New writing project and gig this weekend
I am begining to work on a new writing project this week, exploring the theme of sound scapes and visiting a range of different locations where I might find silence. Here is a section from an early poem that I have been working on:
The absence of sound is bell-shaped and green.
I’ve time to contemplate millions of insects
in the oak spreading above my head:
pupating, living and dying in the variegated shade.
A crow squawks. The bell ringers are ready.
I have just been up to the Lake District to visit tarns - including the man made Moss Eccles and another more remote location above Haweswater.
I am looking forward to a Some Girls Mothers’ event in Hebden this weekend - 1st August, 5pm at The Town Hall on Bridge St. It would be great to see some of my friends and all the writers in the book together for one evening. It promises to be a good gig!
Some Girls’ Mothers book trailer and tour
Some Girls’ Mothers
Publishers Route have been creating a new trailer for the current tour of the book Some Girls’ Mothers, which features creative non fiction by six fabulous women including myself. The book explores the theme of mothers and daughters and has been going down a storm at gigs all over the country. You can get a flavour of the performance by watching this:
Let me know what you think! The book is also now available in audio version from the Route website. The stories are read by the authors featured in the book including myself. Hearing it really brings it to life and recording the material was quite an emotional experience for us all, bringing back the highs and lows of our relationships with our mothers, or with our daughters.
We are in the middle of a live performance tour at present. If you are in Hebden Bridge on the 1st August please come and see us at the Town Hall, George St - 5pm. Tickets are £3 on the door. Myself and Suzanne Batty are also on the radio on the 12th July - BBC citzen manchester. It will be available via iplayer so I will post up some details.
Ty Newydd rules!
I have recently come back from working at Ty Newydd with a fantastic poet called Mike Jenkins. We were working with pupils from the Newport area of South Wales and they all came up with some cracking writing. I have decided Ty Newydd is one of my favourite places in the world. I even managed to get some writing of my own done - mostly on the theme of hospitals after my spell in Huddersfield Royal earlier in the year. I am going back to Ty Newydd as part of a NAWE retreat in June, when all the flowers will be out and I look forward to writing and beachcoming. It feels easier being away from home, the tv, emails and being a mum to get work done, but I would not change the latter either. My theme for this year is to create more of a sense of balance.
Readings and Workshops
This spring has got off to a flying start with poetry readings at The Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal and the ArtsMill in Hebden Bridge. I have also been running writing workshops for MMU in Cheshire on Lifewriting and a wonderful new writing group in Warrington. The students at MMU were great, and we had a good debate about age and memory - is it true that we get more interested in memoir the older we get? I would love to hear your comments.
I have also just got my manuscript off for a first full length book to Cinnamon Press and havent managed to write a thing since? Is this a common problem when you get to the end of a big project?
In the Bleak Midwinter
This photo was taken up in Hardcastle Craggs this week to inspire a new personal writing project I have just started. I have decided to do the same route once a week for a year and write about this walk from different angles - observation, sensory details, diary thoughts and research. I am going to see what kind of material comes out, but I started this week in appalling weather and came across this extraordinary wall of icicles half way down the main route into The Craggs. It looked like the entrance to The Underworld!
I am also going to be working in South Leeds Academy this term with year 11 pupils. I am looking forward to meeting them all on the 25th January. I am running a writing project in Warrington for Anna Wenlock which will be open to local writers (and non writers). It is based at Birchwood Library and will look at unlocking creativity, helping new writers get started and building confidence and self esteem. I intend to do a mixture of poetry, creative non-fiction and short stories with the group.
I did a project last year at Birchwood as part of a ‘Some Girl’s Mothers’ tour, and had the best workshop experience I have ever had! It was a very mixed group of young people and retired people and they all clicked. The evening flew by.
Review of my first pamphlet
Here is a snippet from a review of ‘Slug Language’ by Christopher Horton. If you would like to read the whole review, please follow this link. I am really pleased with his perception and obvious enjoyment of the work. Slug Language was published last autumn and is now out of print, but I still have a few copies left if anyone would like one!
‘Anne Caldwell’s Slug Language is a seductive, though at times chilling, pamphlet that demonstrates careful craft and a deftness of touch. The word ‘touch’ seems particularly apposite here because Caldwell so frequently expresses meaning through the human senses, bringing to bear the rawness of physicality.’
Here is the link:
http://www.saltpublishing.com/horizon/issues/03/text/horton_christopher.htm
I hope you enjoy reading it!
A new term starts
I am teaching for the Open University this year and for Bolton University and have a really interesting bunch of students in both institutions. Teaching poetry is challenging how I write myself. I have always using voice, rhythm and half rhyme a lot in my own work. Trying to explain exactly how to two different groups of students is proving quite a challenge!
I am also beginning to put together my collection. The first step is to get all the possible material together and lay it out on the bedroom floor/bed/windowsill etc. Wish me luck!
The Poetry School’s guide has been recommended to me - on how to put together a first collection. So I am going to take a look at that this week.
Poetry Success!
I have just found out that I have won the Cinnamon Press first collection award today. I am delighted. The book will be published early 2011. I am joint winner alongside Sally Douglas and my draft title is ‘Talking to the Dead’.
Here is some further information from Cinnamon on their current submissions:
We also currently have a submission call for an anthology of poetry sequences and one place left on our women’s writers course at Hebden Bridge in November. You can find full details at www.cinnamonpress.com
Boys and Reading
I have been working with animation artist Jack Lockhart this year in a number of different schools, looking at the connections between animation and poetry, and encouraging boys in particular to get into reading by making their own book trailers. It has been great fun! The biggest lesson we have learnt I think, is to allow the young people involved to really take the lead and create their own film material. Sometimes things have therefore not turned out in expected ways, and there are a lot of ’special effects’ and references to Star Wars in some of the work produced. In one primary school in Oldham half way through a session, I overheard a pupil say ‘This is the best fun I’ve had at school all year.’ Whether or not you can really encourage a love of reading in just five short sessions is a tall order. But many pupils reported that they had a leap in confidence because of the project, and some tried books they would not have attempted before the workshops this summer.
Conversation on-line with writer Sarah Hymas
I have been having a really fruitful conversation about my work with poet Sarah Hymas this week, shortly to appear on her blog. http://sarahhymas.blogspot.com/
It has made me think about the roots of my own writing, and be able to articulate more clearly what I am trying to say in poetry, particularly around the idea of writing about the environment.
She has asked me about my first pamphlet collection - Slug Language.
If you would like to read some reviews of this collection, here is a sample:
A Sample of Feedback from Poets and Readers of ‘Slug Language’
‘We also enjoyed reading Slug Language - we both spent a happy hour on
Saturday morning reading it. It really is excellent, Anne, you’re an extremely talented writer, teacher, performer …’
Kaye Tew MMU
‘Congratulations. You’ve got a book of treasures in print. Such wonderful words coming from Slug Language – some making me goose-pimply – slime also very much appreciated!’
Susan Heyhurst
‘I’m so enjoying ‘Slug Language’ I think it’s a very strong pamphlet. I particularly liked
‘Touched’…Lovely’
Alicia Stubbersfield
‘What a stunning reading and luscious book!’
Mandy Coe
‘Love the chapbook. It is beautiful. Enjoy it’
Amanda Dalton
‘A strong collection. Takes your work to a new level’
Sarah Corbett
‘Just read your book cover to cover and think it’s genuinely beautiful. I haven’t read poetry I enjoyed so much in years.’
Beverley Ward
‘I love your poetry – sensuous, delicate, delicious’
Cheryl Moskowitz.
‘I very much enjoyed ‘Slug Language’. I have a terrible habit of turning down the corners of pages so that I can easily find my favourite poems again and your lovely pamphlet is sadly defaced. My favourite poems were Feral; My Mother’s House Falls into the River, Kist, Longing is Opened by the Wind and Mid Summer II. So glad Nell decided to publish this excellent collection.’
Maggie Butt.
‘I’ve read your pamphlet – and I really like it, especially the poems about your son (the reference to chisels and light bulbs was familiar/chilling!).’
Jonathan Davidson
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About
Anne Caldwell is a poet and literature consultant. She works for NAWE and the Open University, Bolton University and runs workshops in schools and community settings.
Contact Tel. 07818 052108
email a.caldwell@nawe.co.uk
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Read This
'A Wilder Vein' edited by Linda Cracknell
