live and work. One of the ways we’re doing this is via social media, with images and captions about what makes Cumbria a great place to live. Not just mountains. Not just lakes. But lifestyle. (Head over and like the facebook page here. Go on, I dare you.)

Friday: I learned that a funding application I submitted was successful! I’ve received funding from the Arts Award Access Fund to work with two primary schools, to deliver Arts Award Discover workshops for over 100 children. I also had a lovely meeting with Zoe at the Wordsworth Trust and a chance to see the Wordsworth Country exhibition, and then spent the afternoon relaxing at Allan Bank (National Trust property), reading a book and overlooking the lake.

Saturday: I went to York, where I read at the awards event for the York Mix / York Literature Festival Poetry Competition. Why? Because my poem, ‘The Raven Speaks’, was Commended! Whoop whoop!

So all in all, the latter end of the week was pretty successful.

Plus, I’ve also been doing some marketing this week for the Three Inch Fools’ production of The Tempest, which will be coming to Penrith Old Fire Station in under 2 weeks! (8th – 10th April, tickets available here, by the way…)

Which has meant lots of whizzing round the county with posters & flyers. Should be a great production – come along for the ride!

Add to that some blue skies and sunshine, a stroll across the fields, spending a morning writing at the Abbey Coffee Shop in Shap, a trip to an independent bookshop, and lots of flowers bursting from the ground, and you get a pretty good week all round.

The week in books:

Just one book this week: Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin.

But if you’re only going to read one book in a week, make it this one. I’ve been absolutely bowled over by Atwood’s beautifully evocative descriptive prose. (I tweeted this at her during the week, and got a tweet back saying thanks! Yay!) Every page yielded some turn of phrase that struck me so much that I wanted to make a note of it – which I obviously I had to stop myself doing, or I would never have managed to read the book.

I enjoyed it so much, that when I hit up Carlisle’s independent bookshop on Sunday afternoon, I was determined not to come away without another Margaret Atwood. Just a little something to keep me going…

The week in pictures:

Reading at YorkMix / York Literature Festival poetry competition

Amaryllis flowering in the kitchen

Wordsworth Trust: Wordsworth Country exhibition

The Shambles, York

Spring is here!

Wordsworth Trust: Wordsworth Country exhibition

Allan Bank, Grasmere (National Trust)

Loo with a view: Allan Bank (National Trust)

Meeting in Grasmere

Sitting with a book & a view: Allan Bank

Grasmere

YorkMix / York Literature Festival Poetry Competition

Crocuses in Penrith

Book shopping in Carlisle

Walk across the fields for coffee

I think I overdosed on poetry…

by halekatie on March 16, 2016March 16, 2016

My Writing Life: Weeks 10 & 11

A fortnight of updates this week – which is my way of skirting round the issue of not posting last weekend. Largely becauuse of the hearty poetry overdose mentioned above.

The fortnight in numbers:

1 completed draft of a play script
1 funding application submitted
1 review written for Words by the Water
2 festivals (StAnza Poetry Festival & Words by the Water)
3 strolls along the St Andrews sea front
4 bookshops visited (including a beautiful new one in St Andrews)
5 prompts written for my young writers
6 books read / partly read
8 trips to various St Andrews cafes
9 teddy bears donated for an upcoming project
16 new books acquired (oops!)
35 (ish) events worked on / attended
Countless coffees / teas / chai lattes drunk

Hence only 1 blog post.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve attended two festivals. I volunteered at StAnza Poetry Festival (St Andrews, Fife), and then received a young person’s bursary to attend Words by the Water in Keswick. (I’m going to miss being a ‘young person’ once I turn 26. Goodbye rail discounts and cheap theatre tickets. Hello adulthood.)

StAnza was a wonderful whirlwind of poetry. I counted up from the brochure, and I think I attended and / or worked on around 25 poetry events over 5 days. Poets from Jo Bell, to Don Patterson, to Lemn Sissay, to Sean O’Brien, to Matthew Sweeney, to Em Strang, to Fiona Benson… The list goes on and on.

Words by the Water was slightly less hectic: only 10 events, and I was only attending those, rather than working on them. I was also lucky enough at Words by the Water that one of my bursary tickets was for James Rebanks’ talk, which was completely packed. I think every single seat in the house was taken – which is around 500 seats. (I wrote a review of this event, as part of my bursary agreement. Hoping it should be on the Words by the Water website in the not-too-distant future.)

We also had a film showing at Penrith Old Fire Station this week: This Changes Everything, followed by a discussion about climate change (which got quite heated, ironically).

Other highlights of the fortnight? I completed a draft and a redraft of my play! I also discovered a lovely new bookshop in St Andrews, where there are sliding ladders to reach the top shelves and they give you a cup of tea while you’re browsing.

The week(s) in books:

Joshua Levine, Forgotten Voices of the Blitz and the Battle for Brittain
Joshua Levine, The Secret History of the Blitz
Caroline Moorhead, Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France
James Rebanks, The Shepherd’s Life
David Hare, Amy’s View
[currently reading:] Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

An unusual amount of non-fiction recently. Partly because I’ve rediscovered the joys of research (seriously: finding stuff out can be so much fun!) and partly because I’ve been wanting to read James Rebanks’ book for ages, and it’s just come out in paperback (much more affordable than hardback)!

I was also lucky enough to see David Hare speak at Words by the Water, so raided a second-hand bookshop any came out with Amy’s View – now signed by the author.

As for The Blind Assassin: it’s been on my bookshelf for years, so I thought it was high time I actually read it. Only on about page 200, but so far hugely enjoying it.