Hay Festival

Been to the Hay Festival.Had a great time.The atmosphere is wonderful even though the place is frentic with people, talk, ideas, coffee, cake, wild flowers.I love the festival, and love being in Hay.

ENTRIES

The first entries for the Cwrtnewydd Scribblers short story competition have arrived,which is exciting. There are still six weeks to go before the closing date of 30th of June,still plenty of time to write your summer themed story. Cash prizes and publication-all very tempting-so download your entry form and get writing.

GRACE IN LITERATURE

On Saturday I attended the lecture given by the Rowan Williams,Archbishop of Canterbury, on Grace in Literature. I knew Rowan Williams was a poet and a theologian, but he is also an academic and a fine lecturer and linguist, reading Welsh cynhanedd and Italian from Dante.

Rowan Williams is an unassuming and erudite man. A gracious man.He wore a suit and dog collar with a wooden cross around his neck, while the college officials dressed in academic regalia. Afterwards he turned up at the drinks reception to talk to people, and he had to be called in for the official dinner.

World Book Night

Today I am giving away copies of Seamus Heaney's New Selected Poems.I have 48 copies to set free.Each one has a number.If you receive a World Book Day book register this number with the World Book Night website.They can then monitor the book's journey-for these books are to read and share. Last year people were asked to apply to be book givers;to choose from the list a book they felt passionately about and to give it to others. Today my box of books are being liberated-sending poetry out to a wider readership.Read and pass the book on.

Short Story Competition

Today the Cwrtnewydd Scribblers have launched their first short story competition-Summer Sun, Summer Fun - for stories up to 1,500 words.
Entry is £5 for the first story,and £3 for subsequent entries.
Prizes are £40,£20,£10 and publication in our anthology.
For more details check out the Cwrtnewydd Scriblers' website.

Snowdrops

At last Spring is on the way.Yesterday I saw snowdops and catkins.I thought snowdrops were called Liliwen bach in Welsh, but that's not given in my dictionary. Yesterday was the Chinese new year ,and now we are in the year of the rabbit.

The Poetry Laureates

With the recent appointment of Liz Lochhead as the National Poet of Scotland, Makar, we have three female Lauureates- Gillian Clarke is National Poet of Wales, and Carol Ann Duffy the Poet Laureate. Gillian Clarke has also been awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for poetry.

It is wonderful to see women in the top literary positions, as women write more poetry than men. Most creative writing classes have more women than men in them,and yet more men get published.

Now we have a triumvirate of women. Let's hope it inspires us all to write and publish poetry.